1 The Root Bridges of Cherrapunji
The bridges are built by weaving the exposed roots of rubber trees in India. Some of the bridges are 170 feet long and 80 feet above streams. The most famous might be the double-decker root bridge of Umshiang.
2 Relampago del Catatumbo
For up to 160 nights out of the year, lightning storms rage for eight to 10 hours at a time, producing thousands of strikes in the area where the Catatumbo River flows into Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. The strange phenomenon has been happening for as long as anyone can remember.
3 Ra Paulette’s Hand-carved Caves
For more than 25 years, New Mexico artist Ra Paulette has been painstakingly carving and chiseling underground works of art in desert sandstone caves just north of Santa Fe.
4 Q’eswachaka Rope Bridge
This bridge is one of the last handwoven Incan bridges that once were part of a vast road system in Peru. Made of woven grass, it’s 118 feet long and suspended 60 feet above the canyon’s river. The bridges, woven by women and constructed by men, were so valued by the Incans that anyone caught tampering with them was put to death.
5 Museé Fragonard
The collection of preserved flayed figures in this suburban Paris museum is not for the faint of heart. They were created by Honoré Fragonard, known as the French madman, who also was one of the first medical masters of France.
6 Synchronized Fireflies of the Great Smoky Mountains
Every June, the fireflies in the Great Smoky Mountains put on a twoweek light show, at times synchronizing their lights, all going dark at once and then all flashing on. For three centuries no one knew exactly how they did it, but scientists now know it’s something called “coupled oscillation.”
7 Shah Cheragh
The interior of the Shah Cheragh mosque in Shiraz, Iran, glows with reflected light from the mirrors and glass shards that cover every inch. The mosque was built as a funeral shrine, but the brilliance was added in the 14th century by Queen Tash Khatun, who wanted the mosque to reflect the light a thousand times over.
8 Gunkanjima Island
Known as Battleship Island, this island off the coast of Nagasaki, Japan, once had a thriving coal mining operation that helped power Japan’s war machine during World War II. Then the coal ran out and everyone left, leaving the entire island a ghost town.
9 President Heads
After Presidents Park in Williamsburg, Virginia, closed in 2010, 43 giant concrete presidential busts were moved to a field on the sculptor’s farm until he can figure out what to do with them.
10 The New York Earth Room
Who would have thought that New York would house 250 cubic yards of dirt worth a million dollars in trendy Soho? The Earth Room was created in 1977 by artist Walter De Maria — an East Bay native and UC Berkeley graduate — as “a peaceful, quiet sanctuary,” where the only smell is that of rich soil.
Plus: The Wave Organ
Built from cemetery granite, marble and 25 “organ pipes” made of PVC and concrete, San Francisco’s Wave Organ is played by the tides. It was created on a stone jetty at the city’s small Boat Harbor by artist Peter Richards and master stonemason George Gonzalez in 1986, when they were artistsin-residence at the Exploratorium.