Off the shores of a tiny island in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean are the ruins of an ancient civilization. The remains of Nan Madol are the only standing monument of a civilization built entirely over open water, on a coral reef. The eerie abandoned stone structures are said to have inspired science-fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft to create a similar sunken city that was home to the monster Cthulhu, says Atlas Obscura. In reality, Nan Madol was...

More than 3,000 housewives make kimchi for the poor in preparation for winter at the City Hall of Seoul on Nov. 13, 2013 in Seoul, South Korea. Kimchi is a traditional dish of fermented vegetables mixed with chili and eaten with rice or served as a side dish. (Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images) Dressed in surgical masks and rubber gloves and armed with 61,700 cabbages, 3,000 South Korean women recently gathered in Seoul to make the traditional staple dish of Korea —...

NEW YORK -- Rules against making cellphone calls during airline flights are "outdated," and it's time to change them, federal regulators said Thursday, drawing immediate howls of protest from flight attendants, airline officials and others. Tom Wheeler, the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, said in a statement that the commission was proposing greater in-flight access to mobile broadband. The proposal will be considered at the commission's Dec. 12 meeting. "The time is right to review our outdated and...

Inside an abandoned hotel located in the Pocono Mountains. (John Walker) Urban explorer and photographer John Walker captured what remains of an old resort that was a summer-haven for garment workers in the early 1900s in his photo series called “The White Pines.” Walker went to the resort, located on 750 acres of land at the base of the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania, after a fellow urban explorer disclosed the location. In order to keep it protected, Walker doesn’t use...

This Saturday, Nov. 30, 2013 photo, shows parts of a Mozambique Airlines plane which crashed in the Bwabwata National Park, Namibia, killing all 33 on board. Officials are investigating the cause of the crash. A new report says plane automation may contribute to some plane crashes.(AP Photo/NAMPA, Olavi Haikera) (AP Photo/NAMPA, Olavi Haikera) WASHINGTON -- Pilots are becoming so reliant on the computer systems that do most of the flying in today's airliners that on the rare occasions when something...

Jimmy Nelson has spent the past three years traveling to some of the most remote places on Earth capturing the lives of indigenous people, from the frigid mountains of Mongolia to the endless sandy deserts of Namibia. But the most extreme climates, Nelson said, are the ones that he prefers. "For the worse climatic conditions you gain on two points," Nelson said in an interview with Weather.com. "One, you yourself are focused. You're surviving. Secondly, the weather and the environment...

The jagged peaks of Torres del Paine in Patagonia, Chile have long been one of the most popular and beautiful destinations in the world. With 935 square miles of roaring rivers, crumbling glaciers, windswept steppes and dense forests, this national park attracts visitors from around the world who are eager to scale its peaks and experience the magnificent landscape. The park's splendor was recently confirmed when it was named the 8th Wonder of the world by the TripAdvisor-owned travel website,...

Deep below the surface of the Transylvanian countryside lies a vast network of caves. Illuminating the eerie darkness are hundreds of fluorescent lights and strange contraptions, a mixture of new and old technology that seems more suited to Batman's lair than to Dracula's mansion. Welcome to the Salina Turda Salt Mines, the hollowed out remnants of a mining operation that extends back to the 2nd century. First discovered and mined by the Romans, the salt mines were popular throughout the...

An escape staircase at the nuclear shelter from Cold War era is pictured at five star Jalta Hotel in downtown Prague, Czech Republic, Dec. 4, 2013. To mark the 55th anniversary, the hotel turned the bunker into an Iron Curtain museum. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek) PRAGUE — One thing was for sure when foreigners stayed at a prestigious Prague hotel during the Cold War era — their telephone conversations were carefully monitored by secret police in a hidden underground bunker...

Skull Fragments The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has nearly 50,000 Transportation Security Officers who screen more than 1.8 million passengers each day. Theystashed in passengers' bags or hidden in their clothing. But the TSA also finds more interesting prohibited objects, and they post weekly roundups of their discoveries on their. From live reptiles (snakes on a plane, anyone?) to a knife concealed in a can of potato chips, these are just some of the weird things people have tried to...

People admire the Luminarie illuminations as a part of the 19th Kobe Luminarie on Dec. 5, 2013 in Kobe, Japan. The annual illumination event began in 1995 to commemorate the victims of Hanshin Awaji Great Earthquake. (Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images) Though the brilliant display of lights looks as if it could be another Christmas celebration, the Kobe Luminarie in Japan has a more somber purpose at its heart - remembering the thousands of people who died in a 1995 earthquake. After...

White Island Mines, New Zealand Indigenous people have been living in Australia and New Zealand for thousands of years, but in more recent history colonists from Europe came to the island nations and began building homes, factories and industrial sites. With weather extremes that range from volcanic eruptions to wildfires to flooding, its no surprise some of these buildings have succumbed to decay or been toppled by natural disasters. In the following pages we explore some of the eerie sites...