We can see some strange places like scary, wonderful, and unique around the world. All town has its name, government, and boundary, also people are spreading throughout the area. Sometimes we come across a genuinely odd, weird, and strange place. We won’t believe our eyes after seeing some of these. Take a look at these top ten towns that are so unusual.
10 The Villages, Florida
What makes life in The Villages, Florida, so desirable and amazing? The Villages, Florida, is truly strange and unlike any other community with a unique vision. The Villages sit in three counties, such as Sumter, Lake, and Marion. Community Development Districts oversee different functions, including recreation, public safety, maintenance, sanitation, water, and wastewater services. This area has a very high growth rate.
There are more than 100,000 inhabitants, and this retirement town is 55 Plus Communities in the world. Do you know what the most famous indoor sport in The Villages is? It is bowling! The endless activities, friendly atmosphere, and nightly entertainment draw the Adults who are active from all over to this community.
Arnold Palmer and Nancy Lopez in The Villages designed the golf courses. At least one working adult person in The Villages has 55 years or older occupied in at least 80 percent of homes. Persons with the age of under 19 years are not permitted to stay within The Villages. But they can visit there a maximum of 30 days in a year unless the government granted an exemption.
The average age for a male in The Villages is 62, while the female is 60. It also has 100 miles of golf cart paths and covers an area of over 33,000 acres. It has 96 recreation centers up to now with the different size and scope in The Villages. Thus, it is also one of the most unusual towns in the world.
Three spots such as Lake Sumter Landing, Spanish Springs, and Brownwood Paddock Square make life in The Villages, Florida, so unique. One big surprise is that this town has ten women for every man who makes a massive rise in sexually transmitted diseases. People often described it as a golf cart community. The golf carts and low-speed vehicles accessible in the entire area of this town. It also has a humid subtropical climate with hot summers and milder winters. Moreover, it also has the world’s largest golf community.
9 Busingen Am Hochrhein, Germany
Two countries shared this town is the most common phenomenon than we might think, but this becomes one of them’s strangest. This German exclave town sits in Switzerland. It is part of Germany politically and legally while it is part of Switzerland in economically. It covers an area of about 2.94 sq miles. There are about 1,450 inhabitants.
It is the only town of all Germany has the Swiss franc as the main currency. People used Swiss and German postal codes to send letters to Busingen and have separate German and Swiss booths of the telephone in town.
This place’s borders are entirely open, and Swiss police can arrest Germany’s citizens in Busingen and bring the culprits into Switzerland. Moreover, it has a fascinating geographic history and picturesque riverside appeal that can attract visitors. Thus, the two-country morph of this town leads to produce a great deal of profit. FC Busingen is the only team of Germany who plays in the Swiss championship.
This holiday destination is better known for its recreational areas besides the Rhine and closeness to the Rheinfall waterfalls with the neighboring Neuhausen am Rheinfall. Most residents in this place hold a Swiss passport. Many people who live in Busingen have a job in Switzerland and receive their salary in Swiss francs. Moreover, we can put it also on the list of top ten unusual towns.
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8 Whittier, Alaska
It is one of the world’s unusual towns, and this sleepy town tucked between picturesque mountains. People described Whittier as a “town under one roof” since many residents live inside a single 14-story Begich Towers apartment building. Based on the United States Census Bureau, Whittier covers an area of 19.7 square miles.
It sits just 58 miles southeast of Anchorage. It shows a subpolar oceanic climate. This wettest city also hosts a church, convenience store, school, hospital, a post office, the Whittier Police Department, and the Mayor’s office.
Additionally, Whittier has a population of about 220 inhabitants. It acts as a port for the Alaska Marine Highway. The winter winds in this town are brutal. If we like to drive to Whittier, then the only way is via the 13,300 ft. Long Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel through the mountain called Maynard. Trains, as well as highway traffic, use this tunnel at alternating times. Locals called these tunnels as the Whittier tunnel or the Portage tunnel and linked the Seward Highway with Whittier.
It becomes North America’s longest combined rail and highway tunnel. Whittier is receiving almost 197.8 inches of rainfall in a year. Also, the town averages 249 inches of snow each winter. Because of the deadly oil spill and the increasing effects of climate change, much stunning wildlife with bald eagles, sea otters, and killer whales are all housed within Prince William Sound. Thus, it is one of the most unusual towns in the world.
7 Colma, California
About 1,792 people live there at the 2010 census. Now you have a question- “how did it come to be on the list of most unusual towns, then?” With most of Colma’s lands dedicated to cemeteries where we can see more people dead than alive. There are around 1,500 living inhabitants and more than 1.5 million dead inhabitants.
It is home to mass graves that contain tens of thousands of people who have lost its habitat, also called “the City of the Silent.” There are at least 17 cemeteries in Colma, and we can find there are nearly two million people buried in this little town.
The small and unusual Colma has several cemeteries. People used them for specific religions and nationalities such as Jewish, Chinese, and Italian. The town is a graveyard, nicknamed the “city of the dead,” located in San Mateo County, California. In history, the graves’ most massive relocation took place around 20 years after the earthquake. The cemeteries of Colma have some famous tombstones.
It also has Colma station on BART and serves SamTrans buses as transportation. The authorities decided to shift all the cemeteries from San Francisco, and all the new recently deceased reinterred here. The catholic school, Holy Angels School, is the only private school in this town that has from preschool through 8th grade. The motto in the city today is, “It’s great to be alive in Colma! “So, it has all the right to be here in the list of top ten unusual towns in the world.
6 Monowi, Nebraska
Monowi is a small and one of the unusual towns in the world, located in northern Nebraska. It has a library, a tavern, and just a single resident with entirely white, female, and 76.5 years old Elsie Eiler. It is also the United States’ only incorporated municipality with a population of just one.
The village covers an area of 0.21 square miles. Moreover, the name Monowi means “flower” according to the tradition in the unidentified Native American language. Monowi got its name due to the prevalence of many wildflowers growing at the village’s original site.
The town has about 150 inhabitants in the 1930s. According to the census in 2000, the population of this tiny town had dwindled to only two people, Elsie and her husband, Rudy. She is the only inhabitant of Monowi, after the death of her husband in 2004.
After her husband Rudy is passing, she also introduced a small library and named it after her late husband. Additionally, she runs the council. Elsie Eiler is the librarian and bartender and operates a bar and a public library, which is the only business in this place for tourists, all on her own.
She also serves as the Mayor, grants a liquor license, pays herself taxes, and need to produce a road plan every year to protect state funding for the four streetlights in the village and provide other basic amenities. Also, she is a default mediator when arising any disagreements at the bar. In this area, sprawling, empty wilderness winds passing through the hills, down to dirt roads and past rivers. We find ourselves eventually reaching the village of Monowi when passing via the fields of gold and lush, green prairies.
5 Setenil de las Bodegas, Spain
Setenil de las Bodegas sits in the center of the Province of Cádiz, in Spain. It directly built into the rocky cliffs surrounding the city, whitewashed houses of it melt into Andalucía’s rolling hills. It is only a town with 3,000 inhabitants, but Setenil de Las Bodegas has played a significant Spanish history role.
The Moors did not develop this town until the 12th century, who utilize these cliffs as a natural protection to fortify the city. The main characters of daily life in this town are the rocks. For centuries, they protected the inhabitants of Setenil, who lived in the caves.
Nowadays, this is the most prominent feature of Setenil, making it among the fascinating tourist destinations in the Sierra de Cadiz. The most appealing features of Setenil are the buildings and houses under the rocks built without carving the stones. Despite the small dimensions of the city, we can do and see plenty of things here.
Calle Herreria is a place that we cannot miss out there, situated under the Arab fortress and preeminent to the central Plaza de Andalucia. One large overhang covers white hoses’ entire block, giving natural cooling and shade during warm summers in southern Spain. When we walk through this city, the homes and cliffs work together very naturally. So, it is tough to watch whether this town developed around the boulders, also reversely. We can see the Entire Village of Setenil as an ‘S’ Shaped Gorge.
4 Longyearbyen, Norway
It is Svalbard’s administrative center and largest settlement, located in Norway. The meaning of the city is Longyear City in Norwegian. That is right, an American, John Munro Longyear, established and named this town. It has more than 2,368 inhabitants. Additionally, Longyearbyen is the capital town of the archipelago. Svalbard’s cemeteries are no longer receiving burials due to permafrost creates the dead bodies preserved.
The school in Longyearbyen serves ages 6–18. It is the northernmost settlement of the world of any kind, with over 1,000 permanent residents. Svalbard Airport and Svalbard Church served the community. The North Atlantic Current tempered the climate of Svalbard, which is a combination of an Arctic climate. However, the sun can’t become visible in this town until around 8 March because of the mountains’ shading.
Longyearbyen experiences civil polar night, midnight sun, and polar night from 14 November to 29 January,19 April to 23 August, and 27 October to 14 February. It has no residents over 66 years of age. It has a northernmost church globally, a museum, post office, ATM, airport, and a university.
Dying is forbidden because bodies buried in Longyearbyen’s cemetery can’t decompose thanks to this frigid weather. So the people have not used the cemetery in 70 years. The frosty climate of this town prevents the dead bodies from decomposing. Any people found to die soon or ill transported to mainland Norway using a plane. Cats pose a threat to the population of birds, so they are also forbidden.
3 Coober Pedy, Australia
This whole city exists in the underground! There are churches, galleries, underground stores, and even the first 4-star underground hotel in the world! Also, Coober Pedy is one of the most unique and unusual towns on the planet. The mysterious underground city of Australia is darn hot. The population of this area stands at around 3,500 residents from about 40 various countries. Also, it is better known for its underground houses. But people around the world noted here for something else: its opals.
People referred to this town as the “opal capital of the world,” where we can find most of these precious gems. Many jobs in this Coober Pedy revolve around opal mining. Most people choose this town to live underground in dugout houses to rescue from the high temperatures during the summer months. Coober Pedy has an opal gallery, Museums, around 30 shops, Umoona Opal mine, the Old Timers Mine.
It also has fantastic natural landscapes, including the Breakaways, the painted desert, the Moon Plain, etc. Coober Pedy is the most famous stopover point when we are traveling to Alice Springs. There are more than 70 opal fields and the world’s largest opal mining area. The graveyard and the underground churches are the most popular tourist destination. The off-grid area got the power from hybrid Coober Pedy Solar Power Station.
2 Marloth Park, South Africa
Marloth Park is a holiday town located in northeastern South Africa, on the world-renowned Kruger National Park. It covers an area of around 3,000 hectares. Additionally, it is a wildlife sanctuary. What makes this city unusual is that residents of this region never admitted to making fences around their homes.
The only wall that divides the town people from the park is a small 4 feet fence. But, it created more to preserve people out of this park than to protect the animals in. Tourists mostly come to Marloth Park for seeing four of the Big Five, such as lion, buffalo, leopard, and rhino.
We find the Elephants are only within Kruger Park itself. Development, urbanization, or even fences unhindered the wild beauty of this continent. It retains its biodiversity. So we can find the animals are grazing, drinking from the mighty Crocodile River, and wondering the veld gracefully, just away from the houses of Marloth Park.
The same facilities equipped in this town include a restaurant, liquor store, bakery, petrol station, curios shop, and laundry. The park opened as a holiday township in 1972. Also, it provides a humid subtropical climate with hot summers and mild winters. It also includes hiking, several trails for mountain biking, and horse riding. It also consists of kudu, zebra, impala, giraffe, wildebeest, baboon, vervet monkey bushbuck, warthog, and other small game and rich birdlife within the park. Thus, it is also one of the unusual towns in the world.
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1 Hallstatt China
The Chinese are better known for their skill of making replicas of anything in the world. The Austrian village of Hallstatt looks like a traditional European town full of gabled homes and historic churches.
Now we can find this lovely view also in China as a high-end housing development. However, Hallstatt in China only dates back to 2012, situated in the Guangdong Province. But it looks almost just as ancient. They built a church at first, followed by streets that exactly look like the original ones. By the way, China’s Hallstatt’s real estate is more expensive than in the Austrian one.
The China Minmetals company copied the lovely little town that recreated some decorations, homes, and even the central church building. Inhabitants of Austria’s Hallstatt, including the Mayor, later visited this town and signed an agreement for cultural exchange. They told them they proud to see their copied town. The Hallstatt construction is part of a China trend to mimic or rebuild the world’s other regions.
It is also better known for its picturesque landscape. While the Chinese did not replicate the entire village yet, the site construction continues, and one day suddenly, tourists may find themselves a bit wondered and turned around to check whether they are in Europe or China. It also holds a position in the list of top ten unusual towns in the world.