A stunning rock formation in Malta known as the Azure Window drew visitors from around the world until its collapse in a storm in early 2017, but it could be reborn in an unexpected way. In collaboration with Elena Britanishskaya, architect Svetozar Andreev proposes transforming the site of the fallen landmark into a new exhibition space, mimicking the size and shape of the original using mirrored steel faces. The project, entitled ‘Heart of Malta,’ aims to retain the location as a primary tourist draw and use it as an opportunity to educate visitors on the history of the island nation in the central Mediterranean Sea.

Standing nearly 92 feet tall (28 meters), the abstracted form of the new structure offers more than 53,000 square feet (5,000 square meters) of space spread over five spiraling floors. Each spiral step represents 1,000 years of Maltese history, and the exhibition hall itself showcases everything from traditional shipbuilding methods and materials to cutting-edge modern architectural techniques.

Just like the arch, the building stretches out from the land, connected by a narrow bridge. The top remains a prime overlook to gaze out onto the beautiful seaside landscape of Dwejra, and visitors descend into the exhibition spaces via ramp. An online poll in MaltaToday found that 68 percent of readers were in favor of making the proposal a reality, says Andreev.

“It will be a perfect monument and symbol of the fusion of modernity and nature, of time and history, and a testament to the tenacity of the human spirit.”

Caught the travel bug? Visit the world’s 10 filthiest, germiest tourist attractions and you could catch much, much more than you bargained for!

The famous red wine bath at the Kowakien Yunessun hot springs spa resort and water amusement park in Hakone, Japan gives the term “drinking problem” a whole new meaning. On the bright side, alcohol has antiseptic properties.

Sure it’s easy to resist drinking bathwater tainted by dozens of strangers but when the water’s been turned into wine, you’d better just hold your nose and pray for your health.

Blarney Stone, Ireland

No visit to Ireland would be complete without kissing the Blarney Stone; just ask the roughly 400,000 people who visit Blarney Castle in Cork each year to do just that. Take into account several centuries of tradition and you’ve got a pretty good chance of picking up much more than the gift of gab.

Kudos to Flickr users colinfinkle2, Mark Folse, and Becky Lane (romplane) for striking a blow for – or maybe against – germophobes worldwide.

Market Theater Gum Wall, Seattle

So it seems the gross & grotty Gum Wall under Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle is to be steam cleaned and scrubbed free of used chewing gum – the first time in 20 years this dirtiest of dirty jobs is to be done. Where’s Mike Rowe when you need him?

The cleaning wasn’t prompted by public health issues, however, as according to the Pike Place Market Preservation & Development Authority the sugars in the gum are beginning to erode the bricks! Once the walls are clean, visitors are encouraged to pick up where they left off.

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Sick Transit The Worlds Germiest Tourist Attractions

An imaginative Instagram user’s unique way of capturing the world’s most famous landmarks for posterity involves a scissors, paper and a camera.

“I take photos with paper & sometimes without”, states Instagram user @paperboyo, but it’s safe to say those “with paper” have garnered him most of his nearly 70,000 followers. London-based Rich McCor (to use his given name) came up with his intriguing take on travel photography while brainstorming on how to make his photos more original and memorable.

Changing his POV was McCor’s number one priority. “I decided I would become a tourist in my own city,” he explained. “I wanted to see the London that I ignored, to explore the landmarks and the quirky history.” His first efforts depicted Big Ben transformed into a wristwatch (or vice-versa) and some graphic teasing of a lion outside St. Paul’s Cathedral. Nice kitty!

Positioning the various paper cut-outs takes much precision and no doubt McCor attracts a certain amount of attention during the process. No doubt there’s a certain degree of trail-and-error as well: what works well in one’s imagination doesn’t always pan out in reality. When everything goes right, well, that’s just the cherry on the sundae!

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Cut It Art Paper Cut Outs Cut Landmarks Down To Size

These 9 famous international public landmarks, artworks and tourist attractions attract vandalism and graffiti that’s usually (but not always) unwanted.

Jim Morrison’s Grave – Paris, France

(images via: Ultimate Classic Rock/Mark Bowman and Arayatours)

One of the founding member’s of rock music’s “27 club“, Jim Morrison of The Doors was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris after his untimely death due to a drug overdose on July 3rd, 1971.

(images via: David Estrada, Paris On Demand and Jim Morrison: The Lizard King)

The gravesite, though unmarked until 1973, rapidly became a place of pilgrimage for Morrison’s fans who left flowers, letters and mementos on the grave. They also left an abundance of graffiti – at first on Morrison’s grave but spreading to adjoining graves, trees and cemetery infrastructure due to the sheer volume of visitors over the years.

(image via: TrekEarth/Kevin KL)

One of the iconic symbols of Jim Morrison’s gravesite was a plaster bust of Morrison sculpted by Croatian artist Mladen Mikulin. In 1981 the bust, along with a new gravestone engraved with Morrison’s name, was added to the grave to mark the 10th anniversary of Morrison’s death. As with any other solid infrastructure at or near the actual grave, the the bust was extensively decorated (some prefer the term “defaced”) in colorful graffiti until 1988, when it was stolen. Kudos to Kevin KL of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada who snapped, processed and posted the remarkable image above showing Jim Morrison’s grave as it was in 1987.

The Seattle Gum Wall – Seattle, WA, USA

(images via: Seattle Wedding Photographers | Red Box Pictures, Huffington Post/Matt Ambrey and KOMO News)

Seattle’s Gum Wall rose from the humblest of beginnings: theater patrons annoyed by having to wait in long lineups began sticking their worn-out chewing gum on the nearest wall. What began as simple, messy vandalism evolved into a bonafide artwork, especially after 1999 when theater attendants gave up scraping away the gum. It’s one of the few art exhibits where vandalism is, if not exactly encouraged, required to maintain the piece’s status.

(image via: photosbyjerry)

Located in Post Alley under the Park Place Market, the Seattle Gum Wall continues to grow as the theater remains popular enough to cause long lineups outside. As for the gum-chewing patrons, they can hardly complain about the sickly sweet aroma of gum cooking away in the summer sun, though they might want to hold their breath while they wait: Trip Advisor ranks the Gum Wall as the second-germiest tourist attraction on Earth, just after Ireland’s Blarney Stone. A tip of the hat to Flickr user photosbyjerry for the vertigo-inducing image above.

The Sphinx – Giza, Egypt

(images via: Sacred Sites, Above Top Secret and Smithsonian)

The Great Sphinx of Giza is one of the world’s oldest monuments, and as such is also one of the most mutilated by vandalism and marred by graffiti. Legend has it the Sphinx’s notably missing nose was shot off by a French cannon during Napoleon’s 1798 invasion of Egypt but this is not the case; sketches made decades before clearly show the noseless aspect of the ancient statue.

(image via: Travel.hat.net)

The actual act of vandalism occurred in AD 1378 when Muhammad Sa’im al-Dahr, an iconoclastic Sufi Muslim, chiseled off the nose after noticing that area farmers worshiped the monument in hopes of reaping a good harvest. For his troubles, al-Dahr was lynched by the angry locals.

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Dont Tag Me Bro The Worlds 9 Most Vandalized Landmarks

The Sydney Opera House might have been little more than a squat concrete building resembling a factory, and a visit to the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial could have required scaling a massive stepped pyramid. Ranging from close second-place finishes in design competitions to proposals that were little more than pipe dreams, these alternative designs for 12 major iconic landmarks around the world represent radical departures from the monuments we’re accustomed to.

Sydney Opera House

(images via: new world wonders, wikimedia commons)

The Sydney Opera House is one of the most recognizable buildings in the world, with a dramatic series of vaults rising from the ground along Sydney Harbour. But Danish architect Jørn Utzon’s now-iconic design was controversial when it was first proposed in 1957, and the design that came in second place may have been more palatable to the public. American architect Joseph Marzella’s design was rather industrial in its appearance, but didn’t seem quite so out there.  It’s hard to imagine the magnificent performing arts venue looking so squat and dull.

Triumphal Elephant in Place of Paris’ Arc de Triomphe

(images via: wikimedia commons)

In place of one of Paris’ most famous monuments, the Arc de Triomphe, could have been a three-story elephant monument with a spiral staircase in the underbelly leading to the pinnacle. 18th century architect Charles Ribart offered this monument for the Champs Élysées, complete with a cross-sectional drawing showing the intricate rooms within, but was turned down by the French government.

This isn’t even the only massive, ridiculous elephant statue envisioned for Paris. Originally conceived by Napoleon, the imposing Elephant of the Bastille (third photo) was meant to be cast of bronze and placed in Paris’ Place de la Bastille on the site of the old Bastille prison, which was the birthplace of the French Revolution. A stairway set into the legs would give access to the top, and the base would be surrounded by a fountain. However, only a plaster model was built, as memorialized by Victor Hugo in the novel Les Miserables, and eventually the July Column took its place.

Unbuilt Design for the Golden Gate Bridge

(images via: pbs newshour, wikimedia commons)

Now 76 years old, the Golden Gate Bridge is an iconic symbol of San Francisco, coated in literally millions of gallons of orange paint. The Art Deco-style bridge is one of the longest suspension bridges in the world, beating many experts’ predictions that it wouldn’t last against gale-force winds in the straight where the San Francisco Bay opens to the Pacific Ocean. But this wasn’t engineer Joseph Strauss’ first design. The original proposal is markedly different, with a heavier look combining cantilevered and suspension designs. It was rejected by the planning committee.

Lincoln Memorial Pyramid

(images via: i own the world, wikimedia commons)

Highlighted at Unbuilt Washington, an exhibition at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C., John Russell Pope’s Lincoln Memorial Proposal replaces the columned rectangular building honoring the 16th president with a pyramid. Anyone who wanted to get up close to Abraham Lincoln’s statue would have had to climb that entire thing to reach it. Some historians believe that this proposal was ridiculous on purpose; Pope wasn’t a fan of the swampy location chosen for the memorial, and may have created this and other absurd designs in an effort to encourage the committee to seek a new setting. Pope went on to successfully design the Jefferson Memorial.

Pyramid Necropolis for London’s Primrose Hill

(images via: andrew gough, wikimedia commons)

Infused in the Victorian preoccupation with melancholy and inspired by the Egyptian spoils of traveler and tomb-raider Giovanni Battista Belzoni, London architect Thomas Wilson proposed a massive, 15-acre pyramid-shaped necropolis for the city’s Primrose Hill. The granite pyramid would have towered into the air with 94 tiers of tombs in honeycomb shapes and a base measuring 18 acres, casting a gargantuan shadow over the hill many Londoners use for picnics and looking out over the city. Churchyards were so crowded at the time, that graves were bursting out of the ground – but concerns about what to do with London’s dead weren’t enough to convince the public that a necropolis was a good idea.

White House Alterations for President Harrison

(images via: loc.gov, wikimedia commons)

While he’s not nearly as forgettable as his grandfather, ninth United States President William Henry Harrison – who died after just 32 days in office – many Americans will struggle to recall any of twenty-third President Benjamin Harrison’s achievements during his tenure in the White House. However, Harrison could have made quite a mark. The first President to reside in the White House after it was wired for electricity, Harrison and his First Lady, Caroline Harrison, proposed significant changes to the complex that were never carried out. However, ten years later, Theodore Roosevelt made plenty of changes of his own, including the addition of the West Wing.

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