Wander through the Sicilian Village in a Cave, Frozen in Time

In the province of Trapani, Sicily, there’s a portal through time about eighty meters high and seventy meters deep. Nestled inside the natural opening of two mountain peaks, lies a tiny village, consisting of quaint earth-colored houses, a chapel, stables, workshops and one cobbled main street. The village “piazza” of Grotto Mangiapane is located at the mouth of the cave where…

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13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CCCXX)

1. Janis Joplin having an Eternal Summer in Copacabana, Brazil, 1970 Just months before her untimely death, Joplin headed to Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro to have a few moments of R&R on the beach. She wasn’t nearly as well known in South America as she was in the States, and the images weren’t released until many…

Downton Abbey meets the Flintstones: England’s Abandoned Rock Houses

I don’t watch Downton Abbey, but if it were set inside houses like these, I think I probably would! Welcome to Holy Austin Rock in Staffordshire, England. These medieval cave houses carved from sandstone were abandoned by the last residents in the 1960s, but people were living happily inside them for over three centuries before…

For Sale: Spacious Hand-Carved Cave Cathedral

Here’s something you won’t find on Craigslist. Hidden beneath the desert of Northern New Mexico, hand-sculpted from the sandstone cliffs, an etherial cave network built by a single man, is up for sale. Armed with not much more than a pick axe and a wheelbarrow, a sixty seven year-old sculptor and off-the-grid visionary artist, Ra…

An 8th World Wonder without Tourists: Georgia’s Ancient Cave Cities

From the top of the ridge, a dusty wind blows south, sweeping down and across the endless desert-like plains in Azerbaijan. A narrow path cuts through the dried up shrubbery that shakes with each passing of stamping feet (recommended to scare away poisonous snakes). A rusty railing cuts down the already narrow path marking the border between Georgia…

The Italian Hotel built inside Abandoned Medieval Grottos

Okay come with me, we’re going to explore every inch of this hotel built inside the deserted grottos of an Italian mountain village from the Middle Ages. The cliffs of the Gravina River Valley in Matera Italy are believed to be the site of the first human settlements in the country. So let’s begin our…

Mystery Internet Cave House: Solved

I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to identify an uncredited viral photo from the internet. I must have come across this picture of an underground cave cottage/ hobbit house/ Flinstones shack – whatever the internet was calling it – more than a dozen times on my internet travels. It could have been located anywhere from…

The Cave-Dwelling Flamenco Dancers of Andalucia

“Gypsy” conjures up all kinds of stereotypical images of a wandering foreign community that live in caravans and vardos on the outskirts of cities. But today I fished a rare photo story out of the LIFE archives that gives us a fascinating glimpse into their lesser-known heritage. Shot by Dmitri Kessel in 1949, we’re taken inside a mid-century…

America’s Prehistoric High Rise Apartment Complex

They call it the Montezuma Castle, but the 90ft high monument should never have been named that. The thing is, the Aztec emperor who the ruins were named after, Montezuma, mistakenly believed to have been connected to their construction, was not even born until the cliff dwellings had already been abandoned for several decades. The European-Americans who…

The Cliff-hanging Castle at the Mouth of a Hidden Cave Network

Riddled with secret passageways and narrow shafts into the mountainous cave network of south Slovenia, Predjama Castle is what legends are made of. Built in the 11th century, it made a name for itself when a rebellious knight, a real-life Robin Hood of sorts, locked himself inside the fortress at the mouth of a cave for a year and…