Author: gabeschwartz and Dylan

Prada Marfa

A perfect recreation of a Prada Store in the middle of the West Texas desert

The middle of the West Texas desert isn’t the first place you’d expect to find a fully stocked Prada store, but stop a few miles outside of the tiny town of Valentine, Texas and you’ll find just that.
The brainchild of Berlin-based artistic team Elmgreen and Dragset, Prada Marfa was meant to be a “pop architectural land art project.” Built of a biodegradable adobe-like substance, the building is meant to slowly melt back into the Earth, serving as a surrealist commentary on Western materialism. Interesting, then, that Miuccia Prada herself was consulted on the project, handpicking the merchandise for the inside of the store and allowing Elmgreen and Dragset to use the Prada logo. Costing a sum total of $80,000 – or put another way, costing about 40 Prada handbags – Prada Marfa’s grand opening occurred on October 1st, 2005, and the perplexed associated press spread the news all across the country.
With all the press coverage, it was only a few days before vandals converged on the site, breaking the windows, looting the store, and grafitiing the walls. Elmgreen and Dragset came in and repaired the building, but this time around they’ve taken precautions: all of the store’s Prada wares are heavily alarmed, and stronger windows have been installed to protect the interior from forced entry. While the vandalism might be the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to Prada Marfa, the site still gets thousands of visitors a year, despite Route 90’s low traffic flow.
Most people buy the artists’ story, but a few vocal dissenters have flooded the internet with conspiracy theories. Some even argue that Prada Marfa is a trap set by aliens meant to attract potential abductees. Visitors beware.

Read more about Prada Marfa on Atlas Obscura…

Category: Outsider Architecture
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Edited by: gabeschwartz, Dylan

Makhtesh Ramon

A massive, heart-shaped, wind-carved crater in the middle of the Israeli desert

Makhtesh Ramon is the largest of Israel’s bizarre geological formations called makhteshim (literally, “craters”).
Thought for many years to be an impact crater, the result of a meteor colliding with the deserts of southern Israel, geologists began noticing inconsistencies between the makhtesh and normal crater formations. After a long and trying investigation, the culprit was revealed: erosion.
Thousands of years ago, the deserts of southern Israel were at the bottom of a vast, primordial sea. As it dried, the hard outer crust of the sea bottom began to wear away, exposing its soft interior. This interior eroded quickly until the tough crust collapsed, creating the crater-like valley we see today. Since then, two seasonal rivers, Nahal Ramon and Nahal Ardon, have formed every rainy season, further carving away at the rock and giving Ramon its distinctive heart shape.

oday, Makhtesh Ramon, at 40 km long and 2-10 km wide, has been made into Israel’s largest national park, the Ramon Nature Reserve. Expeditions can be launched from the valley’s only town, Mitzpe Ramon (“Ramon Observation Point”), on the northern rim, although visitors should be mindful to stay out of the incredible mid-day heat.
At night, hikers should take advantage of one of the many hotels established by local Bedouin herders, where visitors can sleep in hand-woven tents while enjoying world-renowned Bedouin black coffee and the cool desert air. Staying at least one night is a must – far from the city lights, the stars in Makhtesh Ramon has been said to be so brilliant that they can “restore your faith in God.”
Other must-sees include Giv’at Ga’ash, a pitch-black former volcano arising from the crater floor, a few scattered Roman ruins after which the makhtesh was named (Roman, Ramon), and Wadi Nikarot (“Grotto Riverbed”), a dry riverbed flanked by spectacular cave formations dug out by the fast-moving rivers of spring. But hike at your own risk – flash floods have been known to kill inattentive walkers.

Read more about Makhtesh Ramon on Atlas Obscura…

Category: Geological Oddities
Location:
Edited by: gabeschwartz, Dylan