One can discover eye-catching architecture in just about every major city across the globe — from the modern, glass-covered skyscrapers of Asia to the historic medieval walled cities of Europe. But there are some uniquely shaped buildings that would stand out in any cityscape. From guitar-shaped hotels to fish-shaped government buildings, here are six of the most unusually shaped buildings around the world.

Big Basket Building – Newark, Ohio

When the Longaberger Company, a now-defunct basket manufacturer, was looking to construct its new headquarters in 1997, the company found inspiration in its signature product. The result was the striking — and aptly named — “Big Basket” building in Newark, Ohio, taking the shape of a massive picnic basket complete with “woven” sides and 75-ton handles.

The seven-story building has certainly caught the attention of those driving by on Ohio State Route 16 ever since, but sadly, the original Longaberger Company shuttered in 2018, and the “Big Basket” closed its doors. While you can no longer step foot inside of this unique building for the time being, you can still drive by and admire it from the outside. At one point, there were plans to convert the building into a luxury hotel, but those plans were abandoned and the building’s fate remains uncertain.

Krzywy Domek (Crooked House) – Sopot, Poland

Krzywy Domek — otherwise known as the “Crooked House” — is like a surrealist painting brought to life. Built in 2004, this whimsical building in northern Poland boasts curvy walls, a purposefully sunken roof, and even seemingly warped windows — which all makes sense when you discover the design was inspired by Polish artist Jan Szancer’s fairytale illustrations. Surprisingly, the inside of this fairytale-inspired building is much more conventional. It’s part of the Rezydent Shopping Center and is filled with the usual stores, spas, bars, and restaurants.

Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum – Baku, Azerbaijan

Modeled after a curled, golden carpet, this eye-catching building hints at exactly what’s inside: the largest collection of Azerbaijani carpets in the world. Designed by Austrian architect Franz Janz in 2014, the building is home to the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum, which was established in 1967. With over 6,000 Azerbaijani carpets — both traditional and modern — within its glass walls, you could easily spend hours admiring the time-consuming creations inside. You may even be able to take a paid carpet-weaving class at this one-of-a-kind museum.

Fish Building – Hyderabad, India

Similar to the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum, the unmistakable shape of this building — which houses the offices of the National Fisheries Development Board (NFDC) in Hyderabad, India — gives passersby a clue to its purpose. Built in 2012 and unofficially known as the “Fish Building,” the striking structure features fins, eyes, a mouth, and a giant tail. Even the silvery sheet metal used on the body of the fish gives the structure a scale-like quality, taking the aquatic feel to the next level. 

Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood – Hollywood, Florida

The Hard Rock brand is known for all things music-related, so it only makes sense that the theming extends to its architecture. Opened in Hollywood, Florida, in 2004, the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood added a 36-story glass guitar in 2019. Within its shiny blue walls, you’ll find 638 rooms and suites, dozens of restaurants, a casino, and a 7,000-person live music venue. A selection of Fender guitars is even available for guests to borrow free of charge as part of the Sound of Your Stay experience. It probably comes as no surprise that the building — the first of its kind and which cost a whopping $1.5 billion to construct — is known by the nickname, “the Guitar Hotel.” 

Dog Bark Inn – Cottonwood, Idaho

Hollywood’s “Guitar Hotel” isn’t the only unusually shaped accommodation in the U.S. — Cottonwood, Idaho is home to the Dog Bark Inn, a cozy bed-and-breakfast that claims to be the world’s largest beagle. Standing 30 feet tall and nicknamed “Sweet Willy,” the hotel is the brainchild of artist couple Dennis J. Sullivan and Frances Conklin, who opened their one-of-a-kind hotel concept in 1997.

Once you make your way inside the beagle building, located off U.S. 95 in north-central Idaho, you’ll enter the single one-bedroom suite filled with books, board games, and freshly baked cookies to make you feel right at home. And, of course, your furry friends are welcome to join you at this dog-themed inn.

Editor’s note: The Dog Bark Inn announced that it would be closing its doors to guests in 2024, but the giant beagle will remain a roadside attraction.

Since the very first world’s fair, the Great Exhibition of 1851, more than 100 world’s fairs have been held in 20 countries in the decades since. The landmark building constructed to host the first event in London — a 990,000-square-foot exhibition hall built of iron rods and panels of glass called the Crystal Palace — is sadly no longer standing today. But many other incredible structures remain, such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Atomium in Brussels. You may already be familiar these seven U.S. sites, but did you know they were originally landmarks built for world’s fairs?

Sunsphere – Knoxville, Tennessee

Knoxville wanted to do something truly special for the 1982 World’s Fair. So, they built the Sunsphere, a 26-story observation tower with a globe made out of gold on top. The theme for the fair was “Energy Turns the World,” and Knoxville decided to showcase solar energy by making this replica of the sun. The 24-karat gold panels are actually glass layered with gold dust. After the fair, the observation tower — including the sun-themed cafe inside — closed and sat dormant for years. The tower finally returned to use following a failed reopening attempt in 1999 and a 2014 renovation. Across the street from the Sunsphere is an amphitheater, the only other remaining structure from Knoxville’s fair.

Space Needle – Seattle, Washington

An unmistakable feature of Seattle’s skyline, the Space Needle was built in 1962 for the Century 21 Exhibition, a world’s fair focusing on the space age. And the initial drawings for the Space Needle’s design reflected that: Co-architects Edward E. Carlson and John Graham, Jr., imagined a huge tethered balloon and a UFO when dreaming up the new building. The final design is a combination of their two ideas.

The Space Needle’s location and construction was determined by a few factors: The 605-foot-tall tower needed to be away from other tall buildings in order to make the biggest impact and have the best view, and because Seattle is located in an earthquake-prone zone, it needed to be able to survive a 9.1-magnitude earthquake and wind gusts up to 200 mph. Visitors today should stroll around the Seattle Center grounds surrounding the Space Needle — the entire complex was built for the world’s fair. The Needle itself, however, is actually private property, owned by the family of one of the architects.

Museum of Science and Industry – Chicago, Illinois

The stunning, Beaux Arts-style Museum of Science and Industry is the only building from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition that remains where it was in the year the fair was held. It’s also one of only two remaining buildings overall; the other is a ticket booth that was moved off-site. The museum building in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood was originally the Palace of Fine Arts, and like every other structure built for the fair, it wasn’t meant to last. The walls were built with staff material, a mixture of hemp fiber, glue, and plaster of Paris. However, the inside of the building gave it staying power. Since it housed priceless artworks during the fair, it needed to be fireproof, meaning it had an interior layer of brick and steel.

The building was renovated again in the 1920s to solidify the exterior as a permanent museum. When Chicago’s second world’s fair, Century of Progress, rolled around in 1933, the Museum of Science and Industry officially opened for business. Today it’s the largest science museum in the Western Hemisphere.

St. Louis Zoo Aviary – St. Louis, Missouri

For the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, which opened in 1904 in St. Louis’ Forest Park, the Smithsonian Institution constructed a giant cage called the Flight Cage. The massive walk-through aviary showcased different flocks of birds and was the largest aviary in the world at the time — double the length of a basketball court, 50 feet tall, and housing about 1,000 birds.

When the Smithsonian tried to dismantle it after the fair — most of the buildings and construction were temporary — St. Louis residents fought against it and the city bought the cage for $3,500 (without the birds). The city’s parks commissioner bought ducks and geese to keep in the aviary, then put up several temporary exhibit spaces to house the animals left from the closure of a local zoo in 1891. By 1916, the St. Louis Zoo had begun to grow around the aviary — it’s now one of the largest in the country.

Treasure Island – San Francisco, California

After the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge were completed, San Francisco wanted to have a festival to celebrate. The city built an island two miles into the bay and invited countries from all over the world to bring exhibits. The resulting celebration was the third and last world’s fair held in San Francisco: the 1939-1940 Golden Gate International Exposition. The fairgrounds covered the entirety of Treasure Island, which was built with mud pulled up from the bay and named after the possibility that the soil might have gold in it. Fair buildings were lit up so brightly that the glow could be seen from a hundred miles away, earning the island the nickname “The Magic City.” Treasure Island is now a city neighborhood with a museum dedicated to the island’s construction and history.

Unisphere – New York, New York

In Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, New York, visitors will see a 120-foot-wide, 140-foot-high stainless steel globe, with solid continent panels, latitude and longitude beams, and three rings surrounding it. The globe, called the Unisphere, was a centerpiece of the 1964 World’s Fair and surrounded at the time by pavilions and exhibitions. (Today it’s surrounded by a pool and fountains.)

Landscape architect Gilmore Clarke designed the structure with a sketch on the back of an envelope. When it was built, the design had to compensate for how top-heavy it would be because of the continent pieces; an early computer helped calculate and plan out the balancing act. At one time, capital cities dotting the globe were lit up with bulbs. The three rings around the globe also have significance: They represent the orbits of astronaut John Glenn, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, and the first communications satellite, Telstar.

Tower of the Americas –  San Antonio, Texas

It’s hard to miss the Tower of the Americas in San Antonio. Rising 750 feet above the skyline, the tourist attraction has a revolving restaurant, an observation deck (the tallest in Texas), and a 4-D theater. The building has come a long way since it was first built in 1968 for the HemisFair World’s Fair. The fair was timed for San Antonio’s 250th anniversary and lasted six months — but the city had to displace residents and raze homes to clear the downtown space it wanted for the fairgrounds. After they were built, the fair drew 6.4 million visitors from around the world to celebrate the theme “Confluence of Civilizations in the Americas.” The tower itself was the fair’s centerpiece — it weighs a whopping 80 million pounds, though the rotating tower needs an engine with only a single horsepower to turn it.

Worldwide, canals play a significant role linking regions, navigating cities, and facilitating long-distance trade. While bulk transportation relies heavily on many of these artificial waterways, other, centuries-old canals through historic cities such as Venice and Amsterdam have turned into heritage tourism destinations. Here, we’ll take a look at the histories of seven of the most famous canals around the world. 

Grand Canal – Venice, Italy

Venice is bisected by the magnificent Grand Canal, the biggest and most important of the Italian city’s 150 canals. Originally, Venice’s canals were natural channels running through a marshy lagoon, but over the centuries, engineers tamed and reinforced them to create the network we see today. The Grand Canal snakes right through the middle — about two miles long, it measures between 100 and 225 feet wide but only around 17 feet deep. Traveling along its length is an essential experience for any visitor to Venice. Hop on a functional vaporetto (Venetian water bus) or a graceful gondola to pass under the iconic Rialto Bridge and alongside historic mansions and palaces, such as the 15th-century Ca’ d’Oro or the 18th-century Palazzo Pesaro. 

Corinth Canal – Greece

The story of the Corinth Canal stretches back more than 2,500 years. Corinth ruler Periander first mulled the idea of some kind of passage for boats in the seventh century BCE, but for various reasons had to give up on his plan. Instead, he devised a system where boats could be hauled overland across the isthmus. As the years passed, the idea of a canal was revisited on multiple occasions, until, finally, in the late 19th century, it became a reality. The Corinth Canal opened in 1893, cutting a deep, narrow channel between the Greek mainland and the Peloponnese peninsula. In doing so, it joined the Gulf of Corinth to the Saronic Gulf.  However, modern freighters are far too large to pass through, so the canal is now mostly used for tourist traffic.

Suez Canal – Egypt

Opened in 1869, the Suez Canal connects Europe and the Mediterranean Sea to Asia and the Indian Ocean, via the Red Sea. Because of its strategic importance, the canal has played a pivotal role in history, including during the two World Wars and the Suez Crisis of 1956, which followed Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser’s nationalization of the canal. The waterway once again hit the headlines in 2021, when a huge container ship, the Ever Given, ran aground and became wedged on a sandbank. It blocked the passage of several hundred other vessels for five long days, at a cost of billions of dollars. Eventually, authorities figured out a way to refloat the behemoth and get canal traffic, and with it the global supply chain, moving again. 

Herengracht, Prinsengracht, and Keizersgracht – Amsterdam, The Netherlands

The historic canal trio of Herengracht, Prinsengracht, and Keizersgracht form a major part of Amsterdam’s UNESCO-listed Canal District (Grachtengordel). They are predated by the Singel, a medieval canal that created a moat around the old city. During the city’s 17th-century Golden Age, the excavation of three more canals became the catalyst for an explosion in trade and growth — which caused Amsterdam’s population to soar rapidly. Herengracht (the Gentleman’s Canal) is considered the city’s most important canal; the mayoral residence is located here. Keizersgracht is the city’s widest canal, though on the original plans it was intended to be a leafy boulevard, until locals lodged complaints bemoaning a lack of boat access. The third, Prinsengracht, was named after the Prince of Orange and is where you’ll find Anne Frank’s House. 

Jinghang Waterway – China

China’s Grand Canal, also called the Jinghang Waterway, was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 2014. It’s not only the oldest human-made navigable canal on the planet — the earliest sections date back to the fifth century BCE — but also the longest. Beginning in Beijing in the north, the Grand Canal stretches all the way to Hangzhou in the south, connecting five of China’s major rivers, including the Yellow and Yangtze. In total, the canal covers a distance of more than 1,100 miles. Throughout its history, the canal has been of vital importance to the transportation of goods, including food products such as grain. At one time, it was also useful for defense — water could be held back by dams and released to create floods that would hamper the advance of invaders. 

Manchester Ship Canal – England

The 37-mile-long Manchester Ship Canal opened in 1894, linking the English city of Manchester to the estuary of the River Mersey near Liverpool. At the time, it was the world’s longest river navigation canal and provided an invaluable link between the industrial areas of North West England and the coast, transporting commodities such as cotton and grain. Despite being a considerable distance inland, Manchester quickly became an important port city as a result. Though larger and better equipped ports have since taken precedence, passenger ferry companies now run leisure excursions along the canal so that visitors can admire the Victorian-era architecture and appreciate its lasting legacy.

Panama Canal 

When the Panama Canal opened in 1914, it revolutionized shipping. Instead of a long and often treacherous detour around Cape Horn, vessels could pass quickly and safely between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Isthmus of Panama. From 1903 to 1979, the Panama Canal Zone was a U.S. territory, and until 1999, it was jointly managed by the U.S. and Panama. Today, it’s part of Panama. The 51-mile canal is of vital importance to world trade but is also a popular tourist destination in its own right. Visitors can see landmarks such as Lake Gatun, created by damming the Chagres River; the two-stage Miraflores Lock; Culebra Cut, where the canal crosses the continental divide; and the Centennial Bridge.