Real small towns that seem to be in a parallel universe

Giethoorn, Netherlands, Republic of Molossia, Greenbank, USA, Nagoro, Japan, Tangier, USA, Kihnu Island, Estonia, Longest town name, Coober Pedy, Australia, Shani Shingnapur, India, Hallstatt, China, Gross, USA, Monowi, USA, Setenil de las Bodegas, Spain, Centralia, USA, Santa Cruz del Islote, Colombia, Kamikatsu, Japan

With such diverse landscapes and people spread across this enormous spinning rock, there’s bound to be some extraordinary happenings, but many of them are tucked away in tiny towns, waiting to be discovered. So check out this gallery of unbelievably quirky, impressive, and mind-boggling communities, and revel in the amazement at what your fellow humans have been up to.

Giethoorn, Netherlands

Giethoorn, Netherlands, Republic of Molossia, Greenbank, USA, Nagoro, Japan, Tangier, USA, Kihnu Island, Estonia, Longest town name, Coober Pedy, Australia, Shani Shingnapur, India, Hallstatt, China, Gross, USA, Monowi, USA, Setenil de las Bodegas, Spain, Centralia, USA, Santa Cruz del Islote, Colombia, Kamikatsu, Japan

You won’t find roads in this serene village in the province of Overijssel. Instead, everyone travels by canals—even the postman—earning it the nickname "Little Venice."

Giethoorn, Netherlands, Republic of Molossia, Greenbank, USA, Nagoro, Japan, Tangier, USA, Kihnu Island, Estonia, Longest town name, Coober Pedy, Australia, Shani Shingnapur, India, Hallstatt, China, Gross, USA, Monowi, USA, Setenil de las Bodegas, Spain, Centralia, USA, Santa Cruz del Islote, Colombia, Kamikatsu, Japan

Quiet and remote, their website says the loudest sound you can normally hear is the quacking of a duck.

Republic of Molossia

Giethoorn, Netherlands, Republic of Molossia, Greenbank, USA, Nagoro, Japan, Tangier, USA, Kihnu Island, Estonia, Longest town name, Coober Pedy, Australia, Shani Shingnapur, India, Hallstatt, China, Gross, USA, Monowi, USA, Setenil de las Bodegas, Spain, Centralia, USA, Santa Cruz del Islote, Colombia, Kamikatsu, Japan

The smallest, self-proclaimed country in the world is located in Nevada, USA, and has its own president, flag, anthem, passport, and currency—printed on poker chips and relative to the price of cookie dough—as well as a lengthy history.

Greenbank, USA

Giethoorn, Netherlands, Republic of Molossia, Greenbank, USA, Nagoro, Japan, Tangier, USA, Kihnu Island, Estonia, Longest town name, Coober Pedy, Australia, Shani Shingnapur, India, Hallstatt, China, Gross, USA, Monowi, USA, Setenil de las Bodegas, Spain, Centralia, USA, Santa Cruz del Islote, Colombia, Kamikatsu, Japan

The Virginia town is the quietest in America and has laws against cell phones, Wi-Fi, stoplights, microwaves, spark-plugs, car radios, electronic doorbells, and essentially all the comforts of modern day technology.

Nagoro, Japan

Giethoorn, Netherlands, Republic of Molossia, Greenbank, USA, Nagoro, Japan, Tangier, USA, Kihnu Island, Estonia, Longest town name, Coober Pedy, Australia, Shani Shingnapur, India, Hallstatt, China, Gross, USA, Monowi, USA, Setenil de las Bodegas, Spain, Centralia, USA, Santa Cruz del Islote, Colombia, Kamikatsu, Japan

When Tsukimi Ayano returned to her village to find that most of the residents had left, she chose to do something few others would: create life-size doll replacements for everyone.

Tangier, USA

Giethoorn, Netherlands, Republic of Molossia, Greenbank, USA, Nagoro, Japan, Tangier, USA, Kihnu Island, Estonia, Longest town name, Coober Pedy, Australia, Shani Shingnapur, India, Hallstatt, China, Gross, USA, Monowi, USA, Setenil de las Bodegas, Spain, Centralia, USA, Santa Cruz del Islote, Colombia, Kamikatsu, Japan

This remote island 12 miles off of Virginia’s shore is already interesting in that there is no alcohol or phone service, and only one grocery store, two restaurants, one road, and golf carts as a means of transportation. But an even stranger fact is that the 460 residents speak in an old English accent.

Kihnu Island, Estonia

Giethoorn, Netherlands, Republic of Molossia, Greenbank, USA, Nagoro, Japan, Tangier, USA, Kihnu Island, Estonia, Longest town name, Coober Pedy, Australia, Shani Shingnapur, India, Hallstatt, China, Gross, USA, Monowi, USA, Setenil de las Bodegas, Spain, Centralia, USA, Santa Cruz del Islote, Colombia, Kamikatsu, Japan

One of the world’s last matriarchal societies is situated on a little island in the Baltic Sea, where women are in charge of its 600 inhabitants and have been for centuries.

Longest town name

Giethoorn, Netherlands, Republic of Molossia, Greenbank, USA, Nagoro, Japan, Tangier, USA, Kihnu Island, Estonia, Longest town name, Coober Pedy, Australia, Shani Shingnapur, India, Hallstatt, China, Gross, USA, Monowi, USA, Setenil de las Bodegas, Spain, Centralia, USA, Santa Cruz del Islote, Colombia, Kamikatsu, Japan

A village on the island of Anglesey in Wales called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is, naturally, in the Guinness Book of Records for being the place with the longest name in Britain.

Coober Pedy, Australia

Giethoorn, Netherlands, Republic of Molossia, Greenbank, USA, Nagoro, Japan, Tangier, USA, Kihnu Island, Estonia, Longest town name, Coober Pedy, Australia, Shani Shingnapur, India, Hallstatt, China, Gross, USA, Monowi, USA, Setenil de las Bodegas, Spain, Centralia, USA, Santa Cruz del Islote, Colombia, Kamikatsu, Japan

This unique mining town in Outback South Australia is almost entirely underground, with tunnels leading to more than 1,500 homes, as well as hotels, museums, a church, a casino, a gift shop, and even a local pub.

Shani Shingnapur, India

Giethoorn, Netherlands, Republic of Molossia, Greenbank, USA, Nagoro, Japan, Tangier, USA, Kihnu Island, Estonia, Longest town name, Coober Pedy, Australia, Shani Shingnapur, India, Hallstatt, China, Gross, USA, Monowi, USA, Setenil de las Bodegas, Spain, Centralia, USA, Santa Cruz del Islote, Colombia, Kamikatsu, Japan

Imagine a place where homes have no front doors, no locks, no keys, and yet no one feels unsafe. What might seem like a dream is materialized in this village in the Indian state of Maharashtra.

Hallstatt, China

Giethoorn, Netherlands, Republic of Molossia, Greenbank, USA, Nagoro, Japan, Tangier, USA, Kihnu Island, Estonia, Longest town name, Coober Pedy, Australia, Shani Shingnapur, India, Hallstatt, China, Gross, USA, Monowi, USA, Setenil de las Bodegas, Spain, Centralia, USA, Santa Cruz del Islote, Colombia, Kamikatsu, Japan

When you go to China, the last thing you expect to see is traditional European architecture and historic churches that seem to date back hundreds of years. But that’s what you’ll find in Hallstatt, China: the world's first cloned village.

Gross, USA

Giethoorn, Netherlands, Republic of Molossia, Greenbank, USA, Nagoro, Japan, Tangier, USA, Kihnu Island, Estonia, Longest town name, Coober Pedy, Australia, Shani Shingnapur, India, Hallstatt, China, Gross, USA, Monowi, USA, Setenil de las Bodegas, Spain, Centralia, USA, Santa Cruz del Islote, Colombia, Kamikatsu, Japan

Sometimes called “the Nebraska ghost town that never died,” this once hopeful town’s population began to dwindle due to the lack of railroad and a couple of fires. Now the population of Gross is two. The remaining two residents, Mike and Mary Finnegan, own the Nebraska Inn, which apparently serves up some of the best burgers around!

Monowi, USA

Giethoorn, Netherlands, Republic of Molossia, Greenbank, USA, Nagoro, Japan, Tangier, USA, Kihnu Island, Estonia, Longest town name, Coober Pedy, Australia, Shani Shingnapur, India, Hallstatt, China, Gross, USA, Monowi, USA, Setenil de las Bodegas, Spain, Centralia, USA, Santa Cruz del Islote, Colombia, Kamikatsu, Japan

Eighty-four-year-old Elsie Eiler is the mayor, clerk, treasurer, librarian, and bartender. She pays taxes to herself, votes for herself, grants her own alcohol licence, and raises a few hundred dollars worth of taxes to keep the three lampposts flickering and the town’s water flowing.

Setenil de las Bodegas, Spain

Giethoorn, Netherlands, Republic of Molossia, Greenbank, USA, Nagoro, Japan, Tangier, USA, Kihnu Island, Estonia, Longest town name, Coober Pedy, Australia, Shani Shingnapur, India, Hallstatt, China, Gross, USA, Monowi, USA, Setenil de las Bodegas, Spain, Centralia, USA, Santa Cruz del Islote, Colombia, Kamikatsu, Japan

Some homes even have rock roofs and olive groves right above them. Their wine, chorizo, pastries, and fresh produce reinvent the phrase cave-dwelling.

Centralia, USA

Giethoorn, Netherlands, Republic of Molossia, Greenbank, USA, Nagoro, Japan, Tangier, USA, Kihnu Island, Estonia, Longest town name, Coober Pedy, Australia, Shani Shingnapur, India, Hallstatt, China, Gross, USA, Monowi, USA, Setenil de las Bodegas, Spain, Centralia, USA, Santa Cruz del Islote, Colombia, Kamikatsu, Japan

The ghost town’s eerily empty streets, broken fences, dead patches of grass, and steaming holes in the ground—big enough to swallow cars— are the result of a honeycomb of underlying coal accidentally set ablaze in 1962. 

Santa Cruz del Islote, Colombia

Giethoorn, Netherlands, Republic of Molossia, Greenbank, USA, Nagoro, Japan, Tangier, USA, Kihnu Island, Estonia, Longest town name, Coober Pedy, Australia, Shani Shingnapur, India, Hallstatt, China, Gross, USA, Monowi, USA, Setenil de las Bodegas, Spain, Centralia, USA, Santa Cruz del Islote, Colombia, Kamikatsu, Japan

Though it’s four times as dense as Manhattan—imagine 40,417 people to one square kilometer—the reason this island is so compelling as compared to more densely populated islands, like Îlet à Brouée in Haiti with 500 people on less than an acre, is that there’s also reportedly no crime, violence, or prejudice.

Kamikatsu, Japan

Giethoorn, Netherlands, Republic of Molossia, Greenbank, USA, Nagoro, Japan, Tangier, USA, Kihnu Island, Estonia, Longest town name, Coober Pedy, Australia, Shani Shingnapur, India, Hallstatt, China, Gross, USA, Monowi, USA, Setenil de las Bodegas, Spain, Centralia, USA, Santa Cruz del Islote, Colombia, Kamikatsu, Japan

This small village nestled in the rice-paddies of southwestern Japan is leading the world in advanced environmental measures, nearing a completely zero-waste lifestyle—and it’s easier than you think.

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