47 Alternatives To Wikipedia

Wikipedia is perhaps the most popular reference site online, with millions of high quality articles available on virtually any topic. However, there are limits to what Wikipedia can offer. Here are 47 Wikipedia alternatives you can use to find information, research a paper, get quick answers, and much more.

The effects of high cholesterol on the body

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Cholesterol is a waxy substance found in your blood and in your cells. Your liver makes most of the cholesterol in your body. The rest comes from foods you eat. Cholesterol travels in your blood bundled up in packets called lipoproteins.

Walk Above The Trees On A Canopy Walkway In Cape Town

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Set against the eastern slopes of Cape Town's Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch is the first botanic garden in the world to be included within a natural World Heritage Site. Established in 1913 the 36 hectare garden is part of a larger 528 hectare nature reserve. The Centenary Tree Canopy Walkway is a new curved steel and timber bridge that winds and dips its way through and over the trees of the Arboretum.

12 Unintentional Ways We Could Destroy our Solar System

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We humans are doing a bang-up job of messing up our home planet. But who’s to say we can’t go on to screw things up elsewhere? Here, not listed in any particular order, are 12 unintentional ways we could do some serious damage to our Solar System, too.

A Retail Shop of Lost Baggage

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What happens to lost airline luggage? It lands up in Scottsboro Alabama, USA at the Unclaimed Baggage Center. This shop started in 1970, when H. Doyle Owens (an insurance salesman) borrowed $300 and bought a hundred or so bags left on Greyhound buses.

A cave so large - trees grow within it

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Son Doong Cave is located in the heart of the Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park in Quang Binh province of Central Vietnam. Only recently explored in 2009-2010, Son Doong Cave has only been open to the public since 2013.

Entomophagy - eating insects as a food source

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Entomophagy is the practice of eating insects as food. Already people in some parts of the world consider insects a tasty delicacy. Some 2,000 edible species are known to exist, and are eaten by an estimated quarter of the world’s population. It is common in cultures of North, Central and South America; and Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand. 

The world's coolest marathon

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The Polar Circle Marathon is a standard 42 km marathon. This marathon is over the ice covered mountainous terrain of the polar circle with temperatures dipping down to -10 degrees Celsius (and that's in the autumn, when the race takes place).

The southernmost British post office - Port Lockroy, Antarctica

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Port Lockroy is a natural harbour on the Antarctic Peninsula of the British Antarctic Territory. Originally discovered in 1903 by a French Antarctic expedition, the port was named 'Port LaCroix' after Edouard LaCroix who helped finance the expedition.

The $1 billion mansion in Mumbai

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This mansion, named Anitlla, is 27 stories high, contains a health club with a gym and dance studio, at least one studio, a ballroom, guestrooms and a range of lounges and a 50 seater cinema. All of this for a family of five. Of course, there are 600 servants to pamper them.

Vdara hotel 'death ray' claiming victims in the Las Vegas Strip

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The tall, curving Vdara Hotel at CityCenter in Las Vegas is beautiful.  However, the south-facing tower is turning out to be problem for visitors at the hotel’s swimming pool. The curved mirrored surface of the hotel acts as a massive parabolic mirror that concentrates solar heat into a specific target area. 

Meanest and largest digging machine in the world.

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The Excavator 288, also known as the Bagger 288, is the largest digger machine in the world. Built by the German company Krupp for the energy and mining firm Rheinbraun, it is the largest tracked vehicle in the world at 13,500 tons. Construction was completed in 1978

Stained glass mural and botanical garden

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The Cosmovitral is a stained glass mural and botanical garden located in Toluca, Mexico.

Miracle of the golden Palawan pearl

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No one understands the ancient nature of pearls quite like the Badjao, sea gypsies who sail the Sulu-Sulawesi Seas across three nations and who make their living from its aquatic bounty.

Miniature replicas of famous world sites

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Tobu World Square is a theme park in Kinugawa Onsen that exhibits 1/25th scale replicas of famous buildings from around the world.

Madagascar's amazing Stone Forest

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The western coast of Madagascar hosts the Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve which is made up of 666 square kilometer UNESCO World Heritage Site. It boasts breathtaking geography, mangrove forests, and wild bird, lemur and other local animal  populations.

The hotel that is a paradise for auto enthusiasts

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Stuttgart's unique V8 hotel boasts themed rooms with details and many original parts from the iconic cars, including a 70′s Cadillac drive-in cinema, a Mercedez-Benz carwash, a Morris Minor garage and many more.

Worlds most expensive coffee

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Kopi luwak, the world’s most expensive coffee, is made from a certain variety of wild red coffee beans but only after it has passed through the digestive track of the Asian Palm Civet, a weasel-like animal. This coffee costs between US$35 - US$100 per CUP whereas normal coffee costs between US$2 and US$5 per cup.

The Sign Post Forest at Watson Lake, Alaska

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One of Alaska's most famous of the landmarks, The Signpost Forest is at Mile 613, along the Alaska Highway. It boasts with over 65,000 signs and takes up a couple of acres. You can even add your own sign when you pop around!

Manpupuner gigantic rock formations

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The Manpupuner rock formations also known as the Seven Strong Men Rock Formations are a set of 7 gigantic abnormally shaped stone pillars located north of the Ural mountains in the Komi Republic, Russia.

Yosemite's ephemeral 'Firefall'

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Horsetail Fall is a small, ephemeral waterfall that flows over the eastern edge of El Capitan in Yosemite Valley. The "firefall" effect happens during the second half of February when there is a clear sky and enough snow for the waterfall to flow. 

Luxury living in a cave

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Yunak Evleri means "wash-houses," and that's what part of this cave inn used to be: Ürgüp's clothes-washing place. You wouldn't know it today. The rooms are traditional and stylish at the same time, done in fine taste with nice antique touches and modern conveniences.

Lac Rose (Lake Retba) - The Pink Lake of Senegal

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Lake Retba (or Lac Rose as it is known by locals) is separated only by some narrow dunes from the Atlantic Ocean and, as expected its salt content is very high.

Moeraki's Spherical Boulders

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The Moeraki Boulders are huge spherical stones that are scattered over the sandy beaches, but they are not like ordinary round boulders that have been shaped by rivers and pounding seas. 

Running the gruelling Sahara Marathon - are you up to it?

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Marathon des Sables, or MdS, (French for Marathon of the Sands, also known as Sahara Marathon) is a six-day, 251 km (156 mi) ultramarathon, which is approximately the distance of six regular marathons. The longest single stage (2009) is 91 km (57 mi) long.

The white desert of Egypt

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Just a few hours from the bursting metropolis of Cairo lies a desert that will make you feel like you’ve landed on the surface of the moon.

A massive radio telescope...

 
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The Arecibo Observatory is a radio telescope located nearby the city of Arecibo in Puerto Rico. The observatory's radio telescope is 305 m (1,001 ft) in diameter and is the largest single-aperture telescope ever constructed.

Largest cruise ship in the World

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Video below....

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Neon Museum of Las Vegas

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Founded in 1996, the Neon Museum in Las Vegas USA, features signs from old casinos and other businesses displayed outdoors.

The longest fish in the world

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The Oarfish is a largely elongated, pelagic lampriform fish belonging to the family Regalecidae, which has been known to reach up to a massive 110 feet (36 meters) long. It is considered a deep-sea fish. 

Paarl Rock - second largest granite outcrop in the world

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Paarl Rock. This huge granite rock is formed by three rounded outcrops that make up Paarl Mountain, Western Cape, South Africa. It is the second largest granite outcrop in the world with Yosemite, USA being the largest). Granite is an igneous rock, that is, it formed (and still forms) below the surface of the earth by crystallisation of a molten rock known as magma.

Turning English willow trees into cricket bats

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Cricket bats are manufactured mainly from English willow, a timber that grows in areas throughout Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk in the United Kingdom. All trees are individually planted by hand and is tended by the grower, to ensure that each tree will be suitable for bat making. To protect the industry, countryside and the species, two new willow trees are planted for each tree that is felled.

Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake

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Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling is a crazy game. In this annual event a round of Double Gloucester cheese is rolled down the Cooper’s Hill and competitors flung themselves at it, racing down the steep hillside

Death-defying tunnel provides access to a small Chinese village

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The Guoliang Tunnel is located in the Taihang Mountains, in the Hunan Province of China. It is a tunnel dug by hand through the side of a mountain  to provide a convenient, yet death-defying access to a small village in China. 

Fabulous art made out of junk

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Pop Artist Jason Mecier creates one of a kind outrageous mosaic portraits. He meticulously fabricates anybody out of all sorts of things from food to yarns.

Hotel built from salt blocks

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Palacio de Sal (Spanish for "Palace of salt") is a hotel built of salt blocks, located at the edge of Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia - the world's largest salt flat.

Would you hike this path?

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The 2154m tall Mount Huashan is considered to be one of 5 sacred mountains in China and also one of the scariest hiking routes.

Amazing 3D street artist

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Julian Beever is a British sidewalk chalk artist who has been creating trompe-l'œil chalk drawings on pavement surfaces since the mid-1990s.

Going underground to book into a hotel

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Cooper Pedy which is known for two things - Opal and Underground Homes. Here most of the houses are underground including the hotel.

Trampe – The bicycle lift of Trondheim, Norway

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The Trampe bicycle lift (Norwegian: Sykkelheisen Trampe) was invented and installed in 1993 by Jarle Wanwik.

The world’s largest Holstein cow sculpture

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Perched atop the only hill visible for miles is the pride of New Salem, North Dakota: Sue, the world’s largest Holstein cow sculpture.

The town situated entirely inside a massive meteorite crater

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The town of Nordlingen in the Donau-Ries district of Bavaria, Germany, is unlike any other town in the district....or in the world!

The steepest street in the world

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Located in the city of Dunedin, in southern New Zealand, the Baldwin Street has earned the distinction of being the steepest street in the world.

Teufelsberg - a Cold War listening post

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Teufelsberg ('Devils mountain') is a hill (120,1m) in the Grunewald Forest in Berlin and is made out of debris of World War II. Teufelsberg played the role of its life in the drama known as the Cold War – as an American listening station.

Fly geyser - a geological wonder

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A collision of human error and natural geothermal pressure created this rainbow-colored geologic wonder

The incredible rice terraces of Longsheng

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The Longsheng Rice Terraces, also called the Longji Terraced Fields or Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces, offer some of the most fantastic views in China or indeed the world. 

The trees of Slope Point..

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 On a small patch of land at the southernmost tip of New Zealand’s South Island, the trees of Slope Point are unlike anything else in the world.

South Georgia and it's forgotten whaling stations

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Established in 1909 and closed down in 1965, Leith Harbour on South Georgia's whaling station of  was one of the busiest stations in the world. It is now a no-go area to visitors, due to high levels of asbestos and derelict buildings . 

Age old natural air conditioning

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BĀDGĪR (wind-tower –also  called a "shish-khan “) is traditional Persian architecture used for passive air-conditioning of buildings. Shish-khans can still be seen on top of ab anbars in Qazvin, and other Middle Eastern buildings

The inhabitants of the Saguaro cactus

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Saguaro cacti host a great variety of animals. The Gila woodpecker and Gilded flicker make nests inside the cactus' pulpy flesh. When a woodpecker abandons a cavity, there are a variety of other birds that may move in like purple martins, finches, elf owls, screech owls and sparrows.

Seals with stripes - The Ribbon Seal

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If you cross a zebra with a seal, what do you get? No real answer can be put to that question, of course, however there is a seal species which lives in the Arctic and subarctic regions of the Pacific Ocean which could just as well have been the product of a chance fling between the two species. It is called the Ribbon Seal (Histriophoca fasciata) and it is unique for its stripes.

The oldest living things on earth

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Searches for the world's oldest living things ranged from the Mojave Desert to the Australian Outback to Greenland's icy expanses to the desert areas of Namibia. The 43,600-year-old self-propagating shrub in Tasmania and  the 80,000-year-old colony of aspen trees in Utah are about the oldest things found