A Trip to Salvation Mountain

Browse more photos on the Salvation Mountain location page.

If you ever visit Niland, California, a desert town of just over 1,000 people in the southeasternmost corner of the state, you’re sure to find Salvation Mountain. The giant, bright relgious tribute is made of over 100,000 gallons of paint and stands 50 feet tall by 150 feet in breadth. Artist Leonard Knight started building the mountain in the 1980s and lived there for 30 years, passing days adding to and caring for his life’s work.

Since Knight, now 82, entered into a long-term care facility in late 2011, concern has been raised for the future of the site. Without constant upkeep, the harsh environment can quickly erode the fragile mountain made of clay and paint. Learn more about the fight to save Salvation Mountain here.

Thailand’s White Temple, Wat Rong Khun (วัดร่องขุ่น)

Located near the city of Chiang Rai, Wat Rong Khun (วัดร่องขุ่น)—known outside Thailand as the “White Temple”—stands as an unusual and beautiful mix of traditional Thai architecture and modern-day science fiction memorabilia. It was designed by painter-turned-architect Chalermchai Kositpipat, one of Thailand’s most renowned architects, who set out to create one of the most elegant temples in Chiang Rai.

The temple’s white color symbolizes purity; its glittering glass signifies the teachings of the Buddah; and the moat filled with outreaching arms represents desire. Detailed sculptures of skulls, demons and severed heads are also scattered around the premises. Perhaps most interestingly, a mural inside with images of Batman, Superman, and even the alien from Predator tell a modern-day story of Buddha.

Construction on Wat Rong Khun began in 1996 and is expected to finish in 2070, long after Kositpipat has passed. Plans include nine buildings built on an area of about 3 acres, and though it is a work in progress, the temple attracts an increasingly large number of visitors every year—many of whom share their visit to the temple on Instagram.

Train Stations Around the World

Want to see more great train photos? Check out the hashtag #fr8heaven.

Today is a big anniversary for railroad fans: It’s the 144th anniversary of the completion of the US transcontinental railroad. The railroad facilitated travel from the east to the west coast of the United States.

Train stations have been around for over 200 years—ever since the United Kingdom constructed the very first structures in the early 19th century. Many of these early 19th century stations reflect the grandiose architecture popular at the time, while those built more recently are more likely to have simple, abstract designs.

To honor the history of these buildings, we gathered together a list of some of the most beautiful stations from around the world. For more photos of each building’s stunning architecture, visit the location pages below:

• Gare do Oriente, Lisbon, Portugal
• Expo MRT Station (CG1/DT35), Singapore
• Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai, India
• Gare SNCF de Lyon-Saint-Exupéry TGV, Lyon, France
• 金沢駅 (Kanazawa Sta.), Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan
• Haydarpaşa Garı, İstanbul, Turkey
• Estación de Madrid-Puerta de Atocha, Madrid, Spain

Spotlight: South Africa

Since launching, we’ve seen Instagram spread from our headquarters in the Bay Area to every corner of the globe. In this series, Spotlight, we’ll highlight top users from countries and cities with thriving Instagram communities.

South Africa, the African continent’s southernmost country, boasts 11 official languages, three capital cities and some of the most photogenic landscapes in the world. Instagrammers both homegrown and from abroad have given outsiders a glimpse into this vast and diverse country, from the Namib desert in the northwest to the subtropical forests in the east to the coastline that stretches over 1700 miles (2700km).

Want an insider’s view of South Africa? Follow these locals to see the country through their lens.

• Ofentse Mwase, a cinematographer snapping photos from Johannesburg and its outskirts — @unclescrooch
• Alessio La Ruffa, taking beautiful photos in and around Pretoria — @alessiolr
• Ross Pickford, a software developer sharing photos from Cape Town — @roscoedude
• Gareth Pon, a filmmaker photographing Johannesburg’s cityscapes — @garethpon

To explore the country in depth, you can also browse the location pages for some of South Africa’s most popular destinations:

• Orlando Towers, art and base jumping at defunct nuclear cooling towers
• Lion’s Head summit, with a spectacular view of Table Mountain
• Cango Caves, beneath the Swartberg range near the town of Oudtshoorn
• Knysna Elephant Park, up close and personal with beautiful pachyderms

Chernobyl, 27 Years Later

For more photos from Chernobyl, check out the Chernobyl and Pripyat (Припять) location pages, or search for photos tagged with #Pripyat, #Припять, #Chernobyl and #Чернобыль.

On this day 27 years ago, an explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near the city of Pripyat, Ukraine, killed dozens of people and released a plume of radioactive fallout that would eventually require the relocation of more than 350,000 people.

The event ranks as the worst nuclear disaster in history. The area immediately surrounding Chernobyl is still too radioactive for habitation and will remain so for another 20,000 years. Until recently, an exclusion zone of 19 miles (30 km) extended in all directions from the power plant, which is now entombed in concrete. In 2011, however, Ukraine opened up this area to tourists, giving the world a peek into a town abandoned and untouched for nearly three decades.

The Futuristic Architecture of Jan Kaplický

Today would have marked world-renowned Czech architect Jan Kaplický’s 76th birthday. He is best known for his remarkable futuristic buildings scattered around Britain, including the Selfridges department store in Birmingham, which takes the shape of a blue free-form iceberg covered in silver disks and displays Kaplický’s typical otherworldly touch. His beautiful designs can also be appreciated through Instagram photographs taken at the Lord’s Cricket Ground’s press box in London and the Museo casa Enzo Ferrari in Italy.

The World’s Most Beautiful Libraries

“Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.” -Ray Bradbury

For centuries, books have housed the collective knowledge of the world and formed the foundations of educational institutions. Given that these objects contain such value, it only makes sense that throughout history people have constructed beautiful buildings to house them.

We put together a list of some of the most beautiful libraries as captured by Instagrammers around the world. For more photos from these architectural wonders, check out their linked location pages below.

• Stuttgart City Library, Stuttgart, Germany
• Trinity College Library, Dublin, Ireland
• Library of Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt
• Real Gabinete Português de Leitura, Rio de Janiero, Brazil
• The Royal Danish Library, Copenhagen, Denmark
• George Peabody Library, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
• Kanazawa Umimirai Library, Kanazawa City, Japan
• New York Public Library, New York City, NY

Rhyolite Ghost Town

Want to see more photos from Rhyolite? Check out the Rhyolite Ghost Town location page and the #Rhyolite hashtag.

In Nye County, Nevada, about 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas, rest the remains of Rhyolite, one of the many abandoned ghost towns scattered throughout the American west. The town became a booming hub near a promising gold mine during the Gold Rush in the first decade of the 1900s, but its success was short-lived: the mine was exhausted, the 1906 earthquake hit and people left in droves. By 1920, its population had dropped to zero.

Today, Rhyolite remains a popular tourist destination off the beaten path. Most of the town lies in ruin, but partial remains of the train station, school house and bank still stand as reminders of the town’s prior success.

Astana (Астана), Kazakhstan’s Capital City

For more photos from Kazakhstan’s capital city, check out the #astana and #Астана hashtags along with the location pages for Bayterek, Khan Shatyr, and the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation.

Along the Ishim River in the center of a vast steppe lies Kazakhstan’s capital city, Astana (Астана). Though a functional city since 1830, Astana only became the nation’s capital in 1997. The past 16 years have brought significant architectural developments, many of which display innovative designs to functionally cope with the city’s drastic temperature fluctuations and symbolically reflect traditional Kazakh culture. And where there’s been architectural innovation, there have been numerous Kazakh Instagrammers to share these wonders with the world.

The city’s main landmark, a 105-meter (344-foot) tall observation tower called Bayterek (Бәйтерек), evokes a Kazakh folktale about a bird that laid a golden egg in the tree of life. Astana also boasts a large pyramid structure, The Palace of Peace and Reconciliation (Бейбітшілік пен келісім сарайы), built to house space for diverse world religions, a full opera house and a natural history museum beneath the stained-glass doves that adorn its glass apex.

One of the city’s newest additions is the Khan Shatyr entertainment center, a series of parks, shops and sites of diversion spanning 140,000 square meters (35 acres) that is covered by the world’s largest tent. The transparent material allows sunlight in while simultaneously maintaining a stable temperature throughout the year.

Spotlight: Iceland

Since launching, we’ve seen Instagram spread from our headquarters in the Bay Area to every corner of the globe. In this series, Spotlight, we’ll highlight top users from countries and cities with thriving Instagram communities.

The island country of Iceland is best known for its volcanoes, beautiful waterfalls, northern lights and hard to pronounce, well, everything! It’s situated between the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge slices right through the center of the small island nation. Though it is only 103,000 square kilometers (40,000 square miles), there’s no shortage of photographic terrain.

Want a first-person tour of Iceland? We put together a list of some amazing Instagrammers from in and around the country.

• Hans-Olav, snowy scenery and daily life around Iceland’s capital city, Reykjavík — @solavander
• Sig Vicious, graphic designer with an affinity for architecture — @sigvicious
• Vala Halldorsdottir, biking and camping adventures around the island — @valahalldorsdottir
• Anna Sig, stunning nature photography — @annasig

To explore the country in depth, you can also browse the location pages for some of Iceland’s most popular landmarks:

• The Blue Lagoon, a beautiful geothermal spa situated in a lava field
• DC-3 Sólheimasandi, the carcass of a downed United States Navy plane
• Jökulsárlón, a 60-year-old lagoon lagoon filled with giant drifting icebergs
• Gullfoss Waterfall, one of the most popular tourist attractions in Iceland