Claim:   Photographs show a collection of houses built in unusual places.

Status:   Multiple — see below.

Example:   [Collected via e-mail, February 2007]

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11

Origins:   Most e-mailed collections of unusual "Are these real?" type pictures usually consist of either all genuine photographs or all digital manipulations. This collection is unusual in that it's just about equally divided between the two categories. Five of the eleven entries are digital creations taken from various Photoshop Contests hosted on the Worth1000.com web site, and six of the entries are genuine photographs of real structures from around the world.

Here are the origins of each image, separated by "Fabricated" and "Real" classifications:

Fabricated:

• #1 is an entry entitled "Bond Mansion" from Worth1000's "Bizarrchitecture 3" contest.
• #2 is an entry entitled "Afrodite's Eye" from Worth1000's "Bizarrchitecture 4" contest.
• #4 is an entry entitled "You should see the front!" from Worth1000's "Bizarrchitecture 4" contest.
• #7 is an entry entitled "Ice House" from Worth1000's "Bizarrchitecture 4" contest.
• #9 is an entry entitled "Kjerag Tower" from Worth1000's "Bizarrchitecture 4" contest.

Real:

• #3 is the famous "house between the rocks" located in France, along La Côte de Granit Rose in Brittany near Plougrescant. (Additional photographs of this house can be viewed here.)
• #5 is actually an unusual "treehouse" restaurant located in Naha, Okinawa, Japan. The eatery is not actually up a tree, but rather is perched in a concrete stand constructed to resemble a tree; patrons access the restaurant through an elevator in the "trunk." (Additional photographs of the restaurant can be viewed here.)
• #6 is a very old mill (believed to date from the 16th century) that lies straddling two piers of an ancient bridge over the Seine River near Vernon, France.
• #8 is the Dar al-Hajar in Yemen, a rock palace built as summer residence for the Imam Yahya in the 1930s.
• #10 is the Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse, a 19th century structure located in Chesapeake Bay, south of Annapolis, Maryland.

• #11 is the early 20th century lighthouse of Westerhever, located on the Eiderstedt Peninsula in Germany's Schleswig-Holstein region.

Last updated:   25 June 2007

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