The Strangest Places To Live In The World - Welcome Home!

Human beings have reached the top of the food chain not because we're the biggest, most vigorous, or maybe even the most intelligent creatures (whales are pretty freaking smart), but because we have proven that we can stubbornly live in some incredibly bizarre and downright inhospitable conditions. As adaptable as people are, these ten places are some of the strangest human habitations on earth.Check them out and marvel at the lengths to which some folks can go to survive or to get away from it all.

10. Egypt’s Trash Slum

GloboTreksCairo, Egypt, is one of the most densely-populated cities globally, and it has a long history of not knowing what to do with its trash. The solution that residents have come up with is baffling but evidently compelling. The nearby suburb of Manshiyat Naser has become the unofficial landfill for Cairo. Inhabitants of the "town," for lack of a better word, collect the trash from Cairo and sort out up to 90 percent of the waste into recyclables and organics. The recyclables get sold, the organics get eaten by a vast roving herd of pigs, and the rest gets crammed into every available nook and cranny.

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9. China’s Hanging Monastery

Dreamstime

China is home to the five most sacred mountains, Heng Shan in Shanxi province. As it is so incredibly blessed, monks hundreds of years ago were determined to worship there. In 491 AD, monks used highly inventive and structurally sound engineering techniques to build a monastery that literally clings to the cliff face. They first bored holes deep into the mountainside and then inserted whole, stripped trees into the holes to create anchor points on which the construction's remainder was built. These particular monks were highly dedicated to silence, including hearing the noises of everyday life. It's safe to say they didn't hear squat from up there.

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8. Florida’s STD-Ridden Retirement Community

RateMDs

The largest retirement community in the United States - and allegedly the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the country - Florida's The Villages retirement community boasts over 100,000 aged 55+ residents, nine country clubs, thirty-four golf courses an out-of-control STD epidemic. The organization, dubbed "Disney World For Old People," is apparently so sexually active that there is a black market for Viagra. In fact, local police are called repeatedly to break up fights over women (who outnumber men ten to one), stop drunken golf cart driving, and break up couples going at it in public.

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7. Greece’s Meteoric Monastery

GreeceTravel

On the subject of monasteries in high, sacred places, Greece has one to rival China's in Roussanou Monastery, located outside of Thessaly amid the Metéora, a chain of sheer rocks jutting up from the land below. The range's name comes from the same word as a meteor, which literally means rocks hanging in the sky. These incredible rock formations are made of more potent stuff than the rest of the mountains, which have eroded over time. Over the centuries, six different religious groups have built on these rocks. The sights and seclusion are indeed sacred.

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6. New York’s City Of Seances

Dreamstime

In upstate New York, there is a tiny hamlet by the name of Lily Dale. Its population hovers around 275, but each year, it sees more than 20,000 visitors. The reason is that this quirky little town is home to the largest concentration of spiritualists in one place in the world. Among the beliefs of spiritualists is the communion with spirits who have passed on. As such, no one is said to ever indeed die in the town of Lily Dale, and the healers and mediums who inhabit the city welcome visitors seeking answers from beyond the veil - or merely a bit of fun in a scenic little town.

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5. Portugal’s House Of Stone

Dreamstime

Six miles outside of the township of Fafe, Portugal, there lies an architectural oddity - the house made of stone. Built in 1974 by an engineer inspired by the massive boulders that dotted the countryside, this quirky home is larger on the inside than one may imagine. In fact, it is so exciting and remote that the owners, who have changed over the years, have had trouble preventing vandalism and attempted break-ins - purportedly to see if it's actually a real domicile. Rumors have abounded that it is merely the result of some crafty Photoshop skills, but this house is actual.Let's continue discovering more amazing places to live on Earth together...

4. Australia’s Opal Caves

Smithsonian Magazine

When opals were discovered under the ground in Coober Pedy, about 525 miles outside of Adelaide, Australia, in 1915, people flocked to the site to strike it rich. They soon discovered; however, the climate was hostile to year-round living, as the temperatures can reach more than 115 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer months. Underground, however, the temperatures remain cool and constant. Soon enough, folks had figured out how to bore caves into the bedrock to make permanent dwellings. Some homes are so large and impressive that they can span nearly 5000 square feet and are as diverse as churches, art galleries, shops, and even a luxury hotel.

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3. Sealand, The World’s Smallest Sovereign State

BBC

Just off the United Kingdom coast, close to Suffolk, lies a teeny tiny municipality known as Sealand. Because it is outside of any nation's territorial waters, this building built on massive pilings is considered a micro-nation. It was formerly a World War II Maunsell Sea Fort and has had a strange and storied history, complete with an assassination, a self-appointed Prince (who lives in Essex), invasions, hostage crises, and a pirate radio station known as Radio Essex. In the past, Principality has even printed its own passports and money and has participated in international sporting events.

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2. California’s City Of The Silent

Keith Kyle

When San Francisco passed a series of ordinances from 1900-1912, first banning the construction of new cemeteries and then abolishing all existing cemeteries from within the city limits, all of the bodies were removed and relocated to the newly-incorporated city of Lawndale. That town was created by the Association of Cemeteries to prevent the further disruption of people's final resting places from happening again. Eventually, the name of the city changed to Colma and, as the smallest city in the county of San Mateo, is now home to 1800 living residents and more than 1.5 million dead. They probably have some pretty rocking Halloween parties.

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1. Japan’s City Of Gas Masks

Deep Ocean Facts

In one of the creepiest examples of humans willingly living out a possible fatal science experiment for a yearly paycheck, residents of Japan's Miyakjima are required by law to carry gas masks with them at all times, in case the sulphuric fumes spouting from the nearby volcano prove too toxic for them to breathe. Scientists are conducting experiments about the effects of constant sulphuric gas exposure on a stable population. People go about their daily lives, all while living in the shadow of an active volcano. Despite being mere miles from one of the most densely populated areas globally, tourists are conspicuously absent from Miyakejima.