THERE WERE LOTS OF SNAKES IN JAPANESE ARCHIVE

That same year, This American Life shared a recipe for Coke that had allegedly been passed down from a mysterious pharmacist. Despite all that trouble, Coke’s secret formula may not be much of a secret at all. It sat in a safe deposit box at an Atlanta bank for decades before moving to its current home at the World of Coca-Cola in 2011. Though the vault itself is likely a publicity stunt, the formula is apparently a real, handwritten recipe that’s been in the company’s possession since at least the 1920s. Tourists can see it from the outside, but the interior is strictly limited to top executives. The World of Coca-Cola Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, is the site of a multi-million dollar vault that’s said to safe-guard Coke’s secret formula. The entrance to the Coca-Cola Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. Who knows what we’d find out if they let Tom Hanks run loose in there for a few hours. Researchers who are allowed inside can request up to five files a day, but they have to know exactly what they want because browsing is forbidden. Today, the collection remains closed to everyone but certain accredited scholars. The archives were completely classified until 1881, when Pope Leo XIII gave Catholic scholars special access to the materials.

THERE WERE LOTS OF SNAKES IN JAPANESE ARCHIVE

Established in 1612, the Vatican Apostolic Archive (formerly the Vatican’s Secret Archives) contains the personal documents of all the popes. Millions of people visit the Vatican in Rome each year, but there's at least one area in the tiny sovereign state that's strictly off-limits. It’s deep enough underground and high enough above sea level to withstand earthquakes, ocean rise, and nuclear attacks. The facility is built to protect its contents from unwanted visitors along with everything else. The vault acts as a sort of back-up drive of the world’s crops, preserving specimens in a safe place in case a disaster ever wipes them out in their natural environment. The 11,000-square-foot space houses more than 1 million seed samples native to places around the world. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is located on the remote Arctic island of Spitsbergen in Norway. The entrance to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Longyearbyen, Norway, taken during a heatwave in July 2020. Reconstructing Ise Grand and its hundreds of secondary shrines costs the Japanese government $500 million each time, and most of that cost and effort ends up going unseen: While tourists can view it from the outside, the inside of the shrine is only accessible to the highest priestesses or priests. When Ise Grand is rebuilt, every detail of the ornate design has to be replicated, making it one of the most expensive structures in the country. Wood also has a shorter lifespan than most building materials, so demolishing the shrine before it can rot is a way to beat nature at its own game. Reconstructing the shrine about once a generation helps keep the traditional shinmei-zukuri architectural style alive. This tradition symbolizes the Shinto concepts of death and rebirth, but it has practical purposes as well. The first iteration of this Shinto shrine in Japan was constructed around 2000 years ago, and since the late 7th century, it’s been torn down and rebuilt every two decades. (The microbes humans brought in with them apparently weren’t helping, either.) Lascaux Cave is now off-limits to visitors, but archaeology fans can check out a perfect replica of the site located right next door. The artificial lights installed there had been promoting algae growth on the cave walls and causing the painting’s colors to fade. The cave opened to the public in 1948 and closed permanently after just 15 years. The sketches of horses, deer, and other animals date back to the Upper Paleolithic period, 15,000 to 17,000 years ago. Discovered in 1940, the cavern contains some of the most iconic cave paintings ever studied. Though not many people are eager to go to Snake Island, you may be sad to hear that you can’t visit Lascaux Cave in France. The International Center of Parietal Art at the foot of the hill of Lascaux in Montignac, France, features an exact replica of the original caves.

There were lots of snakes in japanese