Salvador Bahia, Brazil

Forte de São Marcelo had its first iteration in 1608 (before any enterprising Europeans had even so much as dipped a canoe paddle in the direction of Vermont), a wooden palisade planted on a coral reef to defend holdings in the still-very-new world. After being yanked back and forth like a cannon-equipped football by the Dutch and Portuguese, the latter built it into a stone circle, followed later by sturdier walls, all perched on the abandoned shells of billions of sea creatures.

Hints of republicanism swept in from all points of the compass in the 19th century, and at that point it became more convenient to house political prisoners in the fort. These included the colorful Bento Gonçalves da Silva, who terrorized the Brazilian Empire Regency on behalf of {checks notes} the Emperor of Brazil(?) during the amazingly-named Ragamuffin Revolution. One of his comrades (though not a fellow-prisoner at São Marcelo), was Giuseppe Garibaldi, who would go on to {checks notes again} fight in conflicts in Uruguay, Argentina, France, and Austria, and as a side note create the modern state of Italy. History is a small town.

Grand Bahama Bank

Vast undersea features are sometimes so close to the surface that they’re visible from space. Mariners report anchoring in ten feet of water here, a hundred miles from the nearest land, in the vast shallows perched North of Cuba. The Bahama Banks are composed of limestone old enough to have been above sea level during the last few ice ages, when it was scoured and carved by wind and rain before sinking under again.

Just North of these formations, the Tongue of the Ocean drops abruptly to a depth of more than a mile.

Bethel, Alaska

The city of Bethel is isolated beyond all road connections, on the Kuskokwim River in the far West of Alaska. As the largest settlement in the region, it serves as a hub for communities further upriver, but it doesn’t boast much in the way of services.

In 2012, local teenagers began spreading false rumors that Taco Bell was going to open a store in Bethel, generating great excitement. Taco Bell responded by denying the rumors, but as a consolation the company airlifted a taco truck to the city for the temporary provision of 10,000 Doritos Locos tacos.

Cover image: Regional view of the Grand Bahama Bank