In the summer of 2001, 19-year-old Joshua Foer took off on a classic Great American Road Trip, traveling around the country, sleeping in a minivan and seeking out the nation’s hidden corners for the sights and experiences that would transform him into a writer.

Just one problem: He had no guides to point him to those places.

So he and a friend, Dylan Thuras, who was about to set off on a similar adventure in Eastern Europe, decided to try crowdsourcing. They created an online compendium and asked people to contribute obscure destinations.

The result was the Atlas Obscura, a website and book (Workman Publishing, $37.50) curated with Thuras, which invite readers to learn about some of the most unusual and, well, obscure sights in the world. In our current, isolated housebound state, the atlas offers a welcome escape into surreal, amazing and unexpected places around the globe — from your armchair.

“We believe that you don’t have to travel halfway around the world to experience a sense of wonder and discovery,” Foer says.

Naturally, we had questions.

Q. It’s easy to go down rabbit holes when you visit Atlas Obscura. Was that your plan?

A. Our mission is to help you see the world with fresh eyes. That applies especially to where we live. It’s all around us, in our own backyards, if we only know how to look for it.

Q. In addition to highlighting those obscure corners, do you see the project as a way to preserve stories and the history of a place?

A. Absolutely. We live in a world that is becoming increasingly homogenized. We have to work to preserve the things that make us unique and different — and we believe the best way to do that is by elevating and celebrating the world’s truly unique and special places, especially the ones that tend to be overlooked.

Q. What have you found most interesting about the site? I’m not talking about the actual places, but other things you’ve learned, perhaps from the entries and the people who contribute?

A. Well, I’ve learned there are a lot of really tall and completely uncelebrated radio towers around the world, but I guess that’s not quite what you mean. I suppose the most surprising thing is how many incredible places there are out there. I mean, we’ve been at this for a long time, and we are still amazed and delighted every day by how many places are contributed that blow our minds.

Q. What makes a place “right” for Atlas Obscura?

A. We’d never include the Eiffel Tower in Atlas Obscura, but up at the top of the tower, Gustave Eiffel constructed a secret apartment where he could entertain distinguished visitors. That’s in Atlas Obscura. The principle criteria for inclusion is that a place has to inspire a sense of wonder and curiosity.

Q. What do you recommend we visit — in our sheltered-in-place state — through the website or your book? Are there any in the Bay Area that are particularly appealing to you?

A. I’d start with these. And my favorite spot in the Bay Area happens to be one of the most popular with the Atlas Obscura community, so perhaps it isn’t that obscure. It’s the Wave Organ in San Francisco, an acoustic sculpture played by the sea.

Buckle the seat belt on your recliner and get ready to travel.

1 The Root Bridges of Cherrapunji

The bridges are built by weaving the exposed roots of rubber trees. Some of the bridges are 170-feet long and 80 feet above streams. The most famous might be the double-decker root bridge of Umshiang.

2 Relampago del Catatumbo

For up to 160 nights out of the year, lightning storms rage for 8 to 10 hours at a time, producing thousands of strikes in the area where the Catatumbo River flows into Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. The strange phenomenon has been happening for as long as anyone can remember.

3 Ra Paulette’s Hand-Carved Caves

For more than 25 years, New Mexico artist Ra Paulette has been painstakingly carving and chiseling underground works of art in desert sandstone caves just north of Santa Fe.

4 Q’eswachaka Rope Bridge

This bridge is one of the last handwoven Incan bridges that once were part of a vast road system in Peru. Made of woven grass, it’s 118-feet long and suspended 60 feet above the canyon’s river. The bridges, woven by women and constructed by men, were so valued by the Incans that anyone caught tampering with them was put to death.

5 Museé Fragonard

This collection of preserved flayed figures is not for the faint of heart. They were created by Honoré Fragonard, known as the French madman, who also was one of the first medical masters of France.

6 Synchronized Fireflies of the Great Smoky Mountains

Every June, the fireflies in the Smoky Mountains put on a two-week light show, at times synchronizing their lights, all going dark at once and then all flashing on. For three centuries no one knew exactly how they did it, but scientists now know it’s something called “coupled oscillation.”

7 Shah Cheragh

The interior of the Shah Cheragh mosque glows with reflected light from the mirrors and glass shards that cover every inch. The mosque was built as a funeral shrine, but the brilliance was added in the 14th century by Queen Tash Khātūn, who wanted the mosque to reflect the light a thousand times over.

8 Gunkanjima Island

Known as Battleship Island, this island off the coast of Nagasaki once had a thriving coal mining operation that helped power Japan’s war machine during World War II. Then the coal ran out and everyone left, leaving the entire island a ghost town.

9 President Heads

After Presidents’ Park in Williamsburg, Virginia, closed in 2010, 43 giant concrete presidential busts were moved to a field on the sculptor’s farm until he can figure out what to do with them.

10 The New York Earth Room

Who would have thought that New York would house 250 cubic yards of dirt worth a million dollars in trendy SoHo? The Earth Room was created in 1977 by artist Walter De Maria — a UC Berkeley alum from Albany — as “a peaceful, quiet sanctuary,” where the only smell is that of rich soil.

Plus: The Wave Organ

Built from cemetery granite, marble and 25 “organ pipes” made of PVC and concrete, San Francisco’s Wave Organ is played by the tides. It was created on a stone jetty at the city’s small Boat Harbor by artist Peter Richards and master stonemason George Gonzalez in 1986, when they were artists-in-residence at the Exploratorium.