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What's the most overrated historical site you've been to?

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Deleted member 23850

Oct 28, 2017
8,689
Since I'm starting to study (for real!) world history, I thought I would ask this question to see which sites I should avoid or approach with a grain of salt.

All I got is a few Cathedrals, which by the way were designed the way they were to establish religious dominance over the proles.
 
KDR_11k

KDR_11k

Banned
Nov 10, 2017
5,235
Castle Neuschwanstein. Pretty on the outside and on the one floor they actually finished before they shipped the king off to the asylum. Bare brick otherwise.
 
UnluckyKate

UnluckyKate

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,627
Ise jinga, in Japan.

Shrine of the sun godess, one of the oldest shrine and most holy shinto site in Japan.

Went for a day from Nagoya.

Its so packed, its not peaceful. Its so holy, you don't see the shrine, its behind a wooden wall.

Wasted the day. Got nothing redeeming from the day trip.
 
El Bombastico

El Bombastico

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
36,164
Winchester Mansion was nowhere near as cool as I thought it would be. Just a big house would a couple of windows on the floor and whatever. Didn't even see a single ghost...
 
Clay

Clay

Member
Oct 29, 2017
8,241
Andrew Korenchkin said:
Since I'm starting to study (for real!) world history, I thought I would ask this question to see which sites I should avoid or approach with a grain of salt.

All I got is a few Cathedrals, which by the way were designed the way they were to establish religious dominance over the proles.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The cathedrals I've been to were still awe-inspiring. I get what you're saying, they shouldn't be celebrated without acknowledging their purpose, but I definitely wouldn't call them disappointing.

Honestly I'm not a fan of traveling to historic locations in general. The few that have been really impressive didn't really have anything to do with their history (for example I toured a battleship that had some claim to fame I can't remember and it was awesome, but I don't think walking around one that hadn't done anything notable would have been any less fun). My best advice is to have a good idea of why you want to go to a location. There's a lot of places like Rushmore that are basically just tourist traps people visit just for the sake of saying they have.
 
Squarehard

Squarehard

Member
Oct 27, 2017
26,177
The columns leading up to Inari Shrine.

It's honestly one of the least interesting parts of the shrine, personally.
 
Zoph

Zoph

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,532
Mt Rushmore felt like I was being taken for a ride all my life up to that point. Very underwhelming.
 
Jeff Albertson

Jeff Albertson

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
2,737
The pyramids of Giza were a mix between awe at seeing such a thing and shock that there was a a KFC overlooking it and people trying to flog me all sorts right next to it

Also seeing the Mona Lisa in the Louvre was about as anticlimactic experience as you could wish for
 
Ryuelli

Ryuelli

Member
Oct 26, 2017
15,209
img-lrg-ALAMO.jpg
 
Monkey D.

Monkey D.

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
2,352
I was on Rhodos island (Greece) and visited the side where "the colossus of rhodos" was supposed to be hundreds of years ago. I don't know what I expected but we were standing there and where like..

Ok cool ...Lets go back to the hotel. We went there on foot . Took us 2 hours on a super hot day.
 
Rosebud

Rosebud

Two Pieces
Member
Apr 16, 2018
44,169
I was baffled at every single one I visited.

Maybe Pisa and Eiffel Tower were the most underwhelming, but this was after I visited Florence so doesn't count.
 
Regiruler

Regiruler

Member
Oct 28, 2017
12,379
United States
Statue of Liberty...sort of?

I'm Catholic myself so I appreciate most of the churches I visited in Europe. Although I was confused by the Roman styled ones in Paris.
 
Sabercrusader

Sabercrusader

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,213
Honestly, Gettysburg. I get it's the most important battle of the Civil War, but damn was I underwhelmed. It is literally just fields with some basic token cannons and plaques littered along the trails. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but as someone who loves history, I just did not enjoy it.

Also was pretty underwhelmed at the WW1 and American Revolution Memorials in DC. WW2 and Vietnam Memorials were pretty great though. Not entirely certain that counts as historical per se, but I'll mention it.

Anyone wanna make a thread for the best historical site you've been to?
 
IDreamOfHime

IDreamOfHime

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,573
The bridge over the river Kwai.
The museums and military cemeteries around the death railway are all very sombre, interesting and worth visiting, but selling a standard metal rail bridge over a river that is not called Kwai to cash in on a fictional event from movie was as underwhelming as it sounds.
 
Baphomet

Baphomet

Member
Dec 8, 2018
17,252
The Alamo, I was so disappointed when I saw how small it is , and its just so boring.
 
ToTheMoon

ToTheMoon

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,343
The Coliseum was one of the worst parts of our Italy trip. Like it wasn't terrible...but for how cool it sounds, it didn't live up to our expectations.
 

erd

Self-Requested Temporary Ban
Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,181
Christopher Columbus House in Genova.

It has less than three stars on Tripadvisor so it's not like it's a highly rated destination but the place itself is so lame that's still somehow overrated as hell. It's basically the worst tourist attraction in existence:
  • It's a reconstruction, so not the original house.
  • From what I remember, there's no concrete evidence that Columbus ever lived in the original house to begin with. So it could just be a reconstruction of a random building.
  • It's located in a random parking lot.
  • It's super small and there's nothing inside. You can see the whole thing in 10 seconds.
  • They charge money for it. Not a lot of money (5€), but that still felt like a giant rip off.
Here's a picture I took of it in case anyone's curious how the thing looks. I wanted to use one from google but they all try to make the thing look better than it is by cropping out the parking lot.
w3DPKLX.jpg
 
gforguava

gforguava

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,750
I'm having a hard time thinking of any that really impressed me. I guess big structural things have a certain oomph to them, Notre Dame was cool, but the ones I've been to never really conveyed whatever sort of gravity one would expect.

Especially when they are situated in the middle of modern cities and towns, I think the Coliseum might've been more impactful if it was in the middle of nowhere for instance.
 
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