The world must be round...

As you know the purpose of this blog is to find some fun stuff to do around the city on a budget.. this can often be difficult, as not everything that is great in Boston is free. But I found a place which is a definite Boston treasure that I believe is often overlooked.

What I'm talking about is the Mapparium, part of the Christian Science Church located on Mass Ave/Huntington Ave. Built four years after the church opened in 1930, the mapporium is a three-story globe shaped room that allows you to view a map of the world from its core and made entirely from glass.

According to the Mary Baker Eddy Library site, visitors most often notice the following about the world from this unique perspecive:
-A vast portion of the world is covered by water
-New York City, Madrid, Naples, and Beijing all share the same latitude
-Most of the world's land masses are north of the equator
-There are two different islands named 'Cocos' at exactly opposite positions on the globe
-The Magnetic North Pole is quite far from the actual North Pole
-Hawaii (not yet a state in 1935) looks somewhat lonely in the Pacific


Although the Mapparium is spherical in shape, it holds a 30-foot long glass bridge, which allows you to view the colors and beauty of the world from different angles. The colors of the class showing both land in water will leave you in awe and takes looking at the world through maps to a whole new level. But the thing that makes this place one of my favorites the visit are the unsual acoustics. You can be standing on opposite sides of the bridge or right next to your friend, and either way you will hear them as though they were right next to you, even by whispering! It's a truly beautiful building both inside and out, and the Mapparium is like nothing else I've seen anywhere in the world- and it's free!