00:00If someone begins to hear whispers and voices in their head for some reason and there's
00:04no one nearby, perhaps this person needs to seek professional help.
00:09Unless they're in one of these places where sound illusions and auditory hallucinations
00:14are tourist entertainment.
00:17So the first of such places is in the small Spanish town of Santiago de Compostela.
00:23Here you can take a walk in a small park and sit on a smooth concrete bench made in the
00:28shape of a semicircle.
00:30No one's sitting next to you, but you hear someone whispering, hey buddy, how are you?
00:35It's pretty creepy, but it's not a phantom.
00:37It's the girl sitting at the other end, whispering something into the concrete back of the bench.
00:43Sound waves move through the smooth surface of the arc and reach your ears.
00:47You can whisper something too, and the girl will hear you.
00:51This unique structure is called the Bench of Whispers.
00:54It was built in 1916 and immediately became a popular place for romantic dates.
01:00At that time, there were stringent rules regarding the communication of boys and girls before
01:04marriage, but this bench allowed them to communicate more closely, but at a distance.
01:10Come here with your loved ones and try it out yourself.
01:14Our next location is the center of the universe.
01:17No, this is not the place with the fastest free wifi, but the name of a unique point in
01:22the small town of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
01:25Stand in the middle of this brick circle and shout something.
01:28You'll hear your voice getting louder and its echo spreading far away.
01:33This place is considered an anomaly because according to legend, if you blow a loud horn here, people
01:39standing outside of the circle won't hear it.
01:42If you don't have a horn with you, you can debunk this myth with your voice.
01:46Just scream loudly and ask people standing nearby what they've heard.
01:51Of course, they'll hear you, but your voice will seem pretty distorted to them.
01:55Some are sure this strange effect is created thanks to sound waves getting reflected from
02:00the round wall of a large flower bed installed near the center.
02:04Even though today is the 21st century and science has stepped far forward, scientists still can't
02:10determine the cause of this sound anomaly.
02:13Perhaps you can.
02:15We've arrived in the northern part of New York state in the small but beautiful town of Lake
02:20George, surrounded by mountains and forests.
02:23And this city is built on a lake.
02:26Guess what it's called?
02:28Yes, it's Lake George.
02:30So besides the fact that this location is popular among fishing enthusiasts, thousands
02:35of tourists come here to scream as loudly as possible.
02:40Here's a young guy standing in the center of a concrete platform with an engraved compass
02:44and a cartographic image of the lake.
02:47He screams loudly, then leaves.
02:49It looks strange, but you decide to try it too.
02:52The sound of your voice is moving away and then returning to you as if someone hit it back
02:57with a tennis racket.
02:59You hear your distorted voice and scream again, then you take a step to the side and repeat.
03:05This time, the scream sounds as usual.
03:08You return to the center of the concrete compass, right to the intersection of two lines and scream
03:13again to hear the bizarre echo.
03:17But people standing next to you don't notice anything.
03:20To them, you're just a weird screaming person with an ordinary voice.
03:24Do you see that low semicircular wall around the platform on the lakeside?
03:29Perhaps sound waves resonate from it, which creates the effect.
03:33But why doesn't it resonate in other places with similar low walls?
03:38The answer may lie in the water and the mountains surrounding the place.
03:42What if sound waves change their shape when they hit the water and then the mountains?
03:47Okay, no one knows exactly what's going on here.
03:50Just have fun!
03:51Let's leave the beautiful embankments and parks and go inside the Grand Central Station in
03:57Manhattan.
03:57Here, among the noisy crowd, you can find a unique place near the domed intersection
04:03of the aisles on the lower floor.
04:05Press your ear to the smooth tile and you will hear whispers and voices coming from the other
04:10end of this dome.
04:12These quiet sounds are so clear that you'll hear them even through the thousands of voices
04:17of people passing by.
04:19Such an acoustic effect is created with the help of perfectly symmetrical shapes of smooth arches.
04:26They're made of a unique material patented by Spanish Tyler Rafael Gustavino.
04:31By the way, you can enjoy his other works in different places in New York.
04:36Welcome to Echo Bridge, located near Newton, Massachusetts.
04:40This architectural work of art was built in 1877 as a part of a large aqueduct.
04:46Now it's an attractive place for tourists thanks to its unusual acoustic effect.
04:51There are several platforms under the bridge where you can go down the stairs.
04:55So go there and say something loudly.
04:58Your voice will be carried by a loud echo that can produce about 15 reverberations.
05:04Scream hey loudly and you'll hear 15 hays flying off far into the forest.
05:10And if you produce an even louder sound, like a pot from a firecracker,
05:14then this place will repeat it about 25 times.
05:19According to one theory, the effect of the long echo is achieved because the sound is reflected
05:23between the arch and the water.
05:26Still, another hypothesis says that the unusual shape of the arch somehow enhances this sound phenomenon.
05:34Now we're in the small English village of Thurgaland.
05:37Among its attractions, there's an unusual tunnel with an acoustic anomaly inside.
05:42It was a railway line that connected Sheffield and Manchester, but it was closed in the 1980s.
05:48Now it's a bicycle-slash-walking path.
05:51Inside, you can clap your hands and hear the sound lasting for about 20 seconds.
05:56Stand with your friend on different sides of the tunnel and try to communicate with each other.
06:01One word will overlay the previous one, and it will seem as if you're speaking with several people.
06:06The smooth concrete lining of the horseshoe-shaped tunnel and the 4,000-foot arc-shaped trajectory provide this reverberating effect.
06:15Even if you're not interested in acoustic tricks, you should still visit this tunnel because of its beauty and unique architecture.
06:23The sound of waves on the seashore has a meditative effect.
06:27Californian artist Peter Richards decided to amplify these sounds.
06:31He created a unique musical instrument called the Wave Organ.
06:37The artist installed it on the coast of San Francisco near the Crissy Field Recreation Center.
06:43This work of art consists of more than 20 long pipes made of concrete and PVC material resembling plastic.
06:49All the pipes go under the water and amplify the sound of waves beating against them.
06:55Gurgling loud voices evoke that calm, pleasant feeling you experience while watching a burning fire.
07:00You can enjoy it for a long time.
07:04Okay, we've learned about several acoustic anomalies and sound phenomena.
07:08Still, they're all created thanks to the joint work of nature and humans.
07:13So let's end our journey with a unique place where only nature produces stunning sound effects.
07:18We're in Sagano Bamboo Forest, Japan.
07:21This is an authentic place untouched by people, in which the wind and bamboo stalks create a real acoustic show.
07:29Dense thickets of the forest creak, crack and beat against each other.
07:33And all this is accompanied by the noise of foliage and the wind.
07:38All this mix of sounds has a charming effect.
07:42Thousands of tourists come here with professional recorders and microphones to record this music.
07:48And this is the main problem of the forest.
07:50Too many people here crack branches, click their cameras, speak to one another and, thus, prevent you from hearing nature.
07:58So, come here early in the morning or find a place away from all those tourists.
08:03Lie down on the ground, close your eyes and enjoy.
08:06The earth from the side.
08:08The forest is very important.
08:09A lot of tourists come here and visit behind the ground.
08:11They're very important.
08:13There are not only ones who have heard of how they're young, but there are many people who've been there.
08:18The forest was an incredible place and they're very important for their background.
08:20The forest was very important.
08:21They were very important to make a place for my life.
08:24The forest was very important in the past, and I've tried to interpret the forest.
08:25And this is a very important place for the forest.
08:27So this is a beautiful three-year-old forest.
08:29So, I'm the only one of the people that he put down on the ground.
08:31So the forest was very easy to get to exercise and to get to the forest in the forest.
