4 Famous Landmarks That Look Nothing Like You Think

4 The Heads on Easter Island Are Actually Full Statues

Easter Island, one of the most isolated places in the world, is known for the giant disembodied heads that dot its landscape like the basketball court at a Taliban rec center.

The thing is, those heads aren't disembodied at all -- they're the tops of giant stone statues that have been buried up to their necks like Ted Danson in Creepshow. They didn't sink over time, either, but were intentionally set onto mounts deep underground.

3 The Eiffel Tower Was a Giant Billboard

Paris and its world-famous robot Skeletor penis have always been icons of class and sophistication. Seemingly since photography began, pictures of the Eiffel tower have been sold in coffee shops across the globe to people wearing scarves in the middle of summer to tack to the wall of their studio apartment while listening to The Decemberists.

Industrialist Andre Citroen rented the Effiel Tower for an entire decade and emblazoned it with his own name, which incidentally was also the name of his auto company. This is like if John DeLorean paid to have his name spraypainted in DayGlo on the Washington Monument.

2 Niagara Falls Can Be Turned Off

Millions of gallons of water pour over the 167 foot drop of Niagara Falls every minute, making it a worldwide attraction because for some reason people need to see that in person.

Except in 1969, that is, when the falls were stopped for only the second time in 12,000 years while engineers tried to repair the American side after it had suffered too many rockslides, resulting in a tourist attraction only slightly more desolate than the Western-themed motels along I-90 (although presumably yielding the same number of Hefty-shrouded corpses).

1 The Statue of Liberty Toured Paris and New York as Jumbled Body Parts

The Statue of Liberty is the most enduring symbol of America outside of Dog the Bounty Hunter getting shot out of a star-spangled cannon from the roof of a KFC. Yet Lady Liberty was actually built in France, by a Frenchman, and slowly assembled piece by piece over several years like that Puzz-3D your mom bought you in 1996.

The statue was originally supposed to stand at the entrance of the Suez Canal, but when pesky things like revolutionary war got in the way, it was re-imagined as a symbol of friendship between the U.S. and France. Unsurprisingly, no one wanted to pay for it. Pieces were built and dragged around both countries for a decade to try and raise money for the project.

The full statue was finally constructed in Paris by the same guy that built the Eiffel Tower, because evidently sculpting giant functionless structures was his mutant power:

It was then taken apart and shipped in 214 crates to New York in 1885, where it was reassembled like Voltron to stand as a beacon of hope for immigrants. (Hope that was instantly dashed the moment they met real, actual Americans.)

Eric Yosomono writes for GaijinAss.com and has a Facebook page here.

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