It's a hot summer day on the plains of Nebraska, August 21st, 2017.

Thousands of people are gathered in a small city called Alliance.

Graying couples and floppy sun hats, sitting on beach chairs,

a group of friends setting out an arrangement of crystals, people in shiny silver

body suits dressed as extraterrestrials, and even Nebraska's governor is there.

All of them are waiting for the moment

when the sun will disappear.

Today is the day of a total solar eclipse. an alliance is smack dab in the middle of the path of totality, places where the sun will be completely blotted out by the moon.

And why they've come here to Alliance specifically is because of the giant

hulking monument looming before them.

The sun silently, eerily begins to slide behind the moon.

And before everything goes dark, this monument is silhouetted against the vast plains. You can pick out windshields, rearview mirrors, tires. I'm Amanda McGowan and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and

wondrous places.

And today, we're taking you to Carhenge. It's a reproduction of

Stonehenge but made of cars. When it was built it sparked a lively debate in this Nebraska town.

What is junk and what is art?

After this.

If I say the word Stonehenge, a picture comes to mind. If I say the word Stonehenge, a picture probably comes to mind. A picture of giant

hulking stones arranged in a circle on a plane in England. Some stand alone, others

are grouped to form arches.

It's mysterious, intense, mythical.

And if you go to Alliance Nebraska, you can see a distinctly American interpretation of Stonehenge.

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