There's something mesmerizing about precarious things.

Things dangling, suspended, on the edge.

Things that feel like they should get into gravity at any moment but instead defy it.

Deep-rope walkers, mountain goats, the leaning tower of Pisa.

But what happens when something that has defied gravity for its whole life?

Something so beautifully, unbelievably stable in its instability?

Topples.

I'm Abby Peralt, and this is Atlas Obscura.

A daily celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places.

Today, we're heading to Tanbiu, Argentina, where a huge rock,

teedered on the edge of a hill for thousands of years.

We'll find out how La Pietra, Movedice, brought tourism, fame,

and what said to be a 100-year curse to the city.

After this.

The city of Tanbiu is just outside Buenos Aires, in Argentina.

It's the birthplace of an internationally famed tennis player, home to a great university,

a scenic lake.

But this city's identity is a wobbly rock.

There are cafes and hotels and institutions across Tanbiu, named after this rock, and it's

believed to be central to the city's name itself, stemming from the words for falling

rock in Mapuche.

But this isn't just any wobbly rock.

...