Praia de Santa Monica in Pavoacao Velha, Cabo Verde

Atlas Obscura reports on Praia de Santa Monica in Cape Verde—an unusually long stretch of white sand between eleven and eighteen kilometers, depending on who's measuring. What makes it remarkable isn't its beauty, but what's missing: almost no development. There's one beach shack and one abandoned concrete hotel shell—all that remains of a 2015 project that planned six resorts, eight hundred thirty-five rooms, and six restaurants. The plan never materialized. The off-road dunes that guard access to the beach have done what no conservation policy could: they've kept Santa Monica almost entirely empty.

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