Google Maps is supposed to answer one very simple question, "How do I get there?"

But after years of Street View coverage, satellite imagery, business listings, user submissions and an enormous amount of data, the platform has developed a second purpose: making people wonder what on Earth they're looking at.

That's where things get weird.

A perfectly normal trip can turn into a bizarre detour when Google Maps decides that a 25-minute route is preferable to the five-minute road sitting directly in front of you.

Then there's Street View.

Google's camera cars have spent years photographing roads around the world, accidentally capturing everything from bizarre coincidences and strange encounters to animals, people and glitches that look like they belong in a video game.

The stitching process can produce its own oddities, with objects appearing stretched, duplicated, distorted or seemingly cut in half. Some discoveries are less about glitches and more about the places themselves.

A bizarre roadside attraction. A suspiciously strange business listing. An unusual building. A location marker that seems to have appeared for no obvious reason. And occasionally, a review that makes you wonder what happened there before you arrived.

That's part of the appeal of exploring Google Maps. It documents an enormous amount of the real world, but it doesn't always present that world perfectly. Between technical errors, questionable directions, unexpected imagery and people doing inexplicable things in front of cameras, there is plenty of room to get weird.

Here are 25 Google Maps discoveries that prove sometimes the best destination is whatever weird thing you accidentally find along the way.