Camel Wrestling

Camel Wrestling ranks first in the list of the best bizarre sports you've never heard of. Some sports are very much a product of their time and place of origin. Nobody in Idaho was going to invent surfing, and no one in Australia was going to invent snowboarding. So the western parts of Turkey could only come up with a limited number of sports based on what was available for people to experiment with. That's how camel wrestling came to be. Surprisingly, this sport has a solid 2,400-year history, and the name is not metaphorical or deceptive in any way. In 2011, 20,000 people turned out to watch camel wrestling in Selcuk, demonstrating how popular this unusual sport is.

Camels are naturally aggressive when they believe they are about to mate and there are other males around to compete with. Males are exposed to females in heat and then placed in an arena together in the sport. They're wearing gear to keep them from biting each other, but otherwise it's just two male camels squabbling over a female. The victor either knocks the other camel down or causes it to flee. In terms of cultural significance and tradition, it has been compared to Spanish bullfighting.

Just as intriguing as the sport is the fact that no one involved benefits from it. The camels are not allowed to breed, and the human owners do not profit from it. It's been dubbed a "rich man's sport" because it's expensive and only provides fleeting entertainment rewards. The 2011 tournament winner received a machine-made rug.

Location: Aegean region of Turkey