A Visit to the Foremost Annual Festival for Weather-Predicting Caterpillars

Woolly worms may not be the greatest meteorologists, but they sure are entertaining. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

The Soviet Children’s Books That Broke the Rules of Propaganda

How folk tales and traditional life snuck into avant-garde kids' books in the 1930s. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

Kawazu Nanadaru Loop Bridge – Kawazu, Japan

An ingenious solution to a tricky engineering problem, this circular bridge takes drivers for a dizzying spin. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

In Medieval Europe, No Outfit Was Complete Without a Personal Eating Knife

They were fashionable and functional, used for dining and self-defense. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

Medieval Europeans Didn’t Have Tupperware, They Had Pastry Coffins

The barely edible container was the progenitor of pie. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

The Hidden History of African-American Burial Sites in the Antebellum South

Enslaved people used codes to mark graves on plantation grounds. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

Virginia Has Its Own Stonehenge, but It's Made Out of Foam

It even works like its predecessor. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

The Abandoned Graveyards on a Thawing Arctic Island

Climate change is causing trouble on Herschel Island. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

Get to Know Your Japanese Bathroom Ghosts

There are several to keep track of, some scarier than others. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

How Curry Became a Japanese Naval Tradition

Ships and submarines have their own unique recipes. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

Why England Once Forced Everyone to Be Buried in Wool

Transgressors had to pay a heavy fine. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

Remembering When Americans Picnicked in Cemeteries

For a time, eating and relaxing among the dead was a national pastime. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

Eugene Shoemaker Is Still the Only Man Buried on the Moon

For now, anyway. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

The Parasite That Forces Bees to Dig Their Own Graves

It's a growing threat to our food supply. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

History's Best Strategies for Avoiding Being Buried Alive

These ingenious 19th-century techniques aimed to make sure dead really meant dead. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

A Mormon Pioneer's Grave, Marked Only with a Wagon Wheel Rim

Rebecca Winters's grave is one of the few that were marked at all. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

Why There's a Columbo Statue in the Middle of Budapest

The American television character is memorialized in an unlikely locale. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

Found: A Photo of the Man Who Fired Van Gogh and Changed Art History

A portrait of the artist as a bad salesman. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

Ancient Greek Funerals Were Decked Out in Celery

It was a powerful symbol of death—and victory. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

How a Brewer and the Government Killed Colombia’s Ancestral Drink (2017)

They conspired to replace chicha with clean, healthy beer. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

Here Lies E. Coli

There's a bunch of gross stuff, besides human bodies, hiding under graveyards. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

Puzzle Jugs, the Drinking Vessels Designed to Confound

If you're thirsty for problem-solving, these pitchers are perfect. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

The Enduring Mystery of ‘Jawn,’ Philadelphia’s All-Purpose Noun (2016)

According to experts, it's unlike any word, in any language. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

How Fish and Chips Migrated to Great Britain

The fried fish was introduced by Jews fleeing religious persecution. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

A groundbreaking female cartographer charted the evolution of the United States

Maps have power. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

A Hacker from South Africa Rescued the First NASA Computer in Space

The 1966 Apollo Guidance Computer paved the way for the moon landing—and then sat in a scrap heap for decades. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

The Places You Never Tire of Visiting

Atlas Obscura readers share the destinations they just can't quit. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

A tribute to the Fab Four and the freedoms they inspired

A beloved tribute to the Fab Four and the freedoms they inspired stands in the country's capital. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

Tell Us How You Overcame Your Biggest Food Fear

What happened when you finally tasted something you'd previously been repulsed by? | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

When, Exactly, Did Vesuvius Destroy Pompeii?

And does it matter if we had the date a little wrong for thousands of years? | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

L.A.'s Most Derided Piece of Public Art Is About to Light Up Again

Reviving the Triforium. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

Why Scientists Are Studying ‘Ricequakes’ in a Tube of Rice Krispies

They even resemble Antarctica's mysterious icequakes. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

Show Us Your Tsundoku

We want to see your shameful stacks of unread books. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

Moons Can Have Their Own Moons and They Could Be Called Moonmoons

The inexplicable delight of moon-moons, sub-islands, and other recursive places. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

The Original 'Humungous Fungus' Is Even Bigger and Older Than We Thought

But it's not the biggest. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

Seven Hours in the Air with Some Record-Breaking Swiss Balloonists

Up, up, and away over the Alps. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

Teach Yourself to Echolocate

A beginner's guide to navigating with sound. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

A Visit to the World's Only Sourdough Library

Step inside Karl De Smedt's singular collection of starters. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

Pizza Hut's ‘Little Free Libraries’ Look Exactly Like Mini Pizza Huts

Also, remember BOOK IT? | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

The Most Memorable Strangers You’ve Met While Traveling

Atlas Obscura readers share their best tales of chance encounters. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

The Fantasy Maps That Put the World's Tallest Mountains Side by Side

In the 19th century, the romance of mountains met the desire to quantify the natural world. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

Help Atlas Obscura Solve a Curious 18th-Century Riddle Menu

No one was really eating "quintessence of Toes" back then. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

RAPS Cat Sanctuary

One of the largest cat sanctuaries in North America is considered a 'Club Med' for felines. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

In the Streets of Argentina Lie Hidden Memorials to Disappeared People

They pay tribute to those lost during a period of state terrorism known as the Dirty War. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

How to Track a Butterfly Across 3,000 Miles

Tagging and tracking insects is delicate, frustrating, fascinating work. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

In 19th-Century Britain, the Hottest Status Symbol Was a Painting of Your Cow

The livestock looked surprisingly geometric. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

The Great French Mustache Strike of 1907

You gotta fight for your right to whiskers. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago

The Scots Language

Against all odds, 28 percent of Scottish people still use it. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 7 years ago