The Coney Island Cyclone, built in Brooklyn in 1927, was the brainchild of two Russian immigrant brothers, Jack and Irving Rosenthal. It was built near the site of the nation’s first commercially successful coaster, the 1884 Switchback Railway. The Rosenthal brothers continued as … | Continue reading
A catafalque is a decorated wooden framework that supports the coffin of a distinguished person during a funeral. But the catafalque in the local church in La Torre de Esteban Hambrán, Spain is more than that. It is a most unique example of funerary art from the Baroque era. It i … | Continue reading
Stroll along Queen’s Road Central, in Hong Kong, a wide avenue of modern skyscrapers, hotels, restaurants and malls, turn into Graham Street, and you may feel like you’ve time-travelled. The narrow, sloping street smells like drying fish, and is home to an open-air produce stall … | Continue reading
Independently owned single-screen cinemas are a dying breed, increasingly scarce in this age of cineplexes and streaming services. Even in Los Angeles, they are not exactly common these days. In fact, there’s only one family-owned single-screen cinema left in the county. Original … | Continue reading
This building in Bad Blankenburg, Germany, held the first kindergarten in the world. Now called the Friedrich Fröbel Museum, it celebrates the vision of the founder of kindergarten. When it was founded in 1837, it marked the inception of a revolutionary education concept that wou … | Continue reading
Pop into any local-style bakery or cha chaan teng (a local-style diner) in Hong Kong, and you’re likely to encounter a fist-sized bun with a scored top. This is the pineapple bun, named not for any tropical ingredient, but rather for that surface, which is thought to resemble tha … | Continue reading
About a 30-minute drive north of Cincinnati proper is the rural village of Pleasant Plain, Ohio. It’s a classic small town with a tiny population and farms sprawling in most directions. Despite its distance from the city, however, many make the trip to visit the old village schoo … | Continue reading
The infamous James gang stole $60,000 dollars from this bank. Two of the gang entered casually when they knew only a father and son would be working. After asking for change of a $10 bill, the robbers held the teller and his son at gunpoint, forcing them into the safe. After the … | Continue reading
Just before midnight on April 14, 1912, the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg. What happened next should be a familiar story by now: The iceberg ripped open the hull of the ship’s starboard side, flooding the compartments with the icy waters of the North Atlantic. The closest ship wa … | Continue reading
When it comes to points of nature around the world, sometimes it’s difficult to find truth on what site truly earns an honorific. There are numerous claims by local tour guides and on the Internet about the “smallest” volcano in the world. Volcán Pabellones, about 26 feet (8 mete … | Continue reading
There are other “Machus” than Machu Picchu. “Machu” simply means “old” in the Peruvian language Quechua, and there are many other old, beautiful places to visit in the Sacred Valley, north of Cusco. Machu Colca is one of them. Also called Machuqolqa or Machu Qollqa, it is an easy … | Continue reading
About 800 years ago, a large section of Mesa Seco on the edge of the Lake City caldera broke off and moved down the steep slopes of the mesa. Rather than a large slide of rock, which would be common in the steep Colorado Rockies, the material flowed down the hill, almost like a r … | Continue reading
As you stroll along Curtis Street in Denver, you might notice something unusual between 15th and 16th Street. This magical stretch was created by the late artist Jim Green. Here, the concrete jungle takes on a playful tone, surprising pedestrians with an eclectic symphony of soun … | Continue reading
It’s Hong Kong, in the early ‘70s, and you want a steak. Where do you go? Most likely, to Boston. Boston Restaurant, that is. Open since 1966, Boston is one of Hong Kong’s longest-standing, so-called “soy sauce western” restaurants, places that serve a local interpretation of Eur … | Continue reading
In 1967, amateur archaeologist Seiho Oyama was running a gas station in Naha, the United States-occupied capital of Okinawa, when he discovered what appeared to be fossilized fragments of animal bones in a limestone block he had purchased in Gushikami village. Believing there wer … | Continue reading
The New York Sign Museum is a project of David Barnett and Mac Pohanka, founders and co-owners of a Brooklyn sign-making company. Pohanka and Barnett have worked in the production of fine furniture, fabrication of props for film, and graphic design for the music industry. While t … | Continue reading
The legend goes that, in 1930s Hong Kong, a foreign customer at Tai Ping Koon Restaurant couldn’t remember the name of a menu item and asked for “sweet wings,” which a waiter misheard as “Swiss wings.” It’s likely apocryphal, but the name and the dish—chicken wings in a sweet/sal … | Continue reading
“A-TE-PEC! A-TE-PEC! A-TE-PEC!” It was loud enough in the gymnasium to make one’s eardrums hurt. Fans screamed from the rafters, many decked out in the red and white colors representing the town of San Juan Atepec. People clapped noisemakers, twirled wooden rattles. Spectators ov … | Continue reading
How do you decide how big a tree is? It can’t just be height or circumference alone; it must be a weighted combination of some kind. And, of course, we want a non-destructive way to measure it; digging up the tree would defeat the purpose. A widely used system, at least in the Un … | Continue reading
It was known as the Alcatraz of Panama. But unlike San Francisco’s infamous prison, the Coiba Island Penal Colony didn’t just have sharks off its shoreline to instill a fear of escape. Inmates also contended with scorching jungle temperatures, intense tropical storms, outdoor pri … | Continue reading
One hundred and fifty million years ago, the swamps of Fujian province in southeastern China teemed with life. Fossils reveal a rich Jurassic ecosystem dubbed the Zhenghe Fauna, where turtles, frogs, and fish filled the waters and feathered dinosaurs stalked or waded on long, sle … | Continue reading
For thousands of years, humans across the world have played music using some version of the ocarina, a rounded wind instrument that produces a flute-like sound. In ancient China, ocarina-like instruments date back to 5,000 BC, and the Maya and the Aztecs used them in religious ce … | Continue reading
Dedicated in 1985, The Cordova Fisherman's monument stands quiet vigil over the town's south harbor. Cordova stands as Prince William Sound's gateway to the Gulf of Alaska, which experiences frequent storms as large and turbulent as Atlantic hurricanes. The Joan Jackson designed … | Continue reading
Fu Garden (or Fu Ssu-nien Memorial Garden) sits quietly near the entrance of National Taiwan University. It commemorates Fu Ssu-nien, a prominent intellectual leader of China’s May Fourth Movement and NTU’s president during the turbulent time of the Chinese Civil War. Though his … | Continue reading
From meat cleavers to woks to solid wood chopping boards and bamboo steamers, Shanghai Street, in Kowloon, sells it all. It’s Hong Kong’s go-to street for kitchen supplies, and one of the strip’s most legendary stores is Chan Chi Kee Cutlery Co. The current owner claims that the … | Continue reading
Just south of the historic center of Hirosaki is a unique street that seems to slip off the regular tourist radar. Zenringai (or Zenrin sanjūsan-ka-ji), which translates to the "forest of Zen temples," is just what its name suggests: an avenue with 33 Japanese Buddhist temples, a … | Continue reading
This rest stop in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, located off Green Bay Road, contains one of the Midwest’s best hidden gems: the Comic Sans Bathrooms. Both men’s and women’s bathrooms are adorned with yellow-gold walls and stalls on which you will find a wide variety of center-aligned … | Continue reading
It’s not hard to find dim sum in Hong Kong, but finding the type of traditional place you have likely pictured in your mind is getting difficult these days.Ling Heung is thought to be Hong Kong’s oldest dim sum house. The restaurant can trace its roots back to mainland China in t … | Continue reading
In contrast to the grandiose cathedrals in other parts of Europe, this “cathedral”—it lost that title in 1828—in the coastal island village of Nin measures just 7.8 meters long, 7.6 meters wide, and 8.2 meters high in its bare interior. Visitors will likely be surprised that, for … | Continue reading
The old Lancaster County courthouse in South Carolina was constructed in 1828 and used as a courthouse for most of the last two centuries. Active use stopped due to an arsonist’s attempt to demolish the building in 2008. The building was subsequently restored in 2011 and is now t … | Continue reading
Webb Military Museum isn’t your typical museum, but rather, a privately owned collection of combat memorabilia and personal belongings curated over decades. The museum is a Savannah institution that marches to its own cadence, uniquely archiving military history by showcasing the … | Continue reading
Exploring the remnants of the former Brownsville General Hospital was a terrifying experience, even for me. It wasn't just that the building was creepy, although it certainly was: full of long rooms lined with rusting hospital beds covered with chunks of paint and plaster, it fel … | Continue reading
The Golden State Model Railroad Museum is home to highly detailed models and dioramas of Central and Northern California towns, roundhouses, street scenes, and stations. Various types of freight and passenger trains, from steam to modern diesel, wind their way through the scenes. … | Continue reading
Lovecraft Arts & Sciences is an eclectic little bookstore hidden away in the Arcade Mall in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. Despite its smaller size, the shop is densely populated with a niche yet wide selection of weird fiction, art, esoterica, academic texts, collectibles, a … | Continue reading
Follow the flames. Oi Man Sang, a restaurant in Hong Kong, can be located by the fire and smoke that emerges from its streetside, semi-open-air kitchen. Restaurants like this were once common in Hong Kong. They were known as dai pai dong, and at their peak, numbered in the hundre … | Continue reading
When it was originally founded in 1617, the Tokyo branch of Kyoto's Nishi-Hongwanji Buddhist Temple stood in today's Higashi-Nihombashi district, until it burned down in the Great Fire of Meireki (1657). It was then set to be reconstructed in another location, closer to the sea. … | Continue reading
Built around 1150, Kamp Monastery was the first Cistercian monastery in German territory. Over its hundreds of years, the monastery has been destroyed multiple times. Wars, fires, and in 1504, a strong earthquake all decimated the buildings. Despite all these hardships, the monas … | Continue reading
When visiting Hong Kong, it’s likely you’ll have wonton noodles, roast goose or siu mai on your eating checklist. But you may also want to consider instant noodles topped with beef satay, macaroni soup garnished with a slice of ham, French toast, or a cup of tea served with evapo … | Continue reading
Before it was Cherry Hill, the small hamlet of Colestown sprung up in southwestern New Jersey around the late 1600s. From there, the town quickly flourished and became home to a neighborhood of private homes, a large saw mill, two general stores, a blacksmith shop, a medicinal mi … | Continue reading
In 1934, a destitute radio musician named Paul Myers was wandering the docks of San Diego in a drunken stupor when he heard the sound of a ship’s bell. He felt a call to become a preacher, and within months had turned his life around, reunited with his family, and begun hosting a … | Continue reading
Dear Atlas is Atlas Obscura’s travel advice column, answering the questions you won’t find in traditional guidebooks. Have a question for our experts? Submit it here. * * * Dear Atlas, What advice do you have for a 60ish-year-old single woman who wants to travel but doesn’t have … | Continue reading
Dinah the Pink Dinosaur greets visitors entering Vernal, Utah. Originally, the 40-foot tall figure welcomed patrons of the town's Dine-a-Ville Motel. Designed and built in 1958 by motel owner Helen Millecam, the dinosaur seemed like a perfect icon for the new business located nea … | Continue reading
Few items are more synonymous with the United Kingdom than a red phone booth. Even with the advent of mobile phones, tourists still line up to have their pictures taken with these symbolic relics of a bygone age. But in Bath, England, one phone booth is painted in an atypical hue … | Continue reading
Throughout its storied history, the Dew Drop Inn has been many things, but it began as a humble barbershop, with founder Frank G. Painia selling refreshments to neighbors in the newly developed Magnolia Housing Projects. By 1939, the Dew Drop Inn had officially opened its doors, … | Continue reading
Not far from Ofuna Station in Kamakura, a Japanese coastal city just south of Tokyo, stands the Shochiku-Ofuna Shopping Center, a run-of-the-mill shopping mall with an Ito-Yokado department store. However, observant cinephiles may find the name familiar; Shochiku is one of Japan' … | Continue reading
This article is adapted from the April 5, 2025, edition of Gastro Obscura’s Favorite Things newsletter. You can sign up here. “It's a very interesting question to ask, right? How do you define a pasta?” says Amay Borle, a chef based in Berlin, Germany. “Would you eat, in Italy, a … | Continue reading
Its scientific name is Dactylopius coccus. In Spanish it’s grana cochinilla, in English cochineal, and in Náhuatl nocheztli. The Náhuatl name combines nochtli (cactus) and eztli (blood), an apt name for an insect that breeds on Opuntia plant pads and expels a bright red liquid wh … | Continue reading
“I never stepped foot on the same side of the fence as a water buffalo until I owned one,” says Sarah Roland, the owner of a water buffalo farm, a pastoral stretch of fields and farmlands just off Highway 61, in northern Louisiana. “They’re great for this environment. They don’t … | Continue reading