Dust Devils Leave Their Mark Across Martian Dunes

Often associated with Earth’s hottest places, these whirling columns show up on all seven continents—and beyond. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 2 years ago

New York Federal Gold Vault – New York, New York – Atlas Obscura

The New York Fed has quite the gold vault. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 2 years ago

Wikingerdorf Flake (Flake Viking Village)

The remnants of a fictional Viking village film set now serve as an educational and historical hotspot. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 2 years ago

Mapping the Rainforests of Britain

The rainy island is home to some of the world's most diverse woodlands—but they are rapidly disappearing. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 2 years ago

The Long, Hidden History of the Viking Obsession with Werewolves

A symbol both of chaos and order, the wolf came to represent many things for the Vikings. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

An Artist’s Journey Through a Thousand Mythical Creatures

Dive into Iman Joy El Shami-Mader's collection of disembodied limbs, chimerical monstrosities, and unicorn cats. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Tainted Treats Led to a Halloween Tragedy in 1858

A poisoned batch of peppermints devastated an English town. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Remembering the Astronaut Who Smuggled a Sandwich into Space

He got into a lot of trouble. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Is This a Scene from a Sci-Fi Horror Flick?

What looks like a ghostly blue hand creeping up on a spaceship is actually a special edition of one of nature’s greatest light shows. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Art of Hand-Carving Headstones Isn’t Dead Yet

Meet the new generation of artisans keeping the tradition alive in U.S. cemeteries. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

A Librarian and a Food Historian Rediscovered the Recipes of Moorish Spain

A new cookbook is a translation of a rare, 13th-century volume. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Penny Dreadfuls Got Victorian Children Reading

Despite causing a moral panic, these salacious tales helped boost literacy in Victorian England. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Cloud Demon Repelling Tower

A tower in a small Polish village uses the power of a sacred bell to ward off mischievous weather spirits. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Canadian Team on the Hunt for Radioactive Artifacts

Historic objects made with dangerous elements are lurking in museum collections. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Haunted Houses Have Nothing on Lighthouses

From drowning to murders to the mental toll of isolation, these stoic towers carry a full share of tragedy. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Is This the End of Switzerland’s Chimney Sweep ‘Mafia’?

The long history and new face of a sooty industry. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Largest Collection of Smallest Versions of the Largest Things

Erika Nelson travels the U.S. to visit some of the world's largest things—the largest rocking chair, the largest ball of twine, the largest bottle ... | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Historians of Modern Tattooing Explore a Long-Hidden Past

The growing field probes everything from family collections to problematic museum exhibits. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Artist Collective That Brings Heavy Metal Fever Dreams to Life

For nearly 40 years, a rotating cast of artists has made costumes and props for GWAR—the band behind one of the world’s wildest stage shows. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Dark Art of Displaying Deep-Sea Fish

How one museum keeps a rare Pacific footballfish looking sharp | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Mysterious Stone Orbs Stashed All over Neolithic Britain

Two new ones just turned up in a tomb on a remote Scottish island.  | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Mongolia’s Melting Ice Reveals Fragile Prehistoric Artifacts

Researchers scramble to find and study everyday items preserved for millennia and now at risk. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Black Death in Venice and the Dawn of Quarantine – Atlas Obscura

Archaeological research is unearthing how the Italian city created a vast public health response 700 years ago. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Secret History of Venice Is Written on the Walls of Its Quarantine Stations

A look inside the Mediterranean trading power, courtesy of its hard-working 16th-century porters. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Ancient People Who Burned Their Culture to the Ground

At a site in Spain, archaeologists piece together the last days of Tartessos, an advanced society that vanished 2,500 years ago. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Eat Like a Medieval Saint with Her Recipe for ‘Cookies of Joy’

St. Hildegard was a mystic, healer, and passionate proponent of spelt and nutmeg. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Cryptically Carnivorous Plant Has Been Hiding in Plain Sight, Waiting for Flesh

The western false asphodel has an appetite for insects, but it’s not a great time to be a meat-eating plant. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Mail Jumpers of Lake Geneva

Yes, sometimes they fall in the drink. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

We Picture Bombs as Round Black Balls with a Burning Wick

In 1920, the popular newspaper comic strip Jerry on the Job was adapted by Bray Studios into a few animated films. In “The Bomb Idea,” Jerry and another... | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

One of the oldest lighthouses in the world has been in continuous use since 1531

One of the oldest lighthouses in the world has been in continuous use since it was first built in 1531. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

An Ancient ‘Tiger God’ Helps Communities and Big Cats Coexist in India

Across the central and western parts of the country, reverence for the deity translates to tolerance for predators. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Greenland’s Hand-Sized Wooden Maps Were Used for Storytelling (2018)

These distinctive artifacts are clues to how the Tunumiit people saw the world. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

It Takes a Lot of Odd Jobs to Keep an Aquarium Running

The first job is developing a close relationship with the aquatic world and its inhabitants. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The U.S. Army Tried Portable Nuclear Power at Remote Bases 60 Years Ago

It didn't go well. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

New Orleans Has Been Using the Same Tech to Drain the City Since 1910s (2017)

The Wood screw pumps are mechanical marvels, but the turbines that power them are another story. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Dream Job: Meet the People Who Staff Argentina’s Highest Observatory

Team members at the remote desert site brave challenging conditions to make the most of its clear, dark skies. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

How to Build an Island

All you need is a dream, investors with deep pockets, and concrete. A lot of concrete. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Citigroup Center Stilts

A young engineering student caught the mistake in time to keep Citigroup Center from collapsing. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Seemingly Successful Soviet Experiments in Telepathy

In the 1920s, USSR scientists investigated “biological radio communications,” more popularly known as telepathy. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

How Do You Date an Ancient Giant? Try Snails and Lasers

The famous Cerne Abbas Giant gets a new birthday thanks to a novel approach for estimating the geoglyph's age. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Unlocking the Secrets of ‘Invisible’ Animals

From glasswing butterflies to vanishing octopuses, evolution is a mad scientist. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Quest to Recreate a Lost and ‘Terrifying’ Medieval Mead

Bochet vanished for centuries, but meadmakers are bringing it back—at least in spirit. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Friendly Rivalry–Between Israel and Iran–Over the World’s Longest Salt Cave

Spectacular Malcham Cave, at more than six miles, currently holds the title. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Plants, Heavy Metals, and the Lingering Scars of World War I

A closer look at the hardy residents of some of our most damaged landscapes. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

You Can (Probably) Still Drink the Oldest Bottle of Wine

But it won't taste good. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Does This Medieval Fresco Show a Hallucinogenic Mushroom in the Garden of Eden?

Controversy over what's depicted in the image, and what it may say about early Christians, has raged for decades. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Seeing cave art in a new light

Prehistoric people may have created 'proto-cinema,' with galloping bison and tail-swishing horses. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

For Centuries, England’s Go-To Apple Utensil Was a Sheep Bone

No dentures? No problem! | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago