Los Angeles Is Covered in Delicious Fruit and No One Is Eating It

A story of immigrant populations, gentrification, and the free loquat bonanza. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Deter Prying Eyes by Locking Your Own Letters

A how-to for those who want to use folds, tucks, slits, and more to turn letters into little works of art. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

A ‘Bubble Expert’ Decoded the Physics of Making Mezcal

Exploring a traditional technique with high-speed cameras. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Ghost Subway Station in Paris Where Films Come to Life

In Portes des Lilas, it’s lights, camera, Métro!  | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Shipwrecks You Can See Without Getting Your Feet Wet

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@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Great Hanoi Rat Massacre of 1902 Did Not Go as Planned

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@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Collectors Who Hunt Down Radioactive Glassware

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@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Writers Map Their Imaginary Worlds

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@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Europe fell in love with long pepper before black pepper (2016)

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@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

There’s Gold in These Here Strange Squiggles, Russian Placer Mining

Mining operations at one of Russia's largest gold deposits includes a method that leaves twisty tracks on the landscape. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Cracking the Code of Letterlocking

A tale of Black Chambers, lost correspondence, and high technology. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Collectors Who Hunt Down Radioactive Glassware

Their tools are black lights and Geiger counters. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

A Former CIA Chief of Disguise Shows Off a Five-Second Mask

Meet Jonna Mendez, the former CIA Chief of Disguise (a real job!). During her tenure, Mendez oversaw the equipment used by spies to conceal their i... | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Holy Austin Rock Houses – Kinver, England

The Holy Austin Rock Houses weren't abandoned until the 1960s. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Gates of Hell, Turkmenistan

A fiery crater has been burning in the Karakum Desert since 1971. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Iceland’s Famed ‘Lunar Landscape’ Is Turning Purple

Pretty Alaskan lupine is changing the look of the country, and feelings about it are strong. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Family of master builders has restored temples for 38 generations

The tradition of building and preserving the sacred spaces is both art and science for the sthapati lineage. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

For Sale: A $1M Bottle of Bordeaux Aged in Space

After 14 months on the ISS, the vintage Petrus could be yours. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Macaroni in ‘Yankee Doodle’ Is Not What You Think

Meet the stylish gender-role rebels of 1770s England. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

118 Years Later, Japan’s Earliest Sound Recordings Still Resonate

Sessions in a Tokyo hotel room with a sound engineering pioneer captured a nation in transition. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

A student project is digitizing the Indian subcontinent’s community cookbooks.

A student project is digitizing the subcontinent's community cookbooks. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Dolphins Help Those Who’ve Helped Them Before, Even When They’re Not Friends

A new study in Australia shows that having a team is key to reproductive success. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Largest beaver dam shows up on satellite images

The half-mile long structure is so impressive, it even shows up on satellite images. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

It Takes a Lot of Thought and Planning to Paint a Train

Over the last 50 years, Amtrak has seen many designs come and go. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

How to Kill a Zombie Fire

Underground peat fires are bedeviling: They refuse to die, even when flooded with water. Could this new weapon put them down for good? | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Italian Apple Farmers Are Coating Their Orchards in Ice

Freezing the trees, blossoms and all, may be the only way to save the crop. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Steelcase Pyramid

One lonely, modern pyramid has gone from corporate think tank to deserted boondoggle. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Edison's Last Breath at the Henry Ford Museum

Housed in the Henry Ford museum is a test tube said to hold Thomas Edison's last breath. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Tiberius, Imperial Detective

Tiberius, Imperial Detective. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Museum of Dumb Guy Stuff

This small museum is an eccentric shrine to boyhood in the 1960s. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

What Is the Hardest Language in the World to Lipread? (2020)

There's a whole lot we don't know about vision and speech perception. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

India’s Mini-Craze for Bicycling Around the World

In the 1920s and 1930s, a dozen adventurous young riders went on the ultimate journey. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Connecticut Inn Has Hosted Sea Chantey Singalongs for Half a Century

Landlubbers are very welcome. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

We’re Finally Getting a Picture of How Dangerous PPE Is for Wildlife

More than a year into the pandemic, scientists are seeing the impact of disposable gloves and masks on ecosystems. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Soviet Children’s Books Became Collectors’ Items in India

Thanks to nostalgia, the literary legacy of the USSR has a long afterlife. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Hotel Sidi Driss

The original film set of Luke Skywalker's Tatooine home from the "Star Wars" trilogy. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Brazil's Least-Adorable Marmoset, the Buffy-Tufted-Ear, Could Use Some Love

The wildly uncharismatic buffy-tufted-ear marmoset needs a boost. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

A Man Recreating Ancient Musical Instruments Lost to Time

Tharun Sekar's creations include the yazh, a harp-like instrument played in India 2,000 years ago. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Risks and Rewards of the Remarkable Desert Truffle

Mysterious to scientists, dangerous for foragers, and coveted by gastronomes. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Gungywamp

The kind of mixed-up place that drives archaeologists crazy. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Architecture That Makes Life on Bermuda Possible

How does an island with no lakes, rivers, or streams provide water for 65,000 people? Look up. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Locals fought an oil spill with their own hair in Mauritius

When a cargo ship crossing the Indian Ocean wrecked just offshore, the "people of the sea" sprang into action. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

What It’s Like to Care for the Mighty ‘Corpse Flower’ (2020)

"Everybody knew: Don’t touch the titan." | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Ancient Method That Keeps Afghanistan's Grapes Fresh All Winter

Kangina is simple but effective. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Lost Language of Easter Island

A wooden fish could help linguists learn more about the writing system known as rongorongo. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Saving Collard Greens

These seed savers are preserving and celebrating the enormous genetic diversity of collard greens. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Cărturești Carusel Bookstore

This once derelict building is now one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

New Mexico Mystery Stone

On the side of a remote mountain, a stone face bearing an inscription of mysterious origin. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago