The Appalachian Apple Hunter Who Rescued 1k ‘Lost’ Varieties

Tom Brown's retirement hobby is a godsend for chefs, conservationists, and cider. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Fiddly Business of Tracking Australia’s Most Venomous Spider

To study the Sydney funnel web spider, one researcher tags along from a distance with the help of tags the size of a grain of rice. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

How a Giant Corpse Flower Got to an Abandoned Gas Station

It was all thanks to a gardener, a wagon, and a sense of pandemic-era camaraderie. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

How the Commodore Amiga Powered Your Cable System in the '90s – Atlas Obscura

The life and death of the Prevue channel, which showed you what to watch. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

It’s Hard Work to Restore Rio’s Christ the Redeemer, but the Views Are Amazing

The work is for the 90th anniversary in 2021, but the real party is still a decade away. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Historic Russian Recipe That Turns Apples into Marshmallows

Disarmingly simple, pastila is lighter than air. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Poe’s Best-Selling Book During His Lifetime Was a Guide to Seashells

"The Conchologist’s First Book" was good enough to elevate the entire field. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

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