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

Carting Lane Sewer Lamp

The pretty iron lamp is a reminder of the architecture underneath the city's streets. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Barolo to Truffles in the Shadow of the Alps

Atlas Obscura has trips for adventure seekers. For food lovers and history buffs. For art, biology, and nature enthusiasts. Because exploration is for everyone. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Wondrous History of Sewers

From guided tours of the world below to a chunk of a fatberg. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

A 12-foot-tall replica of the Washington Monument hidden under a manhole nearby

There's a 12-foot-tall replica of the Washington Monument hidden under a manhole nearby. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

For Decades Italians Have Salvaged Old American Military Uniforms in This Market

The khaki and camouflage have traveled from battlefield to clothes rack—and sometimes stage and screen. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

How Far Should Humans Go to Help Species Adapt?

An Australian project to help threatened marsupials avoid predatory cats is one of a host of 'assisted evolution' efforts. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Mystery of ‘Harriet Cole’

Whose body was harvested to create a spectacular anatomical specimen, and did that person know they would be on display more than a century later? | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Iconic L.A. bookshop is housed in an abandoned bank

This iconic L.A. bookshop is housed in an abandoned bank—both symbolic and chic. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

A Photographer's Pursuit of the Elusive Black Panther

The challenge of capturing something almost impossible to see. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Iberian Citadel of Calafell, Iron Age Village

Experience this Iron Age village the way that its original residents would have. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

A Secret Cold War Project Led to Signs of Ancient Life

Researchers found fossils in a forgotten ice core that rewrite Greenland’s icy past. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

At This Portuguese Bakery, the Recipes Were Written by Nuns Centuries Ago

The owner of Alcôa has devoted decades to recovering lost pastries. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Iceberg Trackers Keeping an Eye on the Ocean’s Behemoths

As well as smaller bergs that can be more dangerous to ships. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The U.S. Government Is Begging You to Destroy Moss Balls

Zebra mussels showed up in imported aquarium accessories across 32 states. Ecologists want your help killing them. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Opponents of Oliver Cromwell published his family recipes

Opponents of Oliver Cromwell published his family recipes, with a side of fake news. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Quest for the Real-Life Treasures of Atari’s Swordquest (2016)

In the 1980s Atari offered golden treasures as gaming prizes, most of which were lost to time. Until now. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Grand Canyon’s Caves Are Full of Sloth Dung and Mummified Bats

The limestone cliffs harbor hundreds of passages that offer glimpses into the distant past. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Photographer Who Reimagined the Darkness of the Underground Railroad

How acclaimed artist Dawoud Bey used the landscape to tell the story of the unseen. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Remembering America’s Golden Age of Hot Sodas

Drink like a Prohibition-era teen with recipes for the Hot Cherry Egg Bounce and Hot Egg Lime Juice Fizz. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Why Mormons Make Great FBI Recruits

A few years back, when the Pew Research Center surveyed Mormons in America about their place in society, more than 60 percent of the participants said that... | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Retracing a Donner Party Path, Nearly Two Centuries Later

To pay homage, ultra-athletes fought snow and thorns. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Make the Ancient Road Snack of Central Asian Nomads

These dried dairy balls have been fueling travel for millennia. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Macabre Mystery of a British Family’s Skull-Topped Spoons

These 17th-century artifacts were likely christening gifts. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

When the Jersey Shore Was the Epicenter for Haunted Attractions

In the 70s and 80s, beachgoers delighted in low-budget frights. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Jane Austen’s Wince-Inducing Descriptions of 19th-Century Dentistry

In a letter to her sister, the novelist politely recounts a grisly scene. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

How the United States and Soviet Union Embarked on a Macabre Surgical Arms Race

Cold War animal experimentation and the roots of transplantation medicine. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Bronze Age Bog Beetles

Thanks to waterlogged ground, sturdy bodies, and a little luck. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Gently Competitive World of Giant Vegetable Growing

Great Britain's greatest green thumbs break records every year. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Tourists Love to Rub Bronze Balls of Wall Street’s Charging Bull Statue. Why?

Don't they just look so touchable? (Photo: Tao Tao Holmes/Atlas Obscura) | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Eat Like You're in the USSR with 'The Soviet Diet Cookbook'

By making pizza approved by the Communist Party. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Reconstructing the Menu of a Pub in Ancient Pompeii

Eat like a first-century Roman, using recent archaeological discoveries as your guide. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Biocrusts Are an Entire World Beneath Our Feet

New research in Brazil highlights how distinctive the "living skin" of the planet can be. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Boston Cream Pie Changed Americans’ Relationship with Chocolate

It was likely the country's first cake made with cacao. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

What Does the Title ‘Esquire’ Mean, Anyway?

And what does it have to do with lawyering? | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Yellowstone's Zone of Death

A legal loophole makes it possible to get away with murder within this 50-square-mile section of Yellowstone. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

‘Food Grammar,’ the Unspoken Rules of Every Cuisine

Technically, spaghetti and meatballs is bad grammar. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

An ancient iron pillar in Delhi that seems to be rustproof

An ancient iron pillar in Delhi that seems to be rustproof. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Curious cave that stays a cool 56 degrees all year long

Curious cave that stays a cool 56 degrees all year long. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

In Iceland, testing the drones that could be the future of Mars exploration

“We’re going to do so many cool things.” | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

Whiskey Shots and Pickle Brine Got Paired Up

A bar sharing a basement with a pickle place led to an unusual drink. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago

The Careful Work of Breathing Life into the Corpse Flower

In botanic gardens, the lineage of a famously smelly plant is threatened. What can save it? | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 3 years ago