A Treasury Official in 1866 Put His Own Face on U.S. Currency

The bill was supposed to feature explorer William Clark instead. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

Percent of the World’s Macadamia Nuts Came from One Tree in Australia

Call it the Genghis Khan of macadamias. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

The Family That's Sold New York Mock Meats for Decades (2018)

May Wah Vegetarian Market in Chinatown has everything from squid to beef. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

The Archaeobotanist Searching Art for Lost Fruit

Renaissance paintings can hide botanical secrets. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

Adjaruli Khachapuri: Economists use this bread as a metric for cost of living

In the Adjara region, locals top a boat-shaped version with a raw egg and butter. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

The Ghost of a Flea

William Blake claimed to have painted this gothic masterpiece after encountering this nightmarish being in a vision. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

A Trashed Italian Manuscript Got Sewn into a Sweet Silk Purse

Book waste can be beautiful. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

The pitfalls of illustrating prehistoric creatures

Inside the pitfalls of illustrating prehistoric creatures. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

Patriot Park

This theme park opts for rocket launchers over rollercoasters. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

The Suez Canal Is a Superhighway for Invasive Species

And the newcomers show no signs of slowing down. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

If You Look Very, Very Close, Antarctica Is Teeming With Life

Meet the icy continent's menagerie of microbes. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

Thousands of Trees Are Disappearing from Islands in the Maldives

As developers build artificial islands to attract tourists, they're also uprooting trees from nearby atolls. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

The Joy of Collecting Stamps from Countries That Don’t Exist

"Bogus Cinderellas" can come from micronations, outer space, or parallel dimensions. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

How Landmines Made This Sri Lankan Lagoon an Avian Paradise

But once it's demined, it may be developed. Can one man's ecotourism plan protect it for the birds? | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

Artificial Mountains

They’re fake, but they can be spectacular (and hazardous). | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

The 21st Century Might Not Be So Magical for Fireflies

Experts are flashing a warning for the future. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

The Doomed Mouse Utopia That Inspired the 'Rats of NIMH'

Dr. John Bumpass Calhoun spent the '60s and '70s playing god to thousands of rodents. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

Gladiator Diets Were Carb-Heavy, Fattening, and Mostly Vegetarian

To survive the arena, they ate a mash of barley and beans. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

The Elaborate Yam Houses of the Trobriand Islands

Years of drought have left them tragically empty. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

Untermyer Park, America's greatest forgotten garden

America's greatest forgotten garden and the former stomping grounds of Son of Sam. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

Finnish Skywatchers Discovered a Strange New Aurora

The mysterious phenomenon resembles green sand dunes in the sky. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

The Chocolate-Brewing Witches of Colonial Latin America

The Inquisition persecuted women who used cacao to entice lovers and spurn enemies. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

Before the Easy-Bake Oven, Toy Stoves Were Beautiful and Deadly

They burned real fuel and caused real damage. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

What Happens When They Find a World War II Bomb Down the Street

In German cities, it means alerts, traffic, evacuations, and at least a little anxiety. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

Holloways: Roads Tunneled into the Earth by Time

Appearing like trenches dragged into the earth, sunken lanes, also called hollow-ways or holloways, are centuries-old thoroughfares worn down by the traffic... | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

Celles

Residents of Celles in France were evicted so their village could be flooded. Then, it wasn't. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

Giant Technicolor Squirrels of India

These particularly resplendent rodents are the state animal of Maharashtra. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

The Leech’s Journey, from Welsh Lab to American Hospitals

The toothy, parasitic worms are invaluable in post-surgical wards. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

The Eschers of Leiden (2015)

Tucked away in the Leiden city hall are a group of works by famed artist MC Escher. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

The Mystery and Occasional Poetry Of, Uh, Filled Pauses

They are especially unusual in Japanese. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

The Holmdel Horn Antenna

Where the embers of the Big Bang were first detected. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

Some Space Rocks Are Notorious for Being Stinky

What they actually smell like seems to be in the nose of the beholder. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

Why Scientists Fall for Precariously Balanced Rocks

“They’re nature’s hilarious accidents." | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

Grave of Walter White

The fictional star of "Breaking Bad" is memorialized with a real-life gravestone in his hometown. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

The Art of Vegetable Carving

Japanese design meets produce. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

A Cartographer Drew a Freehand Map of North America

Just ink and colored pencil, it took Anton Thomas almost five years. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

The Strange Saga of Kowloon Walled City

Anarchic, organic, surreal, this enclave was once among the most densely populated places on Earth. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

Why Calendars Are So Weird, and What Might Be Done About It

Imagine a calendar that is the same every year—sort of. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

Around the World in Rare and Beautiful Apples

From the sweet to the offbeat. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

The Manhattan Eruv

This nearly invisible wire transforms much of the city into one big, symbolic home on the holy day. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

How an English Energy Crisis Helped Create Champagne

Desperate bottle-makers turning to a new fuel resulted in a sparkling innovation. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

Things Found Between the Pages of Old Books (2018)

Atlas Obscura readers shared hundreds of stories about their surprising discoveries. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

Seven sets of spectacular standing stones in Scotland

These ancient monuments have captivated the imagination for thousands of years. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

Bogs Lose Their Carbon-Chomping Powers When Roads Cut Through Them

In Canada, roads disrupt wetland water flow and multiply methane emissions, a new study finds. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

Why the Soviets Sponsored a Doomed Expedition to a Hollow Earth Kingdom (2016)

How a search for the hidden land of Shambhala turned into a geopolitical power play. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

Sant

Of all the variations on the beloved character, Russia's Ded Moroz might have the strangest history. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

When Crocodiles Attack: The Ramree Island Massacre

During World War II, Ramree Island off the coast of Burma was the site of a number of military battles, but the truly terrifying action only began after the... | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago

An Ancient Indian Art Utilizes Mathematics, Mythology, and Rice

Computer scientists have studied these “pictorial prayers.” | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 4 years ago