A New Crusade – The Order of Malta

The Order of Malta's new crusade. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

Ground Truth – Drawing the Cameroon – Nigeria Border

When Cameroon and Nigeria finally agreed upon their border, it was only the beginning. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

Researchers Using AI to Reconstruct Ancient Games

And they aren’t playing around. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

What RV Camping Looked Like 100 Years Ago

As Americans hit the road for Labor Day weekend, we salute the Tin Can Tourists—the DIY auto enthusiasts who started it all. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

The Green Curtain

Germany's Cold War scar has been reinvented, but it wasn't easy. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

A Man Who Went to War with Canada

For centuries, the United States and Canada’s only remaining land border dispute has been kept alive by a single family. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

In Neolithic Ukraine, Big Buildings Hint at Democratic Assemblies

Until it all came crashing down. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

The French Tunnel Sculpture That Took 30 Years to Complete

Artist Daniel Monnier spent a couple of decades away before returning to complete his vision. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

Sometimes Trash Is Treasured in America’s National Parks

Bottles, cans, and more can reveal a long history of industry, recreation, and shenanigans. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

An Artist, a Shantyboat, and the Lost History of American River Communities

Wes Modes is documenting life along America's waterways. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

Stops on the Hunt for the Holy Grail

Tracing history’s most elusive holy relic will lead you to these real places.  | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

The last gourd hat maker in the Philippines

Teofilo Garcia may be the last Filipino to turn gourds he grows into headwear. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

A Fake British Accent Took Old Hollywood by Storm

The story behind the strange way Katharine Hepburn (and others) spoke. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

A Decade Later, the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Has Left an Abyssal Wasteland

A nightmare at 6,000 feet. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

El-Kurru’s Carved Graffiti Reveal Another Side of Ancient Nubia

From Kushites to Christians, an old site in Sudan has new stories to tell. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

See What Soldiers Around the World Eat When in the Field (2016)

A corner of YouTube is dedicated to unboxing combat rations. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

For Sale: America’s Largest Private Grove of Giant Sequoias

They're older than Christ and as high as the heavens. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

Remembering When London’s Pubs Were Full at 7 A.m

Drinking eight pints of beer a day was once routine. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

London’s Subterranean Victorian Bathrooms Now House Bars and Cafés

People drink gin and coffee where gentlemen once relieved themselves. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

Why Fossils Are Mostly Male

One theory is that reckless young bison and mammoths got into more trouble. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

For centuries, massive meals amazed visitors to Korea

Scholars, writers, and missionaries all exclaimed over how much food was available. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

When the Pianos Went to War

Steinway & Sons' Victory Verticals were tougher than your average upright. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

Found: A Windfall of Neanderthal Footprints in France

257 small steps for our human cousins, one giant leap for paleoanthropology. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

The Professional Code Breakers of Renaissance Venice

A cabal of early cryptographers helped the government keep secrets and spy on enemies. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

Beatrix Potter's secret, coded journal took 13 years to translate (2017)

It took a dedicated superfan 13 years to translate it. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

Competitive walking used to captive Britain

In 1815, thousands of people came to watch George Wilson, the "Blackheath Pedestrian," walk 1,000 miles. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

Prohibition Tossed a Wet Blanket on America’s Inventors

New research reveals the link between bars and new inventions. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

Half a Century of Microplastics Found in Sediment Layers, Like Synthetic Fossils

The teeny menaces turned up in a core taken from the floor of the Santa Barbara Basin. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

Remembering Nüshu, the 19th-Century Chinese Script Only Women Could Write (2017)

This gender-specific practice continues to fade with time. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

30 Years On, the ‘Worst Car Ever Built’ Has a Fervent Fan Club

Made in the former East Germany, Trabants have inspired many a mean joke—and a devoted community. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

When Royalty, Scientists, and Gardeners All Wanted Fake Fruit

One collection of fake produce is a reminder of both ingenuity and loss. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

Kalyazin Bell Tower, last remnant of flooded monastery

Stalin's march toward a more modern USSR flooded a monastery, leaving a unique and extravagant nautical marker, "The Flooded Belfry." | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

The United States of Abandoned Places

From Alabama to Wyoming, there are abandoned towns, amusement parks, and ruins lurking in your home state. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

A California Type Foundry Is Keeping Vintage Printing Alive

“It’s a really neat feeling to help people be able to print from hot metal.” | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

What the Heck Is Crab Rangoon Anyway?

How a fusion of at least four cuisines created a beloved and misunderstood dish. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

A Literary Prank Convinced Germany That ‘Hansel and Gretel’ Was Real

A 1963 book purported to prove that the siblings were murderous bakers. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

The Quest to Find a Lost Arctic Explorer’s Buried Soup

An "Arctic mystery" may lead to a future of food under the permafrost. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

Why Portugal’s Marmelada Tastes Nothing Like Marmalade (2018)

The blocky confection took on a very different definition in England. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

National Ice Core Lab

Where scientists keep miles of very valuable ice from Antarctica and Greenland from melting. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

CO2 Lake Explosion Kills 1,746 – 33 years ago today

Deadliest lake in the world suffocated over 1,746 people in one night. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

On the Hunt for National Treasures with America’s Archive Detective

Mitch Yockelson scours the country for its missing heritage. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

Dee Stadium – The Birthplace of Professional Hockey

"The Dee" stands on the site of the old Amphidrome, where in 1903 professional hockey was born. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

Keweenaw Rocket Range (Michigan Upper Peninsula)

The site where Michigan launched its first rocket into space lies abandoned in the dense woods along Lake Superior. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

Found: A Stash of Mystical Charms and Amulets in Pompeii

The ash-encased city always manages to surprise. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

Howler Monkeys of Tikal

These roaring primates were considered a divine creature in the cosmology of the Maya. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

Peru’s Inca Kola Triumphed over Coke

Appeals to patriotism helped it become the country’s signature flavor. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

For Sale: A 1699 Treatise on the Best Ways to Make Salad

Though John Evelyn wasn't a vegetarian, he did appear to be ahead of his time. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago

Indigenous Women Are Publishing the First Maya Works in over 400 Years

A bookmaking collective in San Cristobal de las Casas is helping keep the Tzotzil language alive. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 5 years ago