The Parasite That Forces Bees to Dig Their Own Graves

It's a growing threat to our food supply. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

History's Best Strategies for Avoiding Being Buried Alive

These ingenious 19th-century techniques aimed to make sure dead really meant dead. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

A Mormon Pioneer's Grave, Marked Only with a Wagon Wheel Rim

Rebecca Winters's grave is one of the few that were marked at all. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Why There's a Columbo Statue in the Middle of Budapest

The American television character is memorialized in an unlikely locale. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Found: A Photo of the Man Who Fired Van Gogh and Changed Art History

A portrait of the artist as a bad salesman. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Ancient Greek Funerals Were Decked Out in Celery

It was a powerful symbol of death—and victory. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

How a Brewer and the Government Killed Colombia’s Ancestral Drink (2017)

They conspired to replace chicha with clean, healthy beer. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Here Lies E. Coli

There's a bunch of gross stuff, besides human bodies, hiding under graveyards. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Puzzle Jugs, the Drinking Vessels Designed to Confound

If you're thirsty for problem-solving, these pitchers are perfect. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

The Enduring Mystery of ‘Jawn,’ Philadelphia’s All-Purpose Noun (2016)

According to experts, it's unlike any word, in any language. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

How Fish and Chips Migrated to Great Britain

The fried fish was introduced by Jews fleeing religious persecution. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

A groundbreaking female cartographer charted the evolution of the United States

Maps have power. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

A Hacker from South Africa Rescued the First NASA Computer in Space

The 1966 Apollo Guidance Computer paved the way for the moon landing—and then sat in a scrap heap for decades. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

The Places You Never Tire of Visiting

Atlas Obscura readers share the destinations they just can't quit. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

A tribute to the Fab Four and the freedoms they inspired

A beloved tribute to the Fab Four and the freedoms they inspired stands in the country's capital. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Tell Us How You Overcame Your Biggest Food Fear

What happened when you finally tasted something you'd previously been repulsed by? | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

When, Exactly, Did Vesuvius Destroy Pompeii?

And does it matter if we had the date a little wrong for thousands of years? | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

L.A.'s Most Derided Piece of Public Art Is About to Light Up Again

Reviving the Triforium. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Why Scientists Are Studying ‘Ricequakes’ in a Tube of Rice Krispies

They even resemble Antarctica's mysterious icequakes. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Show Us Your Tsundoku

We want to see your shameful stacks of unread books. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Moons Can Have Their Own Moons and They Could Be Called Moonmoons

The inexplicable delight of moon-moons, sub-islands, and other recursive places. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

The Original 'Humungous Fungus' Is Even Bigger and Older Than We Thought

But it's not the biggest. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Seven Hours in the Air with Some Record-Breaking Swiss Balloonists

Up, up, and away over the Alps. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Teach Yourself to Echolocate

A beginner's guide to navigating with sound. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

A Visit to the World's Only Sourdough Library

Step inside Karl De Smedt's singular collection of starters. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Pizza Hut's ‘Little Free Libraries’ Look Exactly Like Mini Pizza Huts

Also, remember BOOK IT? | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

The Most Memorable Strangers You’ve Met While Traveling

Atlas Obscura readers share their best tales of chance encounters. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

The Fantasy Maps That Put the World's Tallest Mountains Side by Side

In the 19th century, the romance of mountains met the desire to quantify the natural world. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Help Atlas Obscura Solve a Curious 18th-Century Riddle Menu

No one was really eating "quintessence of Toes" back then. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

RAPS Cat Sanctuary

One of the largest cat sanctuaries in North America is considered a 'Club Med' for felines. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

In the Streets of Argentina Lie Hidden Memorials to Disappeared People

They pay tribute to those lost during a period of state terrorism known as the Dirty War. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

How to Track a Butterfly Across 3,000 Miles

Tagging and tracking insects is delicate, frustrating, fascinating work. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

In 19th-Century Britain, the Hottest Status Symbol Was a Painting of Your Cow

The livestock looked surprisingly geometric. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

The Great French Mustache Strike of 1907

You gotta fight for your right to whiskers. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

The Scots Language

Against all odds, 28 percent of Scottish people still use it. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

The Private Magic of Treehouses

Readers share what makes their favorite treetop hideaways so special. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

The Warlike Origins of ‘Going Dutch’

The term for splitting the bill has its roots in a bitter international rivalry. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

At the Newark Public Library, Shopping Bags Carry Local History

The New Jersey institution is home to a collection of more than 2,000 of these often overlooked items. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

One Family's Hidden Museum of Retro-Future Artifacts

Meet the Kleemans and their vast collection of space-age toys and ephemera. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

The Donkey Refuge Where Burros Become Coyote-Kicking Livestock Guardians

With the right training, feral donkeys go from zero to hero. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Striking Satellite Images of Cities on the Brink

A fresh perspective on the fragility and resilience or our world. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Freedom Statue: Based on a real event

Based on a real event, the statue is dedicated to those who fought and died for Zambia's independence. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Visitors Can Touch Human Brains at This Indian Neuroscience Institute

It's like a petting zoo for organs. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Women Built London’s Waterloo Bridge, but It Took These Photos to Prove It

Uncovering evidence of a long-forgotten history. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

After Five Years of Living in Trees, a Protest Community Is Being Evicted

They've been trying to stop coal mining in Germany's Hambach Forest. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Found: A Pescatarian Praying Mantis

Go big or go home. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Saving the Prized Chile That Grows Only in Oaxaca’s Mountains

Farmers growing the smoky pepper had no idea chefs were paying top dollar for it. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Nikola Tesla Built a Giant Tower to Send Wireless Electricity Around the World

Ultimately, things didn't go as he had planned. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago