For centuries, senders used folds, slits, and wax seals to guard correspondence from prying eyes. | Continue reading
The blinking light atop the iconic landmark has been sending secret messages for decades. | Continue reading
In Japan, the labor-intensive practice of apple stenciling is slowly fading. | Continue reading
Why astronomers keep putting them in the same places. | Continue reading
They offered bathroom-goers some raunchy entertainment. | Continue reading
Researchers have recreated the acoustic atmosphere of the ancient Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba. | Continue reading
You basically had to sell a castle to the enemy. | Continue reading
2018 was a terrible year for Swiss glaciers. | Continue reading
Atlas Obscura readers share their personal favorites. | Continue reading
8,600 bottles and counting. | Continue reading
From above, the textured landscape can be almost abstract. | Continue reading
In 1955, Deben Bhattacharya traveled from London to Calcutta in a milk van and recorded over 40 hours of music. | Continue reading
Sea burial is a way to save space in a dense city, but runs counter to funeral traditions. | Continue reading
New laser imaging shows Izapa's suburbs were like mini-capitals. | Continue reading
An idea imported from Australia, they helped enable the "secret" part of secret ballots. | Continue reading
Who knew fungi could be so creepy? | Continue reading
"Stone babies"—or lithopedions—are incredibly rare. | Continue reading
Woolly worms may not be the greatest meteorologists, but they sure are entertaining. | Continue reading
How folk tales and traditional life snuck into avant-garde kids' books in the 1930s. | Continue reading
An ingenious solution to a tricky engineering problem, this circular bridge takes drivers for a dizzying spin. | Continue reading
They were fashionable and functional, used for dining and self-defense. | Continue reading
The barely edible container was the progenitor of pie. | Continue reading
Enslaved people used codes to mark graves on plantation grounds. | Continue reading
It even works like its predecessor. | Continue reading
Climate change is causing trouble on Herschel Island. | Continue reading
There are several to keep track of, some scarier than others. | Continue reading
Ships and submarines have their own unique recipes. | Continue reading
Transgressors had to pay a heavy fine. | Continue reading
For a time, eating and relaxing among the dead was a national pastime. | Continue reading
For now, anyway. | Continue reading
It's a growing threat to our food supply. | Continue reading
These ingenious 19th-century techniques aimed to make sure dead really meant dead. | Continue reading
Rebecca Winters's grave is one of the few that were marked at all. | Continue reading
The American television character is memorialized in an unlikely locale. | Continue reading
A portrait of the artist as a bad salesman. | Continue reading
It was a powerful symbol of death—and victory. | Continue reading
They conspired to replace chicha with clean, healthy beer. | Continue reading
There's a bunch of gross stuff, besides human bodies, hiding under graveyards. | Continue reading
If you're thirsty for problem-solving, these pitchers are perfect. | Continue reading
According to experts, it's unlike any word, in any language. | Continue reading
The fried fish was introduced by Jews fleeing religious persecution. | Continue reading
Maps have power. | Continue reading
The 1966 Apollo Guidance Computer paved the way for the moon landing—and then sat in a scrap heap for decades. | Continue reading
Atlas Obscura readers share the destinations they just can't quit. | Continue reading
A beloved tribute to the Fab Four and the freedoms they inspired stands in the country's capital. | Continue reading
What happened when you finally tasted something you'd previously been repulsed by? | Continue reading
And does it matter if we had the date a little wrong for thousands of years? | Continue reading
Reviving the Triforium. | Continue reading