East London Yes, It’s a Witch Bottle HuntAtlas Obscura - by Evan Nicole Brown And if you live in Britain, you might be able to help. Back in 17th-century Britain, certain small containers had a big job. “Witch bottles” were …
Shipwrecks Sand Tiger Sharks Are Drawn to North Carolina’s ShipwrecksAtlas Obscura - by Jonathan Carey They return to the same sunken vessels over and over again, and researchers are trying to figure out why. Off the North Carolina coast, the rusty …
Cleo This Restaurant Has Wed Six Couples in Pools of ChocolateAtlas Obscura - by Rohini Chaki Desserted at the altar. Cleo Gakshteyn had not planned to get married in a kiddie pool whose contents reached her shins. But thanks to one …
Chili D.C. Half and Half MarathonAtlas Obscura - Rohini Chaki In a supreme test of gut and gam, runners must eat a half-smoke sausage with chips before completing a 13.1-mile race. Doctor’s orders to exercise on …
Particles Why Desert Sunsets Are Incredibly ColorfulAtlas Obscura - by Evan Nicole Brown Turns out, dry, clean air is the secret to a vivid landscape. There’s that small window of time, every day before night falls, when the sun hangs in …
The Return of the Pie Company That Gave the Frisbee Its NameAtlas Obscura - by Michele Herrmann An avid fan of the flying disc is now slinging Frisbie pies. When Dan O’Connor picked up an old Frisbie Pie Company tin at a tag sale over thirty …
Beetles The Thirsty Beetles That Capture the FogAtlas Obscura - by Jessica Leigh Hester In the Namib Desert, slaking thirst is a slow process. How do animals survive in harsh environments? This week, we’re celebrating some extreme …
Gelatin Before Jell-O, Colorful Gelatin Desserts Were Haute CuisineAtlas Obscura - by Mark Hay Celebrity chefs served molded jelly dishes to monarchs and royalty. Marie-Antoine Carême made his name cooking for some of the greatest figures in …
Nelson Mandela Nelson Mandela’s Prison Cell, Through His EyesAtlas Obscura - by Matthew Taub The drawing is one of more than 20 original artworks by the Nobel Peace Prize recipient. Before becoming the first democratically elected president of …
Chernobyl Life in Pripyat Before, and the Morning After, the Chernobyl DisasterAtlas Obscura - by Adam Higginbotham When the scale of a tragedy dawned. In the early hours of April 26, 1986, a nuclear accident took place during a safety test at the Chernobyl Atomic …
Jordan In Jordan, Bedouins Are Preserving Ancient Rock Art With an AppAtlas Obscura - by Robin George Andrews Locals are using their phones to document and assess the engravings of Wadi Rum. If you’ve seen The Martian, then you didn’t just see Matt Damon’s …
The Goofy Worm Lizard That Beats the Heat by Never Coming to the SurfaceAtlas Obscura - by Jessica Leigh Hester It has claws like a mole, eyes that look like poppy seeds, and a great strategy for evading predators and filling up on prey. How do animals survive …
The Most Interesting, Spectacular Mirages Aren’t in the DesertAtlas Obscura - by Sabrina Imbler Spoiler alert: Try the Arctic or Sicily instead. A desperate, thirsty traveler crawls among the dunes in a never-ending desert. Then something …
The Strange Tale of the Great Trans-Saharan Ostrich Heist of 1911Atlas Obscura - by Vincent Gabrielle Big hats, big risks, big payoffs. It was 1911, and the Union of South Africa was awash with rumor and suspicion. It was said that there was a turncoat …
26 Real Animals That Shouldn’t Exist, But Do AnywayAtlas Obscura - by Eric Grundhauser Atlas Obscura readers nominated their favorite unlikely creatures. For as many fascinating, downright unbelievable places as there are to explore on …
Notre-Dame Fire Medieval Cathedral Spires Have Been at Risk From the Get GoAtlas Obscura - by Jessica Leigh Hester For centuries, they’ve been toppled by lightning, wind, and more. Fire made quick work of the 300-foot spire that stood until recently atop Paris’s …
Bees Notre Dame’s Bees Seem to Have Survived the BlazeAtlas Obscura - by Jessica Leigh Hester A little bit of sweet news. Several types of creatures make themselves at home on the tippy-tops of buildings. You have your gargoyles, their stone …
Meet the Mother-Son Duo Translating Astrophysics Into BlackfootAtlas Obscura - by Sabrina Imbler Corey Gray and Sharon Yellowfly want to bring gravitational wave astronomy to speakers of the language. Whenever her son detects a strange force …
Rhode Island Coffee CabinetAtlas Obscura - k kpearl2005 The uniquely Rhode Island treat is a relic from the era of soda fountain pharmacies. Diners who saddle up to the counter at Delekta Pharmacy in the …
Pueblo Pueblo BreadAtlas Obscura - Reina Gattuso Baked in traditional adobe hornos, this bread is a staple of the American Southwest's Native Pueblo people. The shapes of pueblo bread are as diverse …
East London Are Double-Sided Graves the Solution to London’s Burial Crisis?Atlas Obscura - by Katie Thornton Toward a new definition of eternity. In 1894, the two-year-old son of Marion and Robert Crawford died in the East London district of Stepney. When …
Drones A Remote Valley, A Drone, An Extinct Flower That’s Not Extinct AnymoreAtlas Obscura - by Evan Nicole Brown A find from Hawai’i’s cliffs. In 1991, botanists from the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG), a Hawai’i-based nonprofit, discovered the rare …
Fossils Found: One of the Largest Carnivorous Land Mammals Ever, in a Museum DrawerAtlas Obscura - by Jonathan Carey Despite its massive size, it had been overlooked for 40 years. Museums are teeming with secrets, some of which will stay unknown or unknowable …
Cheese Hot Cheese SandwichAtlas Obscura - Rohini Chaki The original cheeseburger, hold the beef patty. Maybe you make an incredible cheese sandwich. Maybe you make a sandwich so good, with melty, gooey …
Rabbits Found: Britain’s First Pet BunnyAtlas Obscura - by Sabrina Imbler The rabbit was pampered and definitely not butchered. Fay Worley had come to the archives in pursuit of brown hare bones. Worley, who works as a …
Lithuania KibinaiAtlas Obscura - susarm These popular filled pastries come from Lithuania's Karaim minority. Kibinai, crescent-shaped hand pies stuffed with mutton, cheese, spinach, …
How Breweries Helped Keep This Pre-Columbian Empire TogetherAtlas Obscura - by Reina Gattuso Researchers recreated Wari chicha for science and happy hour. Ever longed for a president you could just have a beer with? Inhabitants of Peru’s Wari …
South Philadelphia Fish House PunchAtlas Obscura - Rohini Chaki This Philadelphia cocktail was invented at a fishing club that once declared itself a sovereign state. Drinking like the Founding Fathers requires a …
New York City Step Into a Midcentury Map of New York, Packed With Weird Local LoreAtlas Obscura - by Jessica Leigh Hester Dragons, flea circuses, mermaids, and more wonders of the city. There’s an old game in which someone throws a dart at a map, and then dreams of …
Little Rock, AR Found: A Quack’s Medicine Bottles, Buried Behind a Haunted HotelAtlas Obscura - by Noor Al-Samarrai Some of the vessels contain tissue samples, while others held a dubious “cancer cure.” Two months ago, a landscape artist stumbled upon a cache of …
