The men who shoe fleasBBC Travel - By Sharon McDonnellArtists work between heartbeats to produce an unusual masterpiece: a flea clad in golden horseshoes. In a supersized world, Prague’s Museum of Miniatures thinks small. Very small. In millimetres, in fact.
The craggy coast with a dark pastBBC Travel - By Britany RobinsonA 3.8-mile section of Oregon’s coast is named in remembrance of an elderly, blind Native American woman who was forced to walk for days over the sharp rocks with bare feet. If you listen closely, the whispers
The witch doctors of northern PeruBBC Travel - By Amanda Proença Santos The Huaringas, a complex of 14 sacred lagoons in the mountainous Peruvian province of Huancabamba, is renowned for its ancient tradition of mystical healing and shamanism.
The island of lost explorersBBC Travel - By Sarah HewittOn Canada’s bleak Beechey Island are the remains of four men who died in the 19th Century. They weren’t famous in life – but their deaths sparked 165 years of searching for answers. Through icy rain and
The intoxicating drug of an Indian godBBC Travel - By Charukesi RamaduraiThe cannabis plant’s role in Hindu mythology has authorities turning a blind eye to India’s drug shops. I made my way down Varanasi’s winding, narrow alleyways, bound by walls stained with the distinctive
A town that's more British than BritainBBC Travel - By Lane Nieset More than 9,000km from the motherland, the Falkland Islands’ capital serves up everything you'd expect from a trip to England, from traditional pubs to iconic red telephone boxes.
The cave filled with 9,000 BuddhasBBC Travel - By BBC's The Travel ShowThe Buddha statues that fill this cave from floor to ceiling are brought by devotees hoping for a blessing. If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called “If You Read
How 120,000 people thought they could cheat deathBBC Travel - By Jessica HollandThe market town of Bedford, England was once home to a cult of women who thought they could avert Armageddon. Their locked box of prophecies remains hidden – and sealed – even today. At 8:23pm, the ritual
Where to find the rare white rainbowBBC Travel - By Katy KoontzSeeing a moonbow – a pale white rainbow that appears on bright moonlight nights – requires visiting one of only two places on the planet. Moonbows – pale white rainbows that appear on bright moonlight
The lost history of the FreemasonsBBC Travel - By Amanda RuggeriConspiracy theories abound about the Freemasons. But Scotland’s true Masonic history, while forgotten by many for centuries, remains hidden in plain sight. With its cobblestone paving and Georgian façades,
The real-life garden of Eden?BBC Travel - By Hillary RichardThe coco de mer has spawned so many legends that the tree is fabled and revered in lands far beyond the Seychelles. In 1881, General Charles Gordon (later known as Gordon of Khartoum) embarked on a long
A museum of 500,000 odditiesBBC Travel - By Ben LerwillReachable only through an arched doorway hidden in Oxford’s Natural History Museum, this treasure trove has everything from nose flutes to totem poles to shrunken heads. The 30cm-long, rolled-up scrap
A portal to a subterranean realmBBC Travel - By Anna BitongThe underground labyrinth had become an urban legend – until an entrance was discovered by an 11-year-old child down a city sewer. Far below the noisy bars and busy streets of Cadiz in southern Spain,
The British island at the edge of the worldBBC Travel - By Amanda Ruggeri To go to the shop, dentist or pub, Foula’s residents have to travel across 20 miles of open ocean. Photographer Jeff J Mitchell visited the Shetland isle to see what it’s really like.
A 2,000-year-old unsolved mysteryBBC Travel - By Adam H GrahamWe can only speculate why these ancient humans – whose perfectly preserved bodies have been discovered in bogs, mires and moors across Northern Europe – were violently murdered. As my train from Hamburg
In search of Burma’s wizards-saintsBBC Travel - By Fanny PotkinAlthough it might seem unbelievable, Buddhism and magic have long been uniquely linked in Burma. “I can see your future and that of everyone I meet,” smiled U Aung Baung, as the gilded dome of the legendary
Where gods and kings turn to stoneBBC Travel - By Joseph Flaherty Massive statues of gods, kings and creatures stare down visitors to this little-known Unesco site in southeastern Turkey.
World’s most bizarre natural phenomenaBBC Travel - By Husna HaqFrom Australia’s bubblegum-pink lake to a blood-red waterfall in Antarctica, these seven destinations are some of the world’s strangest sights. Majestic mountains and sparkling seas always attract travellers
An uncharted underground worldBBC Travel - By Erin CraigSpelunker Roger Brucker spearheaded the once secretive process of mapping Mammoth Cave, helping to establish it as the longest cave system in the world. At the age of five, Roger Brucker made an important
Weird foods only a local could loveBBC Travel - By Lindsey GallowayFrom mite-infested cheese to red-ant chutney, these out-there foods might make some people squirm. It may be a matter of taste, but the food in some countries can be so out there that it might only seem
The Bali village with a magic treeBBC Travel - By Theodora SutcliffeBali Aga villagers leave their dead to decay in the open air, below a magic, ancient tree that is said to stop the corpses from smelling. “My cousin is over there,” my guide Ketut Blen explained, pointing
The pirate queen of County MayoBBC Travel - By Peter LynchThe amazing tale of Grace O'Malley, sailor, captain, plunderer, mercenary, rebel, pirate – as well as wife and mother. Sitting in a Dublin pub nursing a pint of Guinness, I got talking to a fella who me
The mystery of England’s ancient tunnelsBBC Travel - By Amanda RuggeriMore than a dozen tunnels have been found beneath Cornwall’s countryside, dating back some 2,400 years. But why do they exist? “How do you like spiders?” asked James Gossip, an archaeologist, British expert
Spain’s cursed village of witchesBBC Travel - By Inka Piegsa-QuischotteThis tiny village has been excommunicated, and cursed with a spell so powerful that only the Pope can lift it. How does a tiny Spanish village of just 62 souls come to be excommunicated in its entirety
Indonesia's best – and goriest – cuisineBBC Travel - By Theodora SutcliffeWhile it's the unusual ingredients – from python to dog – that make Minahasa food notorious, it's the exceptional spice pastes that have built its reputation. The dog's singed carcass lay rigid – jaws
The tiny island of 20,000 gravesBBC Travel - By Amanda RuggeriOnce a centre of power and one of the holiest places in Britain, today Bardsey Island has only four year-round residents – and no electric grid, cars or indoor toilets. Bardsey Island doesn’t have cars,
The bizarre theft of a Celtic sea godBBC Travel - By Paul ClementsPaul Clements follows one of 2015’s strangest news stories along the Wild Atlantic Way, a 2,500km route that hugs Ireland’s dramatic west coast. One of the most bizarre news stories of 2015 was the January
The eerie grave of 200,000 monksBBC Travel - By Adam H GrahamAdam H Graham takes a spiritual retreat to one of Koya-san’s 54 shukubo: inns where guests are encouraged to meditate, commune and eat vegetarian cuisine with the monks or nuns. It was dusk when we entered
A lake that hides a 500-year-old secretBBC Travel - By Krista EleftheriouLaguna de los Condores is one of the country’s most important Inca sites – but only 150 people trek to this remote spot each year. High in the remote northwestern Andes is a stunning mountain lake that’s
