Author: Ms. R.

The Rubicon Hydroelectric Scheme was a triumph of early-20th century engineering. Constructed by the State Electricity Commission in 1922, it has supplied electricity to Victoria for almost 100 years by harnessing the natural power of the Rubicon and Royston Rivers. When first opened, the system supplied around 16 percent of the entire state’s electricity requirements. It consists of several power stations, of which the Rubicon Power Station is the largest. These buildings sit at the bottom of a steep……

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Nestled in the Himalayan foothills well north of Kathmandu’s city center is a wholly remarkable Hindu temple. The site pays homage to Vishnu (Narayan) whose likeness floats on the sea of bliss reclining upon the multi-headed snake Shesh. It’s believed the 16-foot (5-meter) long sculpture made from a single block of basalt, was created during the 6th-century CE by Vishnugupta, an early king of the Kathmandu Valley.  Dedication to the worship of Vishnu at this temple varied over the……

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On the shore of Telise village stands two stone pyramid-shaped towers. They were constructed around 1910 and were used by seamen to orient their vessels to the shore. The lower marker stands around 22-feet (7-meters) and the upper is 39-feet (12-meters) high. The distance between them is well over 1,000-feet (400-meters). Together, these structures form a direct route for navigation that was used by ships to safely dock at the nearby seaside resort town of Haapsalu. The towers were……

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A sconce was a defensive structure that was developed as an earthwork. They normally followed a star-shaped plan to allow overlapping fields of fire. They were also capable of absorbing artillery blasts. Several sconces were constructed around Newark in Nottinghamshire, England during the English Civil War. The town was overwhelmingly royalist and was subjected to sieges by Parliamentary forces. The Queen’s Sconce, named for the wife of Charles I, was the main defensive structure to the south of the……

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Atlas Obscura and Epic Magazine have teamed up for Monster Mythology, an ongoing series about things that go bump in the night around the world—their origins, their evolution, their modern cultural relevance. In the village of Atuga, Ethiopia, on any given night in late October, the local farmers make sure to return from tending their livestock well before the sun sets. Markets close up and mothers beckon their children home from play, a distinct note of urgency in their……

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Atlas Obscura and Epic Magazine have teamed up for Monster Mythology, an ongoing series about things that go bump in the night around the world—their origins, their evolution, their modern cultural relevance. A dead woman, her face disfigured by poisoned makeup, returns to take revenge on the husband who murdered her. A samurai is beheaded in a failed rebellion, his head put on display in a town square, where it bellows for the return of his body. In the……

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The SS1 Aurelia highway runs along Italy’s Tuscan coast, which makes it one of the most familiar holiday routes in the nation. Among the sites along the road is an oddity that never fails to catch the eye of drivers and passengers: a sign, at kilometer 273, on the edge of the city limits of Cecina. On it, an arrow points toward a small exit on the big highway: “La California.” “That sign is always brand new,” says local……

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The stunning island of Palmarola is the second-largest island in the Pontine archipelago. Due to its steep cliffs and spectacular rugged landscape, the island is mostly uninhabited during the year except for the summer months. The French oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau described it, “as the most beautiful island in the Mediterranean Sea”. In the past, the islanders of Ponza would farm Palmarola and seek shelter from corsairs in their cave dwellings, which were built into the volcanic rock above the……

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The southern Swedish island of Öja was a strategic location the Baltic Sea when it came to the country’s shoreline defense. Fearing a Russian invasion by sea during the Cold War, the military decided to replace many of the old shore defenses with a new system: the ERSTA artillery battery. In the 1970s, the military built six of these systems, with one stationed in the village of Landsort on Öja. Today, the Landsort battery is the only one that……

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