Author: Ms. R.

Situated on the front step of a large townhouse on Park Gardens, this mosaic is part of Scottish football history. The mosaic depicts the badge and marks the entrance to the former headquarters of the Scottish Football Association (SFA). The organization was based out of this location for 44 years. The SFA eventually relocated to the refurbished Hampden Park in 2000.  The association’s roots date back to the 1860s, when football began to grow in popularity around the country. However,……

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On the northern coast of California, just minutes away from the Redwoods, the glow of the Battery Point Light spills out across the water each night, warning passing ships of the rugged coastline. One of the oldest operating lighthouses in the state, the museum-in-a-lighthouse has been active since 1856. The lighthouse has been automated for decades, but resident caretakers continue to inhabit the building, tending to the tower, operating the museum, and offering tours of the premises.  Over the……

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The legend of the Bisterne Dragon, just one of England’s many dragon-centric folktales, has been recounted since the early 17th century—though it likely dates back even earlier. According to the tale, a massive dragon terrorized the hamlet of Bisterne until one valiant knight, Sir Maurice de Berkeley, offered to help. In the hopes of slaying the dragon, the knight hid with his hounds, waiting to attack the creature when it crept out to steal its daily dose of milk…….

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In the Temple of Seti I in Abydos, there is a detail of an ancient Egyptian mural that is believed to be an out-of-place artifact, not unlike the infamous Dendera Light. Created during the reign of Seti I, the original carving translated to “He who repulses the nine enemies of Egypt.” It was later remade by Rameses II into “He who protects Egypt and overthrows the foreign countries.” The plaster he used has eroded away over time, and the……

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Dawn Ainsley, staff archaeologist at Canada’s Gold-Rush-era Barkerville historic town and park, was overseeing the installation of a new sewer line in 2012 when diggers struck a different kind of gold: garbage. “Every time we hit a garbage dump we had to stop and monitor it,” says Ainsley of the dig. The site of a largely Chinese-Canadian mining town established in the 1860s, and now an open-air museum, Barkerville is full of meaningful trash, the result of generations of……

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The Temple of Hercules is the best preserved of all the Roman temples in the town of Cori, southeast of Rome, in the region of the Lepini mountains.  It dates back to the beginning of the first century B.C., and was built during the age of Sulla in the ancient city of Cora. It’s a doric tetrastyle temple with four columns in the front and four columns per side, with a cella at the back. On the architrave is……

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When Ivvet Modinou got the call, she nearly fell out of her chair. A translucent, blue-green worm had been found in the deep ocean off the coast of the Falkland Islands. It was slender and miniscule—about as long as a capital letter is tall on this website. The wriggly thing had three antennae, two pairs of eyes, and fleshy, tapered protuberances sticking out on either side of its body—about as unfamiliar to us humans as any of the other……

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The location of Italy‘s true geographic center has obsessed writers since Roman times. Marcus Terrentius Varro (who was born in Rieti, then known as Reatae) claimed that his home region was Italy’s ombelicus (navel). Initially, the site was believed to be the nearby Lake of Paterno, sacred to the ancient Sabine people, which Pliny also cites in his Natural History: “in the region of Rieti, the lake of Cotilia , where an island floats, is……

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When the clock struck noon on May 11, the day that France began to lift its COVID-19 lockdown, a celebratory boom echoed through the city of Nice. The midday firework was not a response to the gradual ebb of a pandemic, however—it was a return to a decades-long tradition. “Just like towns have their church bells, the countryside has its roosters, and fields have their cows, for the last 150 years, Nice has had its cannon,” Philippe Arnello wrote……

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