Author: Ms. R.

When Auvo Leppänen anchored his boat next to a small cliff at lake Ranua, he realized that this location would be a beautiful place for tourists to stay. A few months later, Leppänen decided to rent the old Gasthaus Ranua that had been serving its customers in different roles since the 1940s. The Guesthouse itself was constructed after World War II as a bed and breakfast.  The building has been active ever since and still includes plenty of interesting……

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The medieval hamlet of Malborghetto stands at the old intersection of the Roman roads known as the Via Flaminia and the Via Veientana, 19 kilometers (12 miles) north of Rome. Some of the town’s architecture is made up of older Roman structures that were reused, but medieval and later structures were built around an extraordinary piece: a forgotten triumphal arch. Located at the intersection of two roads, the Arch of Malborghetto is a quadrifons arch, or an arch that……

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Arguably one of the most famous closed underground stations in London, Aldwych was originally opened in 1907 as Strand station. It served as the terminus of the short Piccadilly line branch from Holborn. Passenger numbers were very low from the 1920s on, and along with the branch it was considered for closure from time to time. During the both World War I and World War II, the empty parts of the station and its tunnels were used to shelter……

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In the late 1990s, at a former Han Dynasty military base in China called Xuanquanzhi, archaeologists excavated wall inscriptions and writings on silk that had been buried underground for more than 2,000 years. But some of the artifacts on which ancient Silk Road travelers left their mark came not so much from their minds as from their rear ends. In a latrine used between 111 and 109 BC, researchers discovered a trove of bamboo “wipe sticks,” each wrapped at……

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In the late 1990s, at a former Han Dynasty military base in China called Xuanquanzhi, archaeologists excavated wall inscriptions and writings on silk that had been buried underground for more than 2,000 years. But some of the artifacts on which ancient Silk Road travelers left their mark came not so much from their minds as from their rear ends. In a latrine used between 111 and 109 BC, researchers discovered a trove of bamboo “wipe sticks,” each wrapped at……

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After weeks of social distancing, you may want to distance yourself from your own house. Luckily, we’ve got just the thing to help you do that. We asked Atlas Obscura staff to share TV recommendations that showcase weird and wondrous settings, from 1920s Berlin to 19th-century Malacca to a futuristic, pessimistic São Paulo. Lose yourself in these 11 global shows that you can watch now. Itaewon Class Seoul, South Korea; streaming on Netflix Park Saeroyi is a teenager when……

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Forget ships in a bottle. This museum includes interlocking wooden wheels showcased in bottle displays. It’s also home to a violin composed of sugar, a pair of wooden shoes about four feet long, and a booby-trapped lock designed to snare the hand of anyone who tries to pick it. The common denominator for all these items? Each of these objects is a chef d’œuvre, or masterpiece produced by a craftsman applying to become a compagnon. Compagnonnage refers to a……

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A little star twinkling sounds like a cute thought—until that star starts rapidly growing in size, forcing you and everyone nearby into shelter as it pelts the Earth with extraterrestrial strata. Meteorites rarely cause even injury with their otherworldly masses, but in August 1888, a space rock apparently went the whole nine yards, striking and killing one man and paralyzing another in Iraqi Kurdistan. The death was recently ID’d in documents found in the Turkish state archives, and reported……

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