Author: Ms. R.

Each week, Atlas Obscura is providing a new short excerpt from our upcoming book, Wild Life: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Living Wonders (September 17, 2024). Gruba Kaśka is one of Warsaw’s largest water filtration plants. Every day, it pumps tens of millions of gallons out of the Vistula River and through taps across Poland’s capital. Each drop is guaranteed by the plant’s unusual quality-control team: freshwater mussels hooked up to a computer. The concept is simple. All……

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Flags are one of those things most people don’t think much about—except, of course, for vexillologists, who study flag design—but maybe they should. Flags tell fascinating stories. From the Atlas Obscura archives: the weird tales behind some of the world’s most unusual and ugly, protected, and reviled national symbols. Plus a few tips for designing your own. Around the World in Things You Can’t Do to Flags by Dan Nosowitz You might be able to tell where in the……

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In 1858, New England quaker John Greenleaf Whittier published a poem in The Atlantic about grief. In sparse verses, he tells of a home where the lady of the house has passed away. A “chore-girl” in mourning goes to the family apiary and drapes “each hive with a shred of black.” She’s come to tell the hives’ inhabitants the terrible news: “Stay at home, pretty bees, fly not hence! / Mistress Mary is dead and gone!” Strange though it……

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Set on expansive grounds with a calm lake, the Upopoy museum complex gives insight into the historical and current lives of the Ainu people, one of Japan’s least populous minority groups. The Ainu hail from the northern islands of Japan, including Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands. The culture is quite unlike that of other regions in the country, partly due to the extreme weather experienced so far north. The indoor museum explains the unique ceremonies, clothing, food, and……

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Avoid the hungry hordes lining up for bagels and head next door to this Mediterranean bakery on Massachusetts Avenue. Mahalab Bakery serves a strictly savory array of golden-crusted baked goods. First among them are fatayers, Levantine stuffed pies that come filled with spinach, feta, and wild oregano, or roasted peppers and crumbly goat cheese, or, if your palate is craving a New England twist, acorn squash, ricotta, and sage.  Meat-eaters may gravitate to the beef and tomato sfiha, a……

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Kokusai-dōri is the main shopping strip of Naha, Okinawa, a perpetually packed mile of souvenir shops and traditional restaurants. In the midst of this busy, highly touristic area, one quirky café continues to be an oasis from the crowds for locals. Founded in 1974, Inshallah is a world apart from the modern-tropical Okinawa outside. As you descend the steps into the underground, you will be transported to an Arabian coffeehouse, complete with Moorish arches and tangerine lamplights, Turkish rugs,……

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Opened in 1913 by Harry Karandzieff and his best friend Pete Jugaloff, Crown Candy Kitchen is the oldest soda fountain in St. Louis. The two friends used their confectionary skills from Greece to whip up sweets in a family-friendly environment. During the 1950s, Harry’s son George took the business over and it into what it is today. Today, George’s three sons, Andy, Tommy and Mike, run the shop with a little help from the fourth. generation. Besides the soda fountain……

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When you read the words “gamma radiation” or “irradiated ecosystem” your first thoughts might turn towards the Incredible Hulk or Godzilla, two of the most infamous radioactive monsters of pop culture. Science fiction and horror stories and movies featuring atomic-powered beasts flourished in the imagination following the end of World War II, but the real story of how we began to understand the effects of radiation on ecological systems may have started in the Pine Barrens of Long Island……

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In the seaside town of Sesimbra, just 24 miles south of Lisbon, resides the charming Chapel of Espírito Santo dos Mareantes (Chapel of the Holy Spirit of the Navigators). Founded by a confraternity of local seafarers and fishermen sometime during the late 14th-15th centuries. The religious sanctuary also included a hospital and meeting space underneath. On this lower floor, poor and sick sailors were given succor. While convalescing or conversing, several of these maritime men drew pictures of boats……

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Founded circa 1527, Sogen-ji Temple was once a grand Buddhist temple with a mausoleum dedicated to the spirits of the kings of the Ryukyu Kingdom. In 1945, however, the temple was lost during the months-long Battle of Okinawa. All that remained was its First Gate, a triple archway predating the foundation of Sogen-ji. After the war, both the U.S. Civil Administration and local benefactors funded the restoration of the damaged gate, converting the temple site into a public park. Today,……

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