Author: Ms. R.

From the mid-1800s to 1970, this lake served as one of Denmark‘s largest granite mines, shipping granite to various locations across the country from the nearby harbor. Following its abandonment, water accumulated, giving rise to one of Denmark’s most recognizable lakes. Featuring crystal-blue waters and surrounded by the scenic hill of Hammeren, it stands out as one of Denmark’s finest unnatural wonders. With a surface height of approximately seven meters, this former granite mine has become a premier location……

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The Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Museum is tucked away on the second floor of a food hall in downtown Colorado Springs, with just a small sign outside to draw passersby into its rich collection. You’ll enter the museum and immediately find yourself surrounded by hundreds of photographs, toys, repair equipment, and, of course, several dozen motorcycles. With bikes dating back to the 1910s, you can see the evolution of motorcycles, from those driven by couriers and members of the military……

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Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we take a hike up Great Blue Hill in Boston and get more than a view of the city. A visit to the peak also reveals the story of a weather observatory that happens to be the site of the longest continuous daily weather record in the United States. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s……

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This themed crossword comes from Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel, who grew up in Xi’an, China, before moving to the United States in 2001. She’s the author of Sip & Solve Easy Mini Crosswords. You can solve the puzzle below, or download it in .pdf or .puz. Note that the links in the clues will take you to Atlas Obscura pages that may contain the answer. Happy solving!…

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In 1971, Glen McLaughlin came across a strange map in a London map shop. Americæ Nova Descriptio, produced by Anne Seile (1) in 1663, showed California as a big, carrot-shaped island, floating off the coast of North America. McLaughlin, a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, bought the map and hung it on a wall at home. It turned into a popular talking point with visitors, and California-as-an-island became McLaughlin’s decades-long obsession. Over the next 40 years, he collected more……

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“It’s normal now for people to say, ‘I can eat a steak, but the cow’s brain? That’s the most extreme thing I’ve ever heard,” says health coach and offal cookbook author Ashleigh VanHouten. “Throughout history, this was never a question. It wasn’t like, ‘In what culture was the brain eaten?’ Everybody ate all of it.” Traditionally, many cultures have regarded animal brains as a delicacy, and not just because of an ethos of zero waste. Brain’s texture and flavor—rich,……

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A silver, screaming giant is emerging from the ground at Viterbo’s Parco Valle Faul. His outstretched right arm towers above the ground, and his bent left leg and knee rise above the earth, while his left hand and right foot just break the surface. Where his bearded face breaks through the ground, you can see his mouth opening wide, as if to unleash a primal scream. this is Il Risveglio (The Awakening), a fiberglass version of a sculpture created by John……

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In Atlas Obscura’s Q&A series She Was There, we talk to female scholars who are writing long-forgotten women back into history. From soccer player Mia Hamm to gymnast Simone Biles to tennis champion Serena Williams, many female athletes are household names today. But for centuries, their predecessors were banned from participating in—or even watching—sports. In ancient Greece, women caught attending the original Olympic Games could face the death penalty. In the Victorian era, it was believed women who exercised……

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