Author: Ms. R.

This year, Atlas Obscura went hunting for answers to some of the surprising mysteries that have perplexed historians, scientists, artists, and treasure hunters for decades. We found debunked urban legends (the truth was far weirder), a new plant species, a very important misspelling, and, possibly, at least one elaborate prank. The Strange, Awful Truth Behind Utah’s Eerie Stone Cross by Greg Christensen For decades a crudely constructed, 20-foot-tall cement and stone cross stood in a hollow on the northern……

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This town has a small, yet inviting community filled with charm. High Street is the main artery of this vibrant village with its vast array of retail shops, cafes, and galleries. Off of this bustling thoroughfare are a series of alleyways and narrow streets. To the uninitiated, they conceal some of the town’s backstory and hidden treasures. Pennels Close is just one fine example of this phenomenon. This small passage was named after a shopkeeper by the name of……

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There is an axiom that goes something like this: “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” This could be applied to a circular metal orb embedded into the wall of a restaurant next to Edinburgh Castle Esplanade. Many tour guides will point out the cannonball to visiting tourists, and inform them that it was fired from the fortress during one of its many sieges. While it’s true that Edinburgh Castle was the scene of……

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Tucked in the popular Souq Waqif near the Falcon souk and off a side alley, little falcon footprints lead up to the entrance of a modern, non-profit animal hospital just for the prized falcons of Qatar. During peak falconry season, September to January, Souq Waqif Falcon Hospital treats up to 150 birds a day. First opened in 2008, Souq Waqif Falcon Hospital is a state-of-the-art facility with equipment to deal with issues from a chipped talon to a broken wing…….

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There’s this incredible house in Los Angeles that was once a part of one of the city’s first gated communities. Known as the Doheny Mansion, the house is now a part of the Mount St. Mary’s University campus.  There were once around 20 large houses owned or lived in by wealthy families in the Chester Place and St. James Park area, about a mile from downtown Los Angeles. Many of the houses have been lost to time or demolished, but……

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Across the Arctic, people have revered—and sometimes feared—eerie, shifting lights that arrived without warning in the night sky and never appeared the same way twice. Ancient explanations for the lights vary widely among the Saami, Tlingit, Vikings, and other northern cultures, changing from one fjord to the next and over centuries. The aurora borealis, or northern lights, have been described as the spirits of women who never married or of the stillborn; as restless, lonely souls of those who……

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Every holiday season, a giant Christmas tree stands in the center square of Kuressaare, a town of about 13,000 people on the densely-forested Estonian island of Saaremaa. Come January, that mighty spruce topples over and lands in the cocktails of drinkers from Romania to France. This second life is all part of a local distillery’s mission to transform Northern European Christmas trees into tonics. The eco-friendly project was started by Estonian couple Maarit Pöör and Tarmo Virki. Pöör, an……

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Like cooks themselves, cookbooks are often keepers of historical records. Whether it’s recipes to survive a long, dark winter in Antarctica or to fuel a feminist revolution, the best examples of the genre often provide snapshots in time. Others speak to the current zeitgeist, including our current anxieties about the possible impending apocalypse. At Gastro Obscura, we’re all about using food to tell stories that go way beyond the kitchen, which is why these particular cookbooks and the people……

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At Atlas Obscura, we believe in wonder. Curiosity, too. They’re two of the better angels of our nature as a species. For thousands of years, human wonder and curiosity led our ancestors to explore, innovate, experiment, and adapt. And we need those traits now more than ever. In a year when headlines about the ongoing climate crisis could be dire and overwhelming, we took heart in meeting people around the world who are tackling these challenges with creativity, goodwill,……

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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 visit the ruins of a slave castle off the coast of Sierra Leone to tell the story of Thomalind Polite, an American woman who learned that she was descended from a girl who was taken as a slave 250 years ago, at the age of 10. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring,……

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