Author: Ms. R.

On January 27, 1904, the Russian cruiser Varyag and another boat became blockaded by a Japanese squadron of 15 vessels at the Korean port of Chemulpo.  The boats were given the opportunity to surrender to the Japanese, but instead the Russian seamen decided to reject the offer and engage in an uneven battle.  Both the boats suffered extensive damage, with no possibility of continuing their resistance the Russians scuttled the boats and returned to Russia on foreign vessels. The……

Read More

In Atlas Obscura’s Q&A series She Was There, we talk to female scholars who are writing long-forgotten women back into history. It was April 1943 and a man was staring at her. British secret agent Odette Sansom (codename: LISE) noticed him immediately, with his “puffy red face” and thinning black hair. The stranger followed her into Hôtel de la Poste, a stucco-and-wood lodge that was her home in the quaint French alpine town of Annecy. Inside, another agent introduced……

Read More

One doesn’t expect to see them looming in the woods along the trails of a wildlife refuge. Long and low with rounded tops, they resemble ancient burial mounds or crypts. The back end of each curves down to the ground while the front has a flat concrete façade secured by a heavy iron door. A ventilation port projects from the top. Some of these structures face the trails while others stand in isolation among the trees These are concrete……

Read More

It seems absurd to ask, but who was Benjamin Franklin, really? The American founder’s legacy is at once ubiquitous and somehow elusive. He was never president, nor a cabinet secretary—he’s not even name-checked in Hamilton. Surveying his various careers as a scientist, inventor, writer, publisher, and diplomat, one could be forgiven for not properly engaging with any of them. Call it the curse of the polymath. That was the challenge before filmmaker Ken Burns, whose new, two-part documentary, Benjamin……

Read More

That Bratislava’s Old Town Hall is a striking historic building is hard to miss, but what often goes unnoticed is a cannonball stuck in the tower wall. It has been there since 1809, when Bratislava (called Pressburg back then, and one of the major cities of Austrian Empire) was bombarded by Napoleon Bonaparte. After the bloodbath of the Battle of Austerlitz (1805), Pressburg saw Napoleon sign a peace treaty with Austria. The peace did not last long and only……

Read More

Bennane Cave, or Snib’s Cave, can be found down the closed and now bypassed original coast road off the A77. A mortared masonry wall stands across the entrance to the cave, once inside you can see the remains of a now blocked window and the fireplace. There are traces of mortar on the rocks above the wall, suggesting that the cave was completely walled up previously. Further back is a second wall with a doorway that separates the front……

Read More

It’s around 4 a.m. on the island of Borneo, and a few researchers have already left camp. In darkness, they creep along boardwalk trails: lines of single planks of wood that offer solid footing in the swamp forest. Where the planks end, the scientists step gingerly into knee-deep muck and toe along tree roots. The team hopes to reach a slumbering orangutan before she wakes and urinates. They’ll try to catch the stream in a baggie on a stick,……

Read More

The Colonial Bishop of Guadalajara founded Hospicio Cabañas in 1701 to serve not only as a hospital but also as a church, orphanage, and workhouse for the poorer inhabitants of the city. By 1796 the original building required an expansion and a facelift, so the colonial authorities hired the renowned Spanish architect Manuel Tolsá to construct the building. No expense was spared. Inspired by the Baroque grandeur of the Les Invalides in Paris and El Escorial in Madrid, Tolsá got to work……

Read More

On the edge of a 100-foot tall cliff, a 2,000-year-old promontory fort known as Barsalloch Fort overlooks the sea towards the Mull of Galloway, the Isle of Man, and Northern Ireland. The fortified settlement is situated on a D-shaped bank surrounded by a ditch 33 feet wide and 11 feet deep. There’s also a protective earthen rampart three feet tall on either side. The entrance to the enclosure was located on the northeast side of the settlement. The site at……

Read More

Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we visit a treacherous path cut through a stretch of the Pyrenees Mountains in France that may have played a key part in one nation’s quest for international influence—and possibly helped foment a revolution. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring, strange places. In under 15 minutes, we’ll take you to an incredible site,……

Read More