Author: Ms. R.

For Women’s History Month, Atlas Obscura’s Women in Conservation series celebrates women of science who are protecting our planet’s biodiversity in innovative ways. The cigarette butts and plastic wrappers were the first warning signs. The trash, found deep in the rain forest of Southern Borneo’s Tanjung Puting National Park in the late 1990s, was worrisome evidence that a new batch of poachers was on the prowl. Over several decades, the region had been hit by illegal loggers and rampant,……

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It was October 15, 1633, and Alison Dick wasn’t allowed to sleep. She was covered in grime. Freezing wind cut through her like a knife. Several soldiers loomed outside the dank church steeple that had become her cell. They had been paid 14 shillings to keep her awake, though history doesn’t record how. Perhaps they yelled or poked her or threw water on her. Local church court documents say only that Dick “is ordaned to be wakeit heirafter.” Likely……

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Rosa Slade Gragg wasn’t a woman to take no for an answer. So, in 1941, when neighborhood rules wouldn’t allow her to live in a house she wanted to buy in Midtown Detroit because of the color of her skin, Gragg found a creative solution. The organizer and activist had spent a lifetime opening doors previously closed to Black women. Now, she decided, she would just move the door. Fourteen years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her……

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One of the most prolific bumper sticker and t-shirt slogans in Nepal is “Buddha was born in Nepal.” Although he is often associated with India where he lived and traveled extensively, or with Tibet where his influence is keenly felt, Siddhartha Gautama Buddha is widely believed to have been born in Lumbini, Nepal, where his nascency is majestically celebrated. Standing just outside the renowned Maya Devi Temple in the Lumbini gardens is the Ashoka pillar commemorating this transcendent event…….

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Located in a historic building in the center of Wonthaggi is this used book store. Apparently having once operated as an old money office complete with living spaces for the owner in the back, little has been changed to turn the space into a store. Books pile high on the old counters and every space of the shop is filled up with merchandise for (re)sale—even filling bedroom closets, forming stacks directly on the floor, and filling up slots on……

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Sculpture Trails is the perfect blend of outdoor experience and art appreciation. With well over 100 eclectic sculptures of various sizes, this park is a delight to all the senses. There are several paths through the woods, so each visit is different. The sculptures are lovely any time of year, but the change of the seasons exposes different qualities—hiding some figures with leaves in summer, filling the contours of others with snow in winter. First created in 2002, the……

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At one point in time, the city of Canterbury had seven gates. Over the following centuries, however, all were demolished with the exception of the West Gate tower, making it both the last surviving medieval gateway in Canterbury as well as the largest surviving city gate in the entire United Kingdom. While it was initially built for war, the stubborn structure has come to wear many hats across the centuries.  Because the tower was built during the Hundred Years……

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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, Criminal and This is Love host Phoebe Judge brings us to the ancient ruins of Torre Argentina in Rome—the site of Julius Caesar’s assassination, which also happens to double as an enormous sanctuary for cats. 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……

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