Author: Ms. R.

Long before the rise of the Roman Empire, the Mayans were carving roads and erecting massive stone edifices on the Yucatán Peninsula. Somewhere between 1500 and 1200 BC, Mesoamerican people discovered nixtamalization, or boiling dried corn kernels in alkaline water with calcium hydroxide derived from ash. The process rendered corn far more digestible, unlocking previously unobtainable nutrients and creating a foodstuff that fueled empires. By 1000 BC, dough made from nixtamalized corn was being formed into tamales and other……

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For Women’s History Month, Atlas Obscura delves into the world of espionage, where being overlooked and underestimated has been an asset for centuries of women spies. Previously: The Invisible, Afflicted Spy Who Led the U.S. Army Into Occupied Manila. The pretty young woman with the dark curls was searching for her lost brother. That wasn’t unusual in the summer of 1863. The American Civil War had been raging for two years. Hundreds of thousands had died and the chaos……

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Dating back to the 12th century, the Pont du Diable is a Roman bridge in Toulon-sur-Arroux, France. Legends surround the history of this 13-arch structure that crosses the River Arroux. The first local legend concerns the Lord of Toulon. He had a castle at the east bank of the river, but his wife preferred to ride her horse on the other side of the Arroux. To cross the river with her horse without getting her clothes wet, she had to……

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A squashy-looking chair and a stately grandfather clock sit by the curb at the end of Chapel Street in Bradford, England. But they aren’t being moved or given away—they’ve been in the same place since the early 1990s. And they’re made out of stone. Created by the artist Timothy Shutter, these pieces of stone furniture are a sculpture by the name of Grandad’s Clock and Chair. The piece was commissioned in 1991 by Bradford Council and Little Germany Action Group, and installed……

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For years, Sylvie Njobati would walk by a life-size statue of a woman in Kumbo, in the northwest region of Cameroon. Meticulously outlined with hundreds of seashells, the statue depicts Ngonnso, the queen mother of Nso people, a cultural group in the region whose origin can be traced to the 14th century. According to Nso oral history, Ngonnso founded the Nso kingdom after a brutal conflict with her two brothers. “She was able to conquer, to defeat, to ensure……

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Ulverston, a market town in northwestern England, is situated a mile inland from the shore of Morecambe Bay. Despite this distance from the sea, the town was designated as a seaport in the late 1700s, to get around paying sea duty on certain goods which could be shipped on to canal routes. To improve access to the town a canal was built, its total length is just 1.35 miles (2 km long) and along its whole length, the canal……

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Close to the beach in the coastal town of Nieuwpoort, Belgium stands a shining sculpture of a sea turtle with a rider holding a set of reins while sitting atop the tremendous turtle’s shell. The three-meter (10-foot) tall sculpture is called Searching for Utopia. The slow agonizing turtle is on its way to Utopia, an ideal reality or place that in fact does not exist. The work was created by Belgian artist Jan Fabre. Fabre is famous for his……

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Aletta Henriëtte Jacobs is a feminist icon for being the first woman to successfully finish a university education and also the first woman to become a doctor in the Netherlands, as well as her work for women’s rights, deregulating prostitution, and starting the world’s first birth control clinic. Needless to say, there was a lot of counter-pressure against the type of change that Jacobs fought for. But over the years she has become an important figure in the eyes……

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Gravina in Puglia is a small town located on the edge of a ravine above a small river. Inhabited since the Paleolithic, it was later a Greek and then Roman city. While the city is entirely on one side of the ravine, some religious sites were built on the other one, making the construction of a bridge necessary. It is not clear when the bridge was built exactly but it is mentioned for the first time in the mid-17th……

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Raschala is a typical village in the Weinviertel, a wine-growing region in Austria. For the most part, it’s similar to other villages in the region: There are wine bars, wine barrels, and the Kellergasse, a lane where the wine cellars and press houses are located. There’s also a monument marking a spot where the famous composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is said to have relieved his bladder. Just one problem: Mozart never went to Raschala. Many tourists come to the Weinviertel……

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The end of the Greek Civil War resulted in thousands of impoverished Greeks leaving the countryside and relocating to Athens. This put a significant strain on the available housing in the city, which resulted in hurried development. Many of these projects were eyesores or had ongoing issues, however, a longbow-shaped building at the foot of Filopappou Hill was one of the success stories. In 1960, the Greek Ministry of Public Works hired Elli Vassilikioti to design a social housing……

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The vast majority of the world’s vineyards grow vitis vinifera grapes, a species that hails from Europe. This includes the six “noble” grapes that dominate upscale winemaking: cabernet sauvignon, merlot, pinot noir, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, and riesling. But at TerraVox, every wine is made with grapes native to the Americas, a trait so rare that founder Jerry Eisterhold describes his business as more of a museum than a winery. It’s fitting that this innovative, all-American winery is in Missouri, which……

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