Author: Ms. R.

Sometimes the most amazing things lay off the beaten path and away from the more touristy sights of a city. Such is the case in the Fairfax neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, where one man’s lifetime fascination with tinkering, muscle cars, and monster trucks has translated into a delightful menagerie of roadside art pieces. Inspired by the giant mechanical spider in 1999’s Wild Wild West, Timothy Willis has built over 28 brightly painted robots and fantastical machines on a grassy……

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Promontory Point, Utah, is justly famous as the site where the eastward-building and westward-building parts of the Transcontinental Railroad were connected in 1869. And the historic park at the site, with its visitor center, replica locomotives, and interpretive exhibits, is certainly worth a visit. But what is less known is that this part of the original transcontinental route is completely abandoned. The route was bypassed by the Lucin Cutoff directly across the Great Salt Lake in the early 20th……

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Tiles are deeply steeped into the Portuguese cultural fabric. Decorating palatial buildings, humble houses, church façades, and public walls, tiles are ubiquitous in Portugal. This tradition dates back to the 13th century, when the Moor conquered the Iberian Peninsula. The Portuguese word for tile, azulejo, comes from the Arabic word الزليج (al-zellij), which refers to polished stones used for mosaics. In line with Moorish aesthetic sensibilities, the earliest examples of Portuguese tiles exhibit geometric patterns, but the art of tiling……

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Deep inside Brompton Cemetery in London resides a large mausoleum. This is the tomb of Hannah Courtoy, a wealthy woman who died in 1849. According to official records, she is interred inside this tomb along with two of her three adult daughters. However, according to local legend, the tomb also contains a working time machine.  Before Hannah Courtoy died, she was friends with a renowned Egyptologist named Joseph Bonomi. Bonomi was convinced that he had discovered the secrets of……

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Excerpted from The Greatest Invention: A History of the World in Nine Mysterious Scripts by Silvia Ferrara. Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Copyright © 2019 by Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore s.r.l. Translation copyright © 2022 by Todd Portnowitz. All rights reserved. On the Old Continent, on Crete, hidden among the ancient Aegean scripts from 4,000 years ago, is another script, perhaps an isolate, perhaps not, but certainly the most mysterious of all. And like all the most hidden and……

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This magnificent stainless steel sculpture made by local artist Doug Hadaway pays tribute to The Charles Edward. This was the name given to an iron-hulled paddled steamer built on the other side of the world in Dumbarton, Scotland, which shortly after being designed in 1864, sailed its way across the world to Australia. Sitting in an iconic position on the Metung foreshore, this work of art is based on the old ship itself and looks out to the sea……

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This retaining wall has been regularly tagged since 1979. Though technically illegal, the wall has become an institution of sorts. City officials even placed trash cans along the wall to discourage littering.  People call the 1,120-foot wall the “Community Bulletin Board.” Artists post all kinds of things from victory announcements and personal victories to activism slogans and tributes. Most of the art is done by students and local residents, but sometimes, a professional contributes to the piece. Local historians……

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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 marvel at the gigantic pieces of the United States Capitol in Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C.—waiting for anyone willing to step off the beaten path. 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, and along the way you’ll meet some……

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