Author: Ms. R.

This unassuming storefront should be a top priority for any metal fan visiting Oslo. A record shop and unofficial metal museum in Norway‘s capitol city, Neseblod Records (“nosebleed”) is also central in many regards to the early history of black metal.  The record shop, originally named Helvete, was first opened in June 1991 by the late and now-infamous guitarist Euronymous. The term helvete is Norwegian for “hell,” and comes from the Norse hels víti, translating to “hell’s punishment.” As……

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By the banks of the Congaree River in Columbia, South Carolina, four squat brick kilns sit in a neat row on an unfenced, open lot. Wrapped in rusted metal bands, with patches of moss and wild grass emerging from their domed roofs, it’s evident their days of function are long gone—a point further underlined by the shiny new apartment complex next door. When it comes to urban development, however, these kilns have actually overpaid their dues: they’re all that……

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The middle of the 20th century saw many federal dam projects carried out across the country. Some were designed for flood control, others for hydroelectric power, and more than a few bore unintended consequences. But only one, it would seem, turned an 18th-century hilltop plantation cemetery into its very own island.  Cemetery Island, also known locally as Ghost Island, is all that remains (above water) of the Harrisburg Plantation, which was established in the late 1700s in what was……

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This quirky burger restaurant allows visitors to eat five stories up inside a “Hitachi,” one of the retired train cars from Melbourne’s suburban railway network. These trains are known as Hitachi trains because the electrical equipment was supplied by Commonwealth Engineering, with designs by the Hitachi company of Japan. The stainless steel Hitachi cars were the city’s first suburban trains with power-closing doors and heating. In total, 355 Hitachi train cars rolled along the Melbourne tracks between 1972 and……

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Most of the Buddha statues erected throughout Japan depict the religion’s founder sitting neatly in meditation. But one Buddhist temple complex nestled high in the lushly forested mountains east of Fukuoka City depicts the Buddha reclining on his side, moments before he enters parinirvana—the moment of death. The Nanzoin Temple Buddha stands out for another, likely more apparent reason, as well: standing 135 feet long, 36 feet tall, and weighing in at almost 300 tons, this is one of……

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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 a folk art dinosaur that was almost pushed to extinction due to lack of a building permit. 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 fascinating people and hear their stories. Join us……

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The thing about trees is that there are a lot of different kinds of them. A recent study found something more than 60,000 different species in the world, and this does not even include plants we think of as trees, but that are secretly something else (like all the species of palm tree, which are more closely related to grasses than oaks). My local lumberyard stocks wood from a tiny percentage of the world’s trees, but still felt overwhelming…….

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Martin Gilbert watched steep, green hillsides flash by as his plane descended in a narrow, winding valley to reach the airport for Bhutan‘s capital city, Thimphu. The route is considered one of aviation’s most dangerous approaches but Gilbert, a veterinarian who studies wild carnivore diseases for the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, is no stranger to remote locations and peril. Gilbert began planning his trip to Bhutan the minute he heard the news. One of Bhutan’s rare, high-elevation……

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Chairman Vu, Vietnam’s “Coffee King” and owner of the Trung Nguyên coffee company, opened The World Coffee Museum in 2018 with one mission: to build the coffee capital of the world. Vietnam is, after all, the world’s second-largest exporter of coffee.  The result is a 100-acre property in the central highland province of Dak Lak that boasts spectacular views and a museum like no other. The building, engulfed in curved archways, is inspired by long-houses, a local architectural style……

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Shortly after attaining enlightenment, Siddartha Gautama delivered a rousing speech on the Wheel of Law to a crowd of five, setting in motion a religious adherence that today boasts a following of 500 million. To commemorate the seminal spark of all Buddhist teaching, this 141-foot tall stupa has stood for millennia.  The Dhamek Stupa was first built in 249 B.C. by Ashoka the Great (304–232 B.C.), Indian emperor of the Mauryan Dynasty, who came to rule nearly the entire……

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Located close to the highest point in the Netherlands is a tiny little house known as Kleng Wach, Kleine Wache, or the Small Watch. It has marked the border for over a century, and the stone next to it for much longer.  The building was built somewhere in the 1890s on one of the main streets between Germany and the Netherlands near the town of Vaals. It was used until 1995 when the Schengen Agreement made it obsolete. Not……

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