Author: Ms. R.

The Basotho people comprise 99 percent of Lesotho‘s population, so it seems fitting that the remote enclave country’s only official Visitor’s Center was fashioned after their traditional straw hat. The hat has a wide brim and a pointed top, a design that is said to be inspired by the shape of Mount Qiloane. A similar style of hat was worn by Basotho tribal chiefs, who performed a type of song known as mokorotlo at certain ceremonies. In the 1950s and 60s, the hats……

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Every time you shop for groceries, you see them: Red Delicious apples, Cavendish bananas, Crimson Seedless grapes, and so on. The monotonous array of fruit stacked onto supermarket shelves does little to represent the bountiful biodiversity of the world’s fruit. But beyond the standard produce aisle, the pineapples are pink and the bananas taste like custardy melons. Sadly, it’s not always easy to find rare fruits from far-flung corners of the globe. Chocolate pudding fruit and pink lemonade blueberries……

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There’s a restless giant on the Alaskan landscape. Just where the state’s panhandle squeezes past a corner of Canada’s Yukon, at the foot of the Saint Elias Mountains, a massive glacier sprawls across a flat plain. Alternating bands of snow and rocky debris ring its miles-long edge to create the appearance of ripples on a pond frozen in time. The Malaspina Glacier, known as Sít’ Tlein in Lingít, is the largest glacier of its kind in North America, at……

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The lone arch left at Rookhope is the only remaining feature of the buildings that were once Rookhope (or Lintzgarth) Smelt Mill. The smelt mill was built in 1737 by the Blackett family and became the smelt mill for all the lead mines in Rookhope Valley, replacing an older mill further up the valley at Groverake. The purpose of the mill was to smelt lead ore from the mines along the valley into bars of lead, known as “pigs.”……

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Tusher Tunnel is a crack that extends vertically through one of the sandstone units, the Slickrock Member of the Entrada Sandstone, that caps a ridge outside of Moab, Utah. Despite the name, it isn’t strictly a “tunnel” because it’s open at the top. Nevertheless, the crack is wider at the bottom, such that it effectively provides a tunnel through the sandstone ridge because the flared part is tall enough to stand up in. The feature formed as water coming down……

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Long before ASCII images or the fax machine, there was another way to send an image: the pantelegraph. Using a swinging pendulum to scan the image, the recipient would receive it via an electric current passed through a paper at each point where the “scanner” saw dark, and chemicals in that paper would dye it. This contraption was invented by Giovanni Caselli in the mid-19th century. While teaching at the University of Florence, Caselli dedicated much of his time to studying how……

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On a May day in 2020, a nondescript sedan set out from the Red Ball Garage in Manhattan, its driver determined to take back a piece of history. Departing shortly before 6 p.m., the silver Audi S6 should have encountered rush hour—but the world had closed down due to COVID-19. The sedan hit one stoplight on East 31st Street and was through the Lincoln Tunnel into New Jersey in six minutes, the start of a daylong, cross-country odyssey. Drivers……

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Situated in the unique rainforest in the heart of the Tarra Bulga National Park lies the Corrigan Suspension Bridge. This bridge, named after a local engineer who led the construction project, was originally constructed in 1938 in an attempt to attract visitors to the perfect vantage point high above the tree ferns. This special structure was rebuilt by the local armed forces in 1982.  Visitors are rewarded with a fantastic view over the rainforest and the variety of wildlife……

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The Ancient House is one of a few likely candidates for the title of “oldest house in London.” Its location in Walthamstow, fairly distant from the core of the city means that there are some challenges to this distinction. A building on Cloth Fair is almost certainly the City’s winner, while the other contenders include Sutton House in Hackney and Bromley Hall in Tower Hamlets. All of them date from either the 15th or 16th-centuries, with more modern renovations……

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If you feel a sudden need to test your strength while in the vicinity of Reykjavík, you’re in luck. There is a 186-kilogram (410-pound) basalt rock that exists to be lifted.  Before it was a vacation destination for tourists exploring western Iceland’s natural beauty, Húsafell was a farm and church estate. When Snorri Björnsson, who was pastor from 1756 to 1803, built a rock-walled pen for shearing sheep and milking goats, he placed this large basalt stone, known as……

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