Author: Ms. R.

First come the punk riffs from Maksim Cristan on his electric guitar, then the operatic vocals from his partner Daria Spada, a discordant but thrilling mix of old and new, classic and experimental. The balcony concert has begun. In the courtyard of an apartment building in the historic center of Turin, in northern Italy, an intergenerational crowd—from adolescents to pensioners—moves to the music. The atmosphere is festive and cathartic. Early in 2020 videos flew around the world of Italians……

Read More

Since the advent of incandescent light, humans have been casting away darkness with reckless abandon. Global light emissions have risen at an average rate of 2.2 percent annually since 2012, such that 99 percent of today’s North American and European populations now live under light-polluted skies. In an ever-brightening world, the Bare Dark Sky Observatory stands out even more for being so superlatively stygian. This public observatory crests a 2,700-foot high peak in a particularly undeveloped stretch of the……

Read More

During the sixth century, a small but wealthy Jewish village in Golan Heights constructed a large synagogue. The synagogue stood for three centuries before a devastating earthquake in 749 destroyed the entire village. The village and its impressive synagogue have lain in ruins ever since. That is, until 2003 when engineer Yehoshua Dray and archeologist Chaim Ben-David began a project with an ambitious goal of reconstructing the ancient synagogue at Ein Keshatot (also known as Umm el-Qanatir). Digital scans……

Read More

Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we visit Razzouk Tattoo, a studio in Jerusalem has given Christian pilgrims permanent souvenirs of their travel for centuries. 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……

Read More

It’s best to go to hell at night. Drive three and a half hours north of Turkmenistan’s eerily quiet, marble-clad capital, Ashgabat, deeper and deeper into the flat, seemingly empty desert. In the middle of nowhere, surrounded only by sand, turn onto a dirt road. Then, you’ll see it. Bright orange flames rise out of an infernal abyss, licking the night sky. The air at the pit’s edge is thick and hot, like standing too close to an erupting……

Read More

In December of 2017, the Iranian-American cookbook author Najmieh Batmanglij tasted سوراغ (romanized: sooragh) for the first time in Evaz, a small inland town in the south of Iran. Halimeh Jonaybi, a local woman and talented cook, made the sooragh from scratch in her backyard under the shade of an old wild palm tree. Batmanglij remembers the salty, fishy taste of the sooragh, which had been pickled and preserved in a clay jar. Sooragh is a deep crimson sauce……

Read More

The Riverside Station, Savannah’s first modern power plant, was built in 1912 to cater to the city’s 20th-century hunger for electricity. At the time of its completion, the plant was hailed as a modern marvel, one of the most impressive engineering undertakings in the American South that pushed Savannah into the electric age with grace and confidence. For the next 95 years, you’d be hard-pressed to find more magnificent and iconic power stations south of the Mason-Dixon Line. But……

Read More

In Mariánské Lázne it is possible to see many sights from all over Czechia in less than one day. The Boheminium miniature park opened in 1999 with six replicas of famous Czech landmarks, and has continued to add new exhibits over the years. Today the park includes 75 miniatures, including spa houses, churches, castles, towers, forts, a train track, a port, and an airport—every one of them on a scale of 1:25. Located on top of a hill at……

Read More

With more than 350 rare and vintage motorcycles on display, this western North Carolina facility is widely believed to house the broadest collection of American motorcycles and associated memorabilia anywhere on earth. There are bikes that race, bikes that jump, those that ride walls, and those that climb mountains. And while it is technically called a “museum,” the artifacts here don’t just gather dust. As per its slogan, the “Museum That Runs,” nearly every bike on display—even those a……

Read More