Author: Ms. R.

Skeletal women with wind-whipped hair, half-seen atop the ramparts in the wee hours. Children, giggling demonically as they flit down passageways. The Fortaleza del Real Felipe, in Lima’s seedy port district of El Callao, has never lacked for resident haunts. The colonial garrison has certainly had time to accumulate them. Commissioned in 1747 by Viceroy José Antonio Manso de Velasco, the fort was the Spanish crown’s response to one of the chief irritants to its overseas empire: pirates. Starting……

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The tragedy of the Rhoads Opera House fire unfolded on January 13, 1908. After a kerosene stage light was knocked over, the flame spread to a malfunctioning stereopticon projector being used by an insufficiently-trained employee during a lecture on the second floor. The audience waited in their seats for employees to put the fire out, but as minutes passed and panic rose, the mass of people pressed toward the door, preventing it from opening inward. The exit stairwells narrowed at the……

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One would be forgiven for overlooking this unassuming tree. Though it stands an impressive 70 feet tall, the towering skyscrapers around the vicinity of St. Paul’s Cathedral make it seem small. But the plane tree, which is situated near the intersection of Cheapside and the aptly-named Wood Street, may be the oldest living tree in London. Though there are no written documents to show when it was planted, this tree has appeared in multiple news articles over the centuries……

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In the pantheon of iconic cartoon characters, there’s of course Mickey, Bugs, Homer, and a certain yellow sponge who has captured the hearts of audiences across the globes for over two decades. So, who lives in a pineapple under the sea? If your immediate response was an enthusiastic chanting of “Spongebob Squarepants,” you aren’t alone. The television show Spongebob Squarepants premiered on Nickelodeon in 1999 and has run ever since. It has cemented itself as not only a titan in pop……

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The Archway is a well-executed museum that tells the story of earlier cross-continental travel by earlier settlers Exhibits range from the earliest pioneers to traverse the continent, to transcontinental trains and automobile traffic along the Lincoln Highway, parts of which are now I-80. The museum is probably best described as a diorama that visitors can walk through and view the life-size figures. The story behind the exhibits are told through audio devices that visitors carry throughout the museum.  What’s……

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The tiny, wood-framed house stands alone beside a dry stone wall next to an unpaved road. Known as Innis (or Ennis) House, it is now part of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. The road that runs beside the house is the infamous Sunken Road, the site of the bloodiest military engagements of the First and Second Battles of Fredericksburg during the U.S. Civil War. Many of the over 12,000 Union troops killed during the First Battle 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 the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama, which bills itself as “the nation’s only retailer of lost luggage.” If you’ve ever lost a bag during air travel, it probably wound up there—along with many other treasures and oddities. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring, strange places. In under 15 minutes, we’ll……

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Despite being built atop of a disused burial ground, the Mount Street Gardens of today give away little of their sinister past. They feature a bronze-topped fountain from the 19th-century, gate piers made of Portland stone, trees from north and southeast China, and a host of nesting birds. The neighboring Carlos Place boasts one of Emilio Greco’s statues and a fountain designed by acclaimed Japanese architect, Tadao Ando. The Jesuit Church of the Immaculate Conception and the neighboring Grosvenor……

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This secluded ruin, a “hall house” if you really want to get technical, was originally a Mackintosh property, and it came to the Norman Knights Comyn/Cummings—later de Rait—family, apparently with some bad blood.  Mackintosh later re-acquired the castle, and then the Campbells. The last recorded reference to the castle comes from 1596, when it was abandoned, but it is said the Duke of Cumberland—the leader of the Government forces—stayed there in 1746 prior to the Battle of Culloden, the……

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