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Amateur Archaeologists Uncover 'Sharp' Bronze Age Sword in Denmark
(Photo: Museum Vestsjælland)Recently, a couple of amateur archaeologists were out "on a stroll," as the Local puts it, in rural Zealand, the largest island in Denmark. They had a metal detector, and...
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Víddaflakk (Interdimensional Hopscotch) in Iceland
Kcymaerxthaere is a "parallel universe that intersects with much of our linear Earth, but with different stories, creatures, peoples, even laws of physics and qualities of existence." It has been...
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The Odd Hybrid Businesses That Defined the Early American Service Sector
A San Francisco Laundromat/Coffeeshop hybrid, with arcade games. (Photo: Stepan Mazurov/CC BY-SA 2.0)We take for granted the supposedly neat lines that divide industries from each other. We know that a...
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Artists are Salvaging Train Stations' Analog Departure Boards
The Solari board at MoMA. (Photo: Max Erds/CC BY 2.0)For years, noisy analog departure boards have been disappearing from Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. These boards, most remarkable for the flapping,...
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Found: The First Television Interview Nelson Mandela Ever Gave
Mandela spoke to an unknown reporter about ANC goals. (Photo: AVROTROS footage)In the 1956, more than 150 people belonging to an anti-apartheid coalition were arrested in South Africa and tried for...
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Church of the Jacobins' Little Crushed Man in Toulouse, France
The Church of the Jacobins is in the center of the city of Toulouse in southern France. It is a Gothic mass of brick and stone, decorated inside with elaborate trompe l’oeil and soaring pillars. Most...
View ArticleA Hacker From South Africa Just Rescued The First NASA Computer In Space
The Guidance and Navigation Control computer launched on 1966's Apollo-Saturn 202 mission, was the first of its kind. It successfully led a rocket in and out of suborbit, paving the way for the mission...
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Inside an Abandoned Connecticut Opera House With a Jail Beneath its Stage
Opened in 1899, Sterling Opera House was one of Connecticut's premiere entertainment venues. (All Photos: Luke Spencer)Discovering an abandoned, beautifully preserved opera house from the 19th century...
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Camp Century (Project Iceworm) in Greenland
The creepily named Project Iceworm was a secret U.S. Cold War mission to plan missile launch sites under the ice in Greenland. The plan was to dig 2,500 miles of tunnels in which to store and maybe...
View ArticleListen to the Mystical Music Box Version of Haddaway's 'What Is Love'
When you twist the crank of a music box, you expect to hear the notes of classical masterpieces, like Beethoven’s “Für Elise” or “Bach’s Minuet in G.” But this customized paper-tape hand crank music...
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Cryptozoology & Paranomal Museum in Littleton, North Carolina
The spookiest, most unexplainable phenomena always seem to happen in rural America. So where else would you open a museum dedicated to things that go bump in the night?Any wooded area is bound to have...
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Carty's Camp in Needles, California
Before it became Route 66, the National Trails Highway brought many travelers through Needles, California on the road out west. To provide accommodation for these new passersby, locals William Carty...
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Inside a Comedy Writer’s Treasure Trove of Mid-Century 3-D Photos
A stereoscopic camera, with people around viewing slides. (All photos: Atlas Obscura)The scene is very 2016—eight of us together in a room, each completely absorbed in what's happening inside our...
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Swedish Government Boards Achieve Gender Parity After 28 Years of Work
The cabinet of Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, which is half male and half female. (Photo: Frankie Fouganthin/CC BY-SA 4.0)In 1988, then Swedish Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson—also responsible...
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This Dog Fell Overboard and Was Rescued After Swimming Six Miles to Shore
Riley, as shown in a WPBN news story. [Screenshot: Atlas Obscura]It was a long 24 hours this past weekend for Riley, a Michigan dog who fell overboard from a boat and was found a day later, having...
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Howard Mausoleum Pyramid in Wicklow, Ireland
The Howard mausoleum was described by English writer Sir John Betjeman as "the largest pyramid beyond the banks of the Nile." Whether or not this is true is hard to verify—though pyramids are symbolic...
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Church of Two Worlds in Washington, D.C.
Followers of the Spiritualist faith believe that the soul continues to exist after the death of the body, and that believers can communicate with the dead. Spiritualists believe that the deceased can...
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7 Nuclear Test Sites You Can Visit Today
Atom bomb test at the Enewetak atoll in the Marshall Islands. (Photo: National Nuclear Security Administration/Public Domain)The atomic age began on July 16, 1945, when the Manhattan Project detonated...
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Take a Trip with Traveler
Ever see a truly remarkable salt flat or vertiginous glass suspension bridge in the Atlas and wish you had some extra cash to put towards getting there? You’re in luck. This fall, Traveler Beer...
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Atlas Obscura's Guide to the Longest Running Scientific Experiments
When, in 1596, cartographer Abraham Ortelius looked at a map he was working on, he noted something strange: The coasts of the continents looked as if they had once fit together. Ortelius noted in his...
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