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Cincinnati Yellow Lamps in Cincinnati, Ohio
Found only (as the name would suggest) in the City of Cincinnati, the Cincinnati Yellow Lamps are a distinctive but easily overlooked feature of the city's streetscape. Known officially as "Island...
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Vanadu Art House in Hyattsville, Maryland
Many years ago, museum conservator Clarke Bedford found himself alone with time to spare in his plain, mid-sized Maryland abode. From that day forward, Bedford began using all of his energy and heaps...
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Chernobyl’s Rogue Reactor Finally Gets a Better Dome
On April 26th, 1986, flaws and rushed tests at Chernobyl Plant No. 4 led to the worst nuclear power plant disaster in history. Now, thirty years later, the plant will finally be contained, covered by a...
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Strada Sforii (Rope Street) in Brașov, Romania
The historic city of Brașov is overall a standout location within mountainous central Romania, built originally by Teutonic Knights and German settlers brought in by the King of Hungary to safeguard...
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Burn O'Vat in Aberdeenshire, Scotland
A loop trail through the Muir of Dinnet National Natural Reserve will treat hikers not only to a tranquil exploration of the Aberdeenshire countryside, but also to a geological curiosity that has...
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Some Arsonists Have Already Destroyed the 2016 Gävle Goat
Each year, the Swedish city of Gävle celebrates the Christmas season by building a giant straw goat that pretty much begs to be lit on fire. We here at Atlas Obscura often enjoy placing friendly bets...
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Peenemünde Army Research Center in Peenemünde, Germany
When U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins set off from the Kennedy Space Center in 1969 to become the first men to set foot on the moon, they were in a Saturn-V-Rocket,...
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The Big Edge in Las Vegas, Nevada
Right off the Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada, amidst luxury casinos and towering neon lights, lies something completely out of place. Although bodies of water in the Mojave Desert are hard to come by, Las...
View ArticleSee What People of 1967 Imagined the World Would Be Like in 1999
A mother and son, both bedecked in flowing space-age capes, frolic along the beach. "What year is it now? I forgot," says the little boy. "Here, I'll show you," his mother responds. She writes "1999...
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Stunning Photos of Switzerland’s 'Ghost Cats'
A hoarse, yelping bark rang out from the wooded hillside. Then again. The unearthly calls, sounding somewhere between fox and cat, continued in a steady sequence, carrying through the forest’s mossy...
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Found: Secret Sliding Doors Hidden in a Church’s Walls
In Marshalltown, Iowa, a small city northeast of Des Moines, carpenters remodeling a church’s youth room recently found a surprise: an elaborate system of pulleys hidden in the walls.Many years ago, it...
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The Legs of Myles Standish in Halifax, Massachusetts
There is a pair of seven-foot legs hanging around Halifax, Massachusetts, seemingly with nowhere to go. They belong to a man of stone who clearly favored fancy boots, but why is he just standing...
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Toilet Cobra Terrorizes Apartments in South Africa After Escaping Catcher's Grip
Last Tuesday, around 9 a.m., an apartment-dweller in Pretoria, South Africa went into the bathroom and found a surprise. An enormous cobra, several feet long and the width of a human forearm, was...
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The Strange, Centuries-Old Tradition of Stuffing Dead Horses
Many a hunter has taken one of their big catches—a 12-point buck, for example, or maybe a moose—to a taxidermist, but not so long ago, you may have also considered taking a different animal: your...
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Origami in the Garden in Los Cerrillos, New Mexico
Motorists driving on Highway 14 south of Santa Fe might be surprised to spot a patch of monumental origami objects that appear as suddenly and inexplicably as they disappear. Those who chose to...
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Elda Footwear Museum in Elda, Spain
Elda is not far from Valencia, and has long been in the business of shoemaking. The quality is high, the designs advanced, and the Footwear Museum (Museo del Calzado) celebrates the rich history of...
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In 1918, California Drafted Children Into a War On Squirrels
In April 1918, as American doughboys faced down the Germans in France, California’s schoolchildren were enlisted to open a new Western Front. “We have enemies here at home more destructive, perhaps,...
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Harry’s Harbor Bazaar in Hamburg, Germany
The weirdest thing about Harry’s Harbor Bazaar, in Hamburg, isn’t the maze of musty shelves holding African masks and voodoo dolls, homoerotic New Guinean figurines, or century-old shrunken heads. The...
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Are 'Semester Abroad Accents' Real or Fake?
When Lindsay Lohan appeared on camera in October speaking in some kind of pan-European accent, she was subjected to the same form of mockery that generations of American college students who study...
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