David Dunlap Observatory - Atlas Obscura
This little-known telescope was the world’s second largest when it was built in 1935.| Atlas Obscura
This little-known telescope was the world’s second largest when it was built in 1935.| Atlas Obscura
The Museum of Illusions, now a global sensation, actually began in Zagreb in 2015 as the brainchild of Tomislav Pamuković and Roko Živković. Wanting to break free from the corporate grind, they created a space where the mind bends reality, inspired by the hit show Brain Games on National Geographic. What started as a single museum has expanded into a worldwide franchise, but the original location in Zagreb remains a favorite for curious minds. The museum offers hands-on optical illusions a...| Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places
In 1900, Walter Hubbard donated a park to the town of Meriden, Connecticut. A firm believer that every community should have a green space, he insisted it always remain free for residents to enjoy. Today, Hubbard park is open year-round with multiple sites to explore. Every April since 1978, it hosts the Daffodil Festival, when more than 600,000 daffodils fill its fields as far as the eye can see. The event is free, and includes carnival rides, food trucks and fireworks. But beware: you wil...| Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places
This natural park spans over 2,600 hectares and is home to the largest sand dunes in the Canary Islands. These magnificent dunes, formed by ancient marine deposits, stretch for miles along the coast, creating a landscape reminiscent of its across-the-ocean neighbor, the Sahara. Visitors to the park are greeted by a seemingly endless expanse of pristine, rolling dunes, offering a sense of solitude and the raw beauty of nature at its most untamed. Beyond the dunes, the park is also a protected ...| Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places
Felix Schlag, a German-American sculptor, won a nationwide competition in 1938 to redesign the U.S. five-cent coin. His portrait of Thomas Jefferson on the front and the image of Jefferson’s Monticello on the reverse became iconic, making Schlag’s design one of the most-circulated coins in American history. Born in Germany in 1891, Schlag emigrated to the United States in the 1920s to pursue a career as a sculptor. His big break came with the U.S. Mint’s competition, but despite his s...| Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places
I’m a backpack guy. Don’t even ask me about rolly bags—they’re like dragging a ball and chain; slow, loud and useless in gravel and snow. They don't fit under your seat. Half the time you end up having to check them anyway. I hope that when I die at the ripe old age of 107, they find me carrying a great carry-on backpack filled with tightly rolled socks and underwear. A great, comfortable backpack allows you to zip through the world, free as a bird. You are on and off planes effortles...| Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places
Andenne is located on the right bank of the Meuse, 1 hour drive southeast of Brussels. The town is best-known for its production of ceramics and forthe Collegiate Church of Saint Begga. The present building was rebuilt between 1764 and 1778. It was designed by the famous architect Laurent-Benoît Dewez in the neoclassical style. The building replaces the monastery founded in 692 by Sainte-Begge and the 7 churches that belonged to it. A legend explains this curious group of 8 religious buildin...| Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places
Once intended to stand at the top of the grandest cathedral in Pécs, the decaying statues of the 12 apostles now take shelter from the rain under an archway. Completed in 1855 after nine years of work, the statues were carved from Budafa yellow sandstone by Mihály Bartalits. Each stood at a towering four meters tall and was meant for the cathedral's façade. But the sandstone was of poor quality. Rain would seep into the stone and become trapped inside. In winter, it froze and expanded,...| Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places
In Herve, a town between Liège (Belgium) and Aachen (Germany), a brick building with 7 arches covers the town’s main water source. It is located below the town centre. The building was built in 1894. It replaced the old woollen washhouse dating from 1783, which had only two wells. Despite the relocation of the textile industry to the Vesdre Valley in the 19th century, the growth of the population and the need for water led to conflicts between users. In order to solve the problem, the wate...| Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places
In Tempe, Arizona, the sky looms large. The horizons are broad, and the sun shines more than 300 days a year. It’s hard to imagine a more fitting location for an installation by the Arizona-based artist James Turrell, known for his Skyspaces, a series of works that inspire visitors to ponder the connections between light, space, color, and the natural world. Installed on the campus of Arizona State University in 2012 and titled “Air Apparent,” this remarkable work allows viewers to re...| Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places
The Scots mining company, which owned many of the mines around Leadhills, near Biggar, in southeast Scotland, erected this bell in 1770 to commemorate James Stirling, who managed the mines and brought about great technical and organizational improvements to the benefit of both the company and the miners. Amongst these changes were the cut in the compulsory working day for miners from 12 hours to 6 hours. With the additional leisure time he encouraged the miners to grow vegetables in their...| Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places
Visitors to Eisenhower Park in Abilene, Kansas, will encounter this looming monument to the city of Abilene and its rich cultural heritage. Unveiled in December 2022, the World's Largest Belt Buckle measures 19 feet, 10 ½ inches wide and 13 feet, 11 ¼ inches tall—and that's not counting the frame! Visitors can climb a metal staircase to a small platform where they can stand atop the World's Largest Belt Buckle for photos. On the buckle are several significant symbols. A longhorn adorns ...| Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places
The spoke-tacular artwork is almost as tall as a house.| Atlas Obscura
A storied British pub where customers leave messages in the walls.| Atlas Obscura
In 1929, an unusual chapel emerged in a small Belgian town. The Sainte-Lutgarde de Fauquez Chapel—nicknamed the Glass Chapel—was built with a striking new material: marbrite, a type of glass that would soon become a hallmark of the Art Deco movement. Built by Arthur Brancart, owner of the Fauquez glassworks, it served both as a chapel for his workers and as a showroom for the factory's prized invention. Marbrite, as its name suggests, was a technique for tinting glass with specific color...| Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places
Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. --- Joey Weiss: Upstairs is where we have our classical instruments room. Dylan Thuras: Oh, I see. I see. Okay. What’s downstairs then? That’s like your synths? Joey: Downstairs is our 1950s room. Dylan: I see. Cool. This is Joey Weiss. All right. So Joey is, he’s my friend. He’s also my neighbor. He lives like five minutes up the road. He’s a really talented musician. He’s a really talented producer of m...| Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places
A celebration of Norwegian independence, or public art gone wrong?| Atlas Obscura
Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. --- Dylan Thuras: I’m here and no one’s here yet. This is a mailbag episode, and so we’re going to chat and ask each other questions. But it’s just me right now. So I’m going to eat some clementine and get some ASMR of me eating a clementine. People don’t like the sound of other people eating, but too bad. I wonder who figured out ASMR first. Like how old is it? I mean, obviously— Johanna Mayer: What ar...| Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places
Burgers and fries in the shadow of a dreaded Nazi symbol.| Atlas Obscura
Evidence of a bullet that nearly killed King Charles I—or is it?| Atlas Obscura
A Portuguese museum display features a bizarre assortment of objects.| Atlas Obscura
Riga’s historic porcelain industry is preserved in this small, hidden museum.| Atlas Obscura
Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. --- Dylan Thuras: For this conversation, we asked you to choose places that you felt like shaped or influenced your life in some fundamental way. Paul Scheer: Absolutely. Dylan: I have to say the three places, when I saw your list of three places. Paul: Yes. Dylan: I was filled with a mild sense of anxiety. Paul: You know, well, I think one of, you know—and I love this point of view—but I think one of the reasons...| Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places
New York has always been a hungry city, with locals and visitors alike constantly searching for the next best bite. For 19th-century workers, oyster bars provided a cheap snack similar to today’s dollar pizza slice. Meanwhile, members of New York’s elite once toasted each other over terrapin (or turtle) soup at fine hotel restaurants. But times and tastes change constantly, especially in a global food destination like New York. To see just how much, take a glimpse into the New York Public...| Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places
Atlas Obscura CEO Louise Story chats with director, actor, screenwriter, and podcast host Rhym Guissé to discuss the process behind creating Charlie’s Place – a new Atlas Obscura podcast co-produced with Rococo Punch in partnership with Pushkin Industries and Visit Myrtle Beach – that tells the story of Charlie Fitzgerald and his mission to turn a Myrtle Beach nightclub into a place of unity and community-building during the Jim Crow era. Available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHear...| Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places
Beloved. Notorious. Defiant. Folk hero. These are just a few ways to describe Charlie Fitzgerald, the entrepreneur who owned an integrated nightclub during the Jim Crow era in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Charlie broke down racial barriers through the power of music and dance, hosting some of the greatest musicians of our time: Little Richard, Count Basie, Ray Charles, Duke Ellington, and many more. But who was Charlie? How did he rise to power? And what price did he pay for achieving the im...| Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places
Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. --- Dylan Thuras: If you ever find yourself in Portland, Oregon, in the southeast part of the city, it’s a really nice spot to go and poke around. There are a bunch of cool antique shops, furniture makers, restaurants and bars in big old converted industrial buildings. It’s just a nice neighborhood to kind of go exploring in. And while you are there walking around, it’s worth keeping your eyes peeled for a low-...| Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places
Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, and Amazon. --- Rhym Guissé: A quick warning, some of the language and imagery used to describe this period of time may be upsetting. Please take care while listening. Betty Singleton: I remember my mother was getting ready to go to the movies with my cousin and they came back. She said, “They’re riding.” And when they say they’re riding, that mean the KKK was riding. You know, once you knew they were riding, you had to stay ho...| Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places
Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. --- Johanna Mayer: Hey, Amanda. Amanda McGowan: Hey, Johanna. What’s up? Johanna: I want to start by showing you this photo. First, maybe just describe the photo to me. Amanda: Yeah. Okay. So we are standing behind like maybe a waist high glass barrier. And beyond that, there’s like a very large white room. The walls are empty. It’s white, high ceilings. And it looks like there’s a thick kind of layer of ... ...| Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places
Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. --- Amanda McGowan: Picture a college campus in Southern California in the 1960s. Here is what comes to mind for me. I’m picturing kids with long hair, wearing flower crowns, playing music, protesting, and talking about peace and love. Well, I’m currently looking at a real photo of a college campus in Southern California in 1964, and it really does look like that. This is Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles. ...| Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places
Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. --- Elah Feder: A few weeks ago, I contacted someone named Judith Finell, not really expecting to hear back from her, because Judith is a forensic musicologist, and she’s in very high demand. On a typical day, she’s advising companies like Disney and Netflix to help them avoid copyright infringement, or she’s sharing her expertise in high-profile legal cases. Remember when Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams wer...| Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places
Though Cincinnati is best known for breweries, another effervescent beverage has a long history in the Queen City: the nectar soda. Home to the oldest pharmacy college in the U.S. west of the Alleghenies, the Eclectic Medical Institute (1845-1952), and Lloyd Brothers Pharmacists, Cincinnati was long on the forefront of the pharmaceutical industry. The city had a number of apothecaries with soda fountains, as well as confectioners serving countless carbonated concoctions—some claiming to cur...| Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places
Indigenous Brazilians have fermented alcoholic beverages from the cassava root for thousands of years. These beer-like beverages go by names like cauim, caxiri, and tarubá. Fermentation is an important step in cassava processing—the raw root has chemicals that can turn into cyanide in the human body. Native peoples found that a bit of human saliva and some naturally occurring yeast could eliminate these toxins and improve the nutritious value of the tuber. When the technology of distillati...| Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places
Legend has it that a monk hid meat in these dumplings to fool God.| Atlas Obscura
Definitive guidebook and friendly tour-guide to the world's most wondrous places. Travel tips, articles, strange facts and unique events.| Atlas Obscura
To survive the arena, they ate a mash of barley and beans.| Atlas Obscura
A contemporary art installation housed within a Gothic cathedral.| Atlas Obscura
This audio art installation pays tribute to the weather and unique linguistic history of the archipelago.| Atlas Obscura
The Iron Age tower is the tallest of all the remaining Brochs in Scotland.| Atlas Obscura
In Florida, these naughty monkeys live on their own mini-monkey Alcatraz.| Atlas Obscura
Today, where disposable instant messaging, emails, texts and tweets are all around us, it is a pleasant surprise to find out that the grandfather of quick...| Atlas Obscura
He believed in eating like the original vegetarians: Adam and Eve.| Atlas Obscura
Is this cat asleep or just pretending?| Atlas Obscura
The recipe for "Flying Jacob" was the improvised creation of an air-freight worker.| Atlas Obscura
It’s the first discovery of its kind in 50 years.| Atlas Obscura
Darnel is poisonous, but in small enough doses can give food a special kick.| Atlas Obscura
At the height of the Incan empire, a series of 200 woven suspension bridges crisscrossed the valleys of the Andes. Today, only one remains.| Atlas Obscura
Maintaining one very long wire that defines a holy space.| Atlas Obscura
The linguistic field of prosody, the story of melody, pitch, and other hard-to-study verbal traits, is suddenly hot.| Atlas Obscura
And scientists in Illinois have recreated it.| Atlas Obscura
A guide to finding, prepping, and enjoying the pawpaw.| Atlas Obscura
Dispatches on the world’s most wondrous food and drink.| Atlas Obscura
A conversation with Natasha Pickowicz on cross-cultural inspiration and her upcoming cookbook.| Atlas Obscura
A new natural fuel is discovered. It's so efficient, the initial science is unbelievable; so powerful, it revolutionizes an entire industry. Deposit-holding...| Atlas Obscura
"Butter eater" was once a terrible insult.| Atlas Obscura
Fish and dairy can make for a delicious mix, despite popular belief.| Atlas Obscura
Coriander went from ancient staple to persona non grata.| Atlas Obscura
This boozy brew used to be the British and American drink of choice.| Atlas Obscura
