All Stories

No knife and fork needed to eat the original Caesar.

first draft foods

The Original Caesar Salad Was Finger Food

The world's most famous salad started as a Tijuana trend.

The Bar Hill Comb was part of a collection of more than 280,000 artifacts recovered in Cambridgeshire, England, between 2016 and 2018.

iron age

In England, Bar Hill's 'Skull Comb' Is an Iron Age Mystery

The unusual artifact hints at how ancient communities may have treated their dead.

Podcast: Theatricum Botanicum

activism

Podcast: Theatricum Botanicum

In the trees, an artistic refuge from the heights of the Cold War.

St. Malo, perhaps the oldest Asian community in the United States, as depicted in an 1883 report by Harper’s Weekly.

asian america

7 Must-Read Stories to Mark AAPI Heritage Month

Some of our favorite tales of tragedy, joy, protest, love, and surfing.

Podcast: Voynich Manuscript

rare books

Podcast: Voynich Manuscript

A strange medieval document, housed in a stunning modern library.

Red wine, fish, and hardtack were the main ingredients of old-fashioned chowder.

first draft foods

Chowder Once Had No Milk, No Potatoes—and No Clams

The earliest-known version of the dish was a winey, briny, bready casserole.

Ponyhenge, Lincoln, Massachusetts.

atlas obscura

25 Places to Celebrate 25,000 Places

To celebrate our landmark 25,000th place, here are some favorite deep cuts from Atlas Obscura staffers.

Pando, called simply The Tree by those who know it best—and love it most—is a single organism that covers an area larger than 100 football fields.

citizen science

Pando As You've Never Seen It Before

The Utah aspen grove is one of the world's oldest and largest living things. It's finally getting its close-up.

The first “red” chocolate cakes were barely red at all.

first draft foods

Red Velvet Cake's Journey to The Juneteenth Table

Make the dessert that first inspired the popular crimson slice.

A sea lamprey that's clearly ready for its close-up—and for a new appreciation of its role in its native ecosystems.

marine

Sea Lampreys, Long Reviled, Are Finally Getting Some Respect

Once dismissed as "ugly," this sucker-mouthed fish plays an important role in its native ecosystem.

All illustrations: John Mata for Atlas Obscura

hedge mazes

Puzzle Monday: Get Lost Crossword

This ancient dodecahedron found in Avenches, Switzerland, once the Roman city of Aventicum.

shapes

The Mysterious Dodecahedrons of the Roman Empire

The first of many of these puzzling objects was unearthed almost three centuries ago, and we still don't know what they were for.

Le Défenseur du temps—The Defender of Time—has been reinstalled in the Quartier de l'Horloge in Paris. Throughout the day, the metal swordsman marks the passage of time by fighting off a dragon, a rooster, and a crab.

anthropocene

Wonder Is Everywhere: The Defender of Time, a Plan to Bomb the Moon, and More From Around the Web

Get a peek into what we’re obsessed with right now.

A Close Combat Assault Ration, which provides calorie-dense nutrition and is shelf stable for years.

food history

Feeding Armies Throughout History

From Sparta to the Mongol Empire, soldiers needed fuel for the fight.

At the high-tech military food center colloquially known as Natick Lab, R&D achievements include a vacuum microwave-dried cheeseburger (center top) and other shelf-stable meals.

scientists at work

How to Feed an Army

Go behind the scenes at the Massachusetts military lab engineering the fuel of the future.

The packaging laboratory where researchers design and test ways to transport and store rations in a wide variety of environments.

food history

The Evolution of American Military Food

What would George Washington's spruce beer-chugging troops have thought about today's cheesecake rations?

Trays at the US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine’s Metabolic Kitchen are prepared for an employee taste-testing panel.

food history

Food Innovations That Came from War

Thank Uncle Sam for Cheetos, air fryers, and other modern mainstays.

Podcast: Butter Sculptures

fair food

Podcast: Butter Sculptures

These works of art are butter than you think.