Explore 1266 Features Collections - Atlas Obscura
Places near me Random place

1266 Items Tagged

Features

Share
A sea monster looms off the coast of Venezuela.
maps

A Vast, 430-Year-Old World Map, Full of Places and Creatures, Real and Imagined

More than 60 square feet of cartographic wonder.
Natasha Frost January 8, 2018
Photographer Sangsuk Sylvia Kang's mother Kyung Ae Lee performs <em>kimjang</em>, the practice of making kimchi, at her home in South Korea.
unesco

How Kiddie Pools of Kimchi Bind Korean Families Together

The practice of "kimjang" is about more than fermenting napa cabbage.
Natasha Frost January 5, 2018
A 14th century representation of a much tamer Feast of Fools.
churches

The New Year's Feast That Transformed Fools Into Popes and Kings

In medieval churches, hierarchy was inverted for a day.
Sarah Laskow December 29, 2017
The trunk is hundreds of years old; its roots have been living for almost 10,000 years.
trees

What 2017 Was Like for the World's Oldest Trees

The past 12 months, contemplated in tree time.
Sarah Laskow December 28, 2017
found

The Year in Discovery: The 50 Greatest Finds of 2017

From a lost continent to rare seahorses, explore our interactive map of the year's most wondrous discoveries.
Sarah Laskow and Vittoria Traverso December 27, 2017
Relics of St. Nicholas in a small box displayed at Antalya Regional Museum, Konyaaltı, Turkey.
relics

Where in the World Are Santa Claus's Bones?

The remains of St. Nick can be found on multiple continents.
Matthew Blitz December 21, 2017
Wild poinsettia in Thailand.
christmas

Wild Poinsettias Can Grow Eight Feet Tall

A diplomat, a scientist, and a farmer tamed the blazing red plant into a commercial juggernaut.
Sarah Laskow December 21, 2017
The Norse coin found at the Goddard site.
vikings

The Mystery of Maine's Viking Penny

The coin is the real deal, but how did it get all the way from Norway?
Sarah Laskow December 21, 2017
The lethal <em>Cicuta maculata</em>.
plants

Meet the Most Toxic Plant in North America

"Those who eat it will die in two hours."
Dan Nosowitz December 14, 2017
A Pooktre.
architecture

A Short History of Tree Shaping

People have long tried to bend trees to their will, for both practical and aesthetic reasons.
Sarah Laskow December 13, 2017
Stamps collected from letterboxing on Dartmoor.
features

Need a New Hobby? Go Looking for Hidden Letterboxes

Letterboxing, as it's known, is a centuries-old scavenger hunt.
Kelly Catalfamo December 12, 2017
Like men's club houses, molly houses were also places people went simply to socialize, gossip, drink and smoke.
history

How the 18th-Century Gay Bar Survived and Thrived in a Deadly Environment

Welcome to the molly house.
Natasha Frost December 8, 2017
A detective peers into a tearoom in 1959.
crime

The Psychic Tea Rooms of 1930s New York Didn't Predict All the Police Raids

Tea parlors were the battleground in a war against fortune telling.
Anne Ewbank December 7, 2017
A single pound of honey is the lifetime work for about 768 bees, made up of visits to two million flowers.
insects

What Is It Like to Be a Bee?

A philosophical and neurobiological look into the apian mind.
Natasha Frost December 6, 2017
A Navy medical library, 1902.
libraries

13 Wonderfully Specific Libraries Reveal Their Oldest Treasures

We asked these unique libraries about their oldest holdings and got delightfully diverse answers.
Sarah Laskow December 6, 2017
A detail from the <em>Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze</em>, 1894.
features

Some Delightful Alternatives to the Post-Sneeze ‘Bless You’

To sneeze is human, to respond "Go away, kitten" is divine.
Dan Nosowitz December 5, 2017
Seara, pronounced, "Sea-RAH," has the webbed feet of a duck, the head of a rabbit, and the body of a seal.
cryptozoology

A Curious Menagerie of Mutant Taxidermy

In a cramped apartment in East New York, the artist Takeshi Yamada lives among his strange creations.
Zoë Bernard December 4, 2017
<em>Rain Blossoms</em>, printed 1928.
art

Remembering Lilian Miller, the Pioneering Woodblock Artist Caught Between East and West

The many contradictions of a diplomat's daughter who wanted all her work destroyed.
Natasha Frost December 1, 2017