Letters

The enslaved population of this former Dutch colony had control of the island for the better part of a year. Their decision to offer peaceful surrender to colonists backfired spectacularly.

The con artist was either a very unlucky man or a trickster who got away with it all.

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Can trees write back?

Hikers recreate Snowshoe Thompson's 100-mile route through the mountains by walking, running, and even skiing.

From Password to Mad Libs to Wordle, we pit our favorite lexical pastimes head to head. 

For the last 40 years, Hotel Spaander in the Dutch fishing village of Volendam received almost daily letters from a mysterious man in Japan.

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I made a bunch of linguists listen to this social media phenomenon and tell me what’s going on.

From Twitter's rebranding to algebra, this single letter has an uncommon amount of...X factor. A historian of mathematics gets to the root of it.

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A strangler fig played a pivotal communication role for Kenya's freedom fighters.

A gift guide from the Atlas Obscura team.

If you are “Playing the Game,” the answer is elementary.

Join us for a daily celebration of the world’s most wondrous, unexpected, even strange places.

A story of Antarctic adventure seekers, stamp collectors, politics, and penguins.