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South and North America
London, England

'The World Turned Upside Down'

Soon after its unveiling, this giant inverted globe sparked controversy and was vandalized.
The trees of the Lost Forty are in general taller than the surrounding woods.
forests

How a Map Mistake Saved a Forest of 300-Year-Old Trees

Minnesota's "Lost Forty" survived the lumberjack's ax thanks to a improperly drawn lake.
Frank Jacobs March 31, 2023
The walled city of Foumban, founded in 1394, as depicted on the map.
objects of intrigue

How Njoya the Great Put His African Kingdom on the Map

A representation of the Bamum kingdom is a rare example of early-20th-century indigenous African cartography.
Frank Jacobs March 24, 2023
The Saint-Bélec slab in full.
objects of intrigue

Europe’s Oldest Map Shows Tiny Bronze Age Kingdom

Discovered in 1900, the Saint-Bélec slab languished unrecognized in a castle basement for over a century.
Frank Jacobs March 17, 2023
Treasure hunter Tom Klein believes the statue of John Plankinton in Milwaukee's Plankinton Arcade is one of the clues to <em>The Secret</em>'s buried treasure.
maps

Hunting for 'The Secret' Treasure Buried in Milwaukee

Has this couple finally found fantasy author Byron Preiss’s hidden treasure?
Tea Krulos March 14, 2023
Century-appropriate Fox, with a throng surrounding a movie star, perhaps?
maps

‘Cockeyed’ Map Shows Both Glamour and Margins of 1930s Hollywood

Legendary cartoonist John Groth's pictorial map captures L.A.'s film factories in their Golden Age.
Frank Jacobs March 10, 2023
Vidar Haslum (center) has been collecting place names in southeastern Norway for decades. He is shown here in the 1980s with farmer Nils Vinsland (left), who was born 1904. He was "one of many good informants," Haslum says.
maps

Meet the Man Collecting Fading Place Names

What do we lose when we forget about locations like "Troll's Cave" and "Window Claw"?
Amy Crawford March 10, 2023
The Black Sea at Cape Kaliakra, Bulgaria.
maps

The Paratethys Sea Was the Largest Lake in Earth’s History

The Black, Caspian, and Aral Seas are the last surviving fragments of a body of water that stretched from Austria to Turkmenistan.
Frank Jacobs March 3, 2023
Pune, India

Zero Stone of Pune

One in a series of historical markers from the massive 19th-century undertaking to map all of India.
Gifts for the home can be as intricate or as simple as you want them to be.
maps

Unique Gifts for the Home

A giving guide from the Atlas Obscura team.
Atlas Obscura November 29, 2022
The low angle of the winter sun creates a perfect shadow of the iconic Mont Saint-Michel abbey on the water.
maps

From Space, Mont Saint-Michel Stars in a Wild Impressionist Painting

During the winter months, the iconic French site casts a perfect shadow on a bay full of history—and quicksand.
Gemma Tarlach November 22, 2022
Waldseemüller’s 1507 World Map
Washington, D.C.

Waldseemüller’s 1507 World Map

This groundbreaking 16th-century map is known as "America's birth certificate."
The Nashville Clayscape
Nashville, Tennessee

The Nashville Clayscape

An ode to iconic Nashville locations.
objects of intrigue

Podcast: The Portland Treasure Map

Join us for a daily celebration of the world’s most wondrous, unexpected, even strange places.
The Arctic is littered with tiny "islands" that appear and then vanish—for a century, scientists have been trying to figure out why.
maps

In 1931, Scientists Hunted Ghost Islands in the Arctic With a Zeppelin

The recent discovery of the world's northernmost "island" recalls the groundbreaking work of the international Polarfahrt team more than 90 years ago.
Kevin Hamilton September 13, 2022
Marco do Equador on Ilhéu das Rolas
Ilhéu das Rolas, São Tomé and Príncipe

Marco do Equador

The equator passes through this tiny island in the eastern Atlantic.
objects of intrigue

There Maybe Could Possibly Be a Treasure Buried Under Portland, Oregon

At least according to a hand-drawn map of mysterious origin.
April White August 11, 2022
1915 Michigan border post
Erie, Michigan

Michigan's Lost Peninsula

This small piece of Michigan is entirely surrounded by Ohio.