Explore 462 Mystery Collections - Atlas Obscura
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trees

The Charming True Story of the Haunting ‘Lady in the Tree’

How an art prank created a new Halloween legend for the Miawpukek First Nation.
Roxanne Hoorn October 6, 2023
An extremely rare purple-red diamond came from the Argyle volcano and mine in Western Australia, source of almost all of the world's pink diamonds.
science

Wonder Is Everywhere: Lincoln’s Crooked Bowtie, the Mystery of Pink Diamonds, and More From Around the Web

Get a peek into what we’re obsessed with right now.
April White September 29, 2023
dinosaurs

Wonder Is Everywhere: A Message in an Egg Carton, Millions of Confused Bees, and More From Around the Web

Get a peek into what we’re obsessed with right now.
April White September 15, 2023
pirates

The Rise and Fall of the Mormon King of Beaver Island

Rumors of piracy, polygamy, and betrayal shape the tumultuous history of King James Jesse Strang.
Roxanne Hoorn August 28, 2023
Of the 151 species they studied, all of them, including this tree frog, <em>Dendropsophus rhodopeplus</em> (shown under blue light), displayed some level of fluorescence.
science

Biologists Threw a Fluorescent Frog Rave in the Amazon, for Science

Turns out many of the frogs glow, maybe to communicate.
Roxanne Hoorn August 22, 2023
The Cyberia Cafe in London, 1995. Internet cafes are now vanishingly rare.
science

Wonder Is Everywhere: The Last Internet Cafes, a Totem Pole Mystery, and More From Around the Web

Get a peek into what we’re obsessed with right now.
April White August 18, 2023
churches

Podcast: Demon Wall

The devil's in the details of this disturbing Norwegian church mural.
The Podcast Team August 17, 2023
The mysterious metal cylinder on the shore of Western Australia.
space exploration

A Massive, Mysterious Object Washed Up on an Australian Beach

Experts say it’s likely space junk—and there’s plenty more where that came from.
Roxanne Hoorn July 19, 2023
Visitors to Beijing's City Wall can enjoy ice cream in the shape of its front gate.
monuments

6 Stories That Will Make You Scream—For Ice Cream

Take a deep dive into the delicious stories behind a world of frozen treats.
April White July 14, 2023
The white exterior of a Victorian theater with red neon lettering
London, England

The Mousetrap at St. Martin's Theatre

The world's longest continuously running show has played at this small West End theater since 1974.
Sepp Kipfstuhl of the East Greenland Ice-Core Project examines a sample taken from where fast-moving and slow-moving ice meet in the Greenland Ice Sheet.
science

Wonder Is Everywhere: The New Tornado Alley, the Coolest Library in the World, and More From Around the Web

Get a peek into what we’re obsessed with right now.
April White June 23, 2023
The Aboriginal people of Western Australia have a long history with the vegetation gaps of the region's inland deserts.
insects

In Australia, Aboriginal Knowledge and the Mystery of Fairy Circles

Building connections between tradition and science.
Line Sidonie Talla Mafotsing June 6, 2023
After the destruction caused along the Miami beaches by Hurricane Andrew, in 1992, five new lifeguard stations were created, striking colorful, geometric figures on the waterfront. Another wave of these buildings appeared in 2015.
forests

Kick Off Summer With 7 Unique Beach Reads About the Beach

Surprising stories from where land meets sea.
April White June 1, 2023
On Tuckernuck Island, the American giant millipede is in danger of losing its head. Scientists don't know what is responsible for the unprecedented number of decapitations.
science

The Mystery of the Headless Millipedes

Every summer, hundreds of millipedes are murdered on one small Massachusetts island.
William von Herff May 26, 2023
Juan de Pareja, as painted in 1650 by Spanish artist Diego Velázquez, the man who enslaved him.
paintings

This Was One of the Most Famous Faces of the 17th Century

But we're only starting to learn the facts of artist Juan de Pareja's life.
Amy Crawford May 18, 2023
rare books

Podcast: Voynich Manuscript

A strange medieval document, housed in a stunning modern library.
The Podcast Team May 16, 2023
This ancient dodecahedron found in Avenches, Switzerland, once the Roman city of Aventicum.
objects of intrigue

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.
Frank Jacobs May 12, 2023
SS <em>Warrimoo</em> plied a trans-Pacific route from Canada to Australia, which means it crossed both the equator and the international date line on every trip.
maps

The Strange Tale of SS Warrimoo, the Ship That Existed in Two Centuries at Once

On New Year's Eve 1899, the captain of this Pacific liner steamed into history. Or did he?
Frank Jacobs April 28, 2023