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Chill Week

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The 73-mile-long Inuvik-Aklavik Ice Road forms each year when the Mackenzie River freezes over.
roads

Canada's Ice Roads Are Melting Too Soon

Climate change is fraying these seasonal lifelines, causing hardships for the remote towns that rely on them.
Karen Gardiner August 23, 2019
If this looks relaxing to you, you're not alone.
sleep

Respect the Hammock, One of Humanity’s Greatest Creations

In praise of an excellent idea with a long, complicated history.
Dan Nosowitz August 23, 2019
Nothing hits the spot like a bit of wrestling!
games

Between Plagues, Medieval Peasants Enjoyed Bawdiness and Brawling

To chill like a peasant, attend a farcical play and wrestle with your friends.
Sabrina Imbler August 23, 2019
Before he became a legendary football player, Harold "Red" Grange worked a summer as an iceman to get in shape.
music

When Everyone Wanted to Be the Iceman

Before refrigeration, New York's ice-delivery men inspired raunchy jokes.
Kelly Robinson August 23, 2019
The Peterhof Fountains may be the least chill fountains.
fountains

14 Dramatic Fountains That Have Very Little Chill

Atlas Obscura readers recommend their favorite over-the-top water features from across the globe.
Eric Grundhauser August 22, 2019
The infamous plunderers didn’t actually wear horned helmets, but they did wear ice skates made of bone.
vikings

Vikings Relaxed by Skating on Bones and Hunting on Skis

To chill like a marauding Norseman, drop your sword and take up these ancient winter sports.
Isaac Schultz August 22, 2019
A cosy sight: the entrance to the geodesic dome where the Club 90 South bar was originally located.
bars

The Perils and Pleasures of Bartending in Antarctica

At the South Pole, the freezer is just a hole in the wall to the ice outside.
Zoe Baillargeon August 22, 2019
A nice cool swig of water from a <em>botijo.</em>
food

The Art, Science, and Allure of Spain's Water-Cooling Jugs

Used from time immemorial, this traditional technology is now fading away.
Ignacio Amigo August 22, 2019
The women's bath at the Makiba-no-ie Ryokan in Yufuin, Ōita Prefecture.
hot springs

Soak in These Photographs of Japanese Hot Spring Baths

For decades, Mark Edward Harris captured the calm and intimacy of onsens.
Winnie Lee August 22, 2019
Many sno-balls. Many colors.
food

The Family Dynasty That Pursues Perfection in Shaved Ice

For three generations, the Hansens have made summer sno-ball season in New Orleans.
R. Blakeslee Gilpin August 21, 2019
For Ancient Mesoamericans, the best way to chill was to get really, really hot.
volcanoes

Ancient Mesoamericans Calmed Down and Hooked Up in Sweaty Steam Baths

Temazcales helped indigenous people let off steam, until colonialism came along.
Sabrina Imbler August 21, 2019
Blue Babe on display at University of Alaska Museum of the North.
ancient

The Dinner Party That Served Up 50,000-Year-Old Bison Stew

When life gives you frozen bison, make dinner.
Paula Mejia August 21, 2019
Catherine the Great dropped in to visit the "ice mountain" in St. Petersburg, depicted in this detail from an 18th-century painting by Benjamin Paterssen.
amusement parks

Way Before Roller Coasters, Russians Zipped Down Enormous Ice Slides

These artificial mountains were fast, thrilling, and probably very dangerous.
Jessica Leigh Hester August 21, 2019
Brains, beauty, biceps.
ancient

The Fierce Women of Sparta Wrestled, Danced, and Drank

This summer, chill like an ancient lady and sweat, recite poetry, and swig wine.
Jessica Leigh Hester August 20, 2019
Fourteen great songs, one iconic shirt.
islands

The Not-So-Chill History of Hawai‘i’s Breeziest Shirt

The aloha shirt has many possible inventors and a long, fraught cultural history.
Sabrina Imbler August 20, 2019
Lake Ilopango, under appropriately cloudy skies.
volcanoes

When a Volcano in El Salvador Cooled Down the Entire World

It may have even helped bring on the bubonic plague.
Matthew Taub August 19, 2019
Mighty scary world out there. Why not do some doodles?
art

Did Stone-Age Humans Paint for Fun?

This summer, chill like an ancient hominin and make some art.
Isaac Schultz August 19, 2019
Inside the National Speleotherapy Clinic in Belarus, where treatments are carried out in an active salt mine nearly 1,400 feet underground.
soviet architecture

On Vacation in Soviet-Era Sanatoriums

The treatments are no longer mandatory, but they're still available.
Anika Burgess August 19, 2019