63 Items Tagged

Geographic Oddities

Ushuaia, Argentina

Postal del Fin del Mundo

The southernmost postal office in South America.

Markleysburg, Pennsylvania

Old Tri-State Monument

This original Mason-Dixon line cairn placed in the 1760s was put in the wrong location because of the gravitational pull of the Allegheny Mountains.

Ras Angela, Tunisia

Ras Angela

The northernmost point of continental Africa—or is it?

Berlin, Germany

Steinstücken Exclave

A helicopter memorial commemorating what was once the only way to access this West Berlin exclave.

Chanute, Kansas

Center of Google Earth Mural

A Google software engineer's Easter egg led to what may be the world's most unusual saved screenshot.

Mannheim, Germany

Mannheim Quadratestadt

In this German city center, the streets have no names.

All illustrations: John Mata for Atlas Obscura

Puzzle Monday: On the Map Crossword

AO Puzzles July 31, 2023

Nahwa.

Nahwa, United Arab Emirates

Nahwa

A small United Arab Emirates territory within an Omani enclave within the United Arab Emirates.

Podcast: Moose Boulder

How far would you go to find the largest island in the largest lake on the largest island in the largest lake on the largest island in the largest lake in the United States?

The Podcast Team April 27, 2023

Podcast: Yellowstone's Zone of Death

Can a legal loophole make it possible to get away with murder?

The Podcast Team April 5, 2023

Highway 412

Guymon, Oklahoma

U.S. Route 412

Is this 47.7-mile stretch of highway the longest straight road in the United States?

Marker at the Chamizal National Memorial

Chamizal National Memorial

This site honors the end of a 100-year boundary dispute between the United States and Mexico—all started by a river's shifting course.

Ilha dos Tigres

In 1962, the ocean severed this peninsula—and the village that sat on it—from the Angolan mainland.

1915 Michigan border post

Michigan's Lost Peninsula

This small piece of Michigan is entirely surrounded by Ohio.

Baarle-Hertog, Belgium

The House with Two Numbers

This residence straddles a border between Belgium and the Netherlands.

A PIRATA weather buoy, the only thing that is really at Null Island.

Null Island

A busy island at the center of the world that doesn’t actually exist.

The Red Sea, dividing Africa and Arabia, may be the world's youngest ocean.

Is the Red Sea Really the Red Ocean?

It's complicated.

Gemma Tarlach May 6, 2021

border crossings

Podcast: The 49th Parallel

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

The Podcast Team April 26, 2021