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Medieval buildings at Songa Mnara, one of many coastal Swahili ports and settlements that connected East Africa to Arabia, Persia, China, and Southeast Asia.
science

Ancient DNA Restores the Origin Story of the Swahili People

New research complicates both modern and colonial-era ideas about the medieval East African civilization.
Chapurukha Kusimba and David Reich April 24, 2023
trees

Podcast: Telling Time Through the Trees With the Places Team

These trees have seen major moments in history.
The Podcast Team April 24, 2023
<em>There is a Future</em>, 2020
collections

Reclaiming Georgia's Stone Mountain Through Haunting Landscape Images

Photographer Sheila Pree Bright wanted to find a new way of seeing the site and its connection to centuries of racism.
Line Sidonie Talla Mafotsing April 21, 2023
<em>The Vizier's Gambit</em> just doesn't have the same ring to it.
maps

How Did the Chess Pieces Get Their Names?

One player’s pawn is another’s farmer. And at one time, the queen was the virgin, and rather powerless.
Frank Jacobs, Big Think April 21, 2023
Madison Dry Goods Museum
Madison, North Carolina

Madison Dry Goods and Country Store

The upstairs museum delves into the Lawson family murder, whose eight victims were embalmed at this store in 1929.
The women of the Source Family pose on a Rolls-Royce for an ad for the release of a recording of the cult's band, Ya Ho Wha 13.
cults

The Cult Roots of Health Food in America

How the Source Family, a radical 1970s utopian commune, still impacts what we eat today.
Diana Hubbell April 19, 2023
Gate of the castle.
Irvine, Scotland

Seagate Castle

Once the overnight home of Mary Queen of Scots.
The "tyrant of Lake Lucerne" is now a taxidermied attraction—sometimes on display at the Orange County Regional History Center—and his descendants occupy the city's lakes.
objects of intrigue

Meet the Ornery Granddaddy of Orlando's Famed Swans

Billy was a local celebrity in the early 1900s. And he might have been a murderer.
April White April 18, 2023
Gantheaume Point
Minyirr, Australia

Gantheaume Point

Spectacular rock formations host dinosaur footprints and an old hydrotherapy pool.
Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City Northern Miniature Railroad

Three historic trains run on a half-mile track that features a tunnel.
Mexico City, Mexico

República de Guatemala 28

A trompe l'oeil mural remembers the original colonial building that once stood here.
<em>La Belle Limonadière</em> was famous for her beauty.
food

The Sweet History of Lemonade

This humble drink isn't so simple.
Anne Ewbank April 17, 2023
The so-called Edith Deviation follows a natural valley.
maps

Colorado Is Not a Rectangle—It Has 697 Sides

The Centennial State is technically a hexahectaenneacontakaiheptagon.
Frank Jacobs, Big Think April 14, 2023
One of the 2.000 mummified ram heads found in the Temple of Ramses II, in the historical city of Abydos, Egypt.
cemeteries

Wonder Is Everywhere: 2,000 Ram Skulls, a Cold War Mystery, and More From Around the Web

Get a peek into what we’re obsessed with right now.
April White April 14, 2023
Meyer lemons are distinctly sweet and fragrant.
trees

How America's Beloved Meyer Lemon Caused a Mid-Century Citrus Panic

The fragrant fruit hid a dark secret.
Mandy Naglich April 12, 2023
The Boiling River, or <em>Shanay-timpishka</em>, in Peru was long thought to be a myth.
haunted

10 of Our Absolute Favorite Atlas Obscura Podcast Episodes

Wait'll you hear these wonders of audio storytelling.
April White April 12, 2023
houses

Podcast: Ashley House

A history that intertwines the American Revolution with the seeds of abolition in the North.
The Podcast Team April 11, 2023
Over the years, dendroglyphs—motifs and images carved into tree bark—have been documented on 22 boab trees in the Tanami Desert of western Australia.
art

Saving the Mystery Symbols Carved into Australia's Boab Trees

Researchers are rushing to document the Indigenous art before it is lost to time and climate change.
Shoshi Parks April 7, 2023