Reviving a Lost Art When Portuguese colonizers came to Sri Lanka in the early 16th century, it set off decades of warfare. Prominent in these battles were local warriors who practiced angampora, a traditional martial art that had been used to protect the island for millennia, involving unarmed combat, weaponry, and incantations. In the early 19th century, angampora was banned, and would have been lost had its aging masters not decamped to continue their practice in secret. Photographer Reza Akram has spent seven years documenting angampora, with his work helping drive a modern surge in interest in the art.  READ MORE → WASHINGTON, D.C. Arsenal Monument On a hot summer day in 1864, fireworks were laid out to dry by the superintendent of the Washington Arsenal. The heat caused the fireworks to explode into the choking room where workers were filling cartridges with gunpowder, and the resulting explosions and fire claimed the lives of 21 women, many of them young Irish immigrants. This striking memorial honors those who perished that day. READ MORE → LONDON, ENGLAND Leadenhall Market This covered Victorian market is one of the oldest markets in London, selling meat and fish as far back as far as the 14th century. The current green and red roof, however, was constructed in 1881 and made Leadenhall Market a popular attraction in London. You might recognize it from its feature in the Harry Potter movies—it was the film location for some of the original exterior shots of Diagon Alley. READ MORE → ATLAS OBSCURA COURSES Telling Stories Through Ice Cream Can ice cream tell a story? Historian and ice cream artist Hannah Spiegelman believes it can. Join us for a four-part seminar where we’ll learn the basics of making ice cream and explore using it as a vehicle for storytelling, walking through the science of ice cream making before mapping out concepts and building flavors. LEARN MORE → GASTRO OBSCURA Breeding Queen Bees For us, bees are both workers—they pollinate a third of our food—and livestock: They produce about 1.9 million tons of honey globally each year. But unlike cows, or pigs, they’re more challenging to breed. Bees are short-lived, they’re never truly domesticated, and you can’t just put two in a box and hope they mate. In Canada, one beekeeper is attempting to overcome this obstacle by studying the art and science of queen-bee breeding, and has become the largest queen-bee producer in Canada. READ MORE → SAN VICENTE PACAYA, GUATEMALA Pizza Pacaya About 25 miles south of Guatemala’s capital, rising 2,800 feet over sea level, the Pacaya volcano overlooks the nearby villages of San Vicente Pacaya and Amatitlán. Since 1965, when it became active once again, the Pacaya, whose slow-flowing lava rivers are, by volcano standards, less dangerous, has become a magnet for tourists. And, in 2019, the Pacaya became the first pizza place in the country, and one of the first on earth, to use lava caves as ovens. READ MORE → THE ATLAS OBSCURA PODCAST Harvard Bridge Smoots A bridge spans the mighty Charles River in Boston, and depending who you ask, it’s either known as the Harvard Bridge or the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Bridge. For the last half century, this bridge has been carefully marked with yellow paint lines, appearing every five foot seven inches. This is a system of measurement that exists almost nowhere else in the world: the smoot. How did this unique unit of measurement come about? And what does it have to do with an MIT fraternity pledge? LISTEN ON OUR SITE →    LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS →    LISTEN ON SPOTIFY →    LISTEN ON STITCHER → FROM THE ARCHIVES Japanese-Style Snowplowing Mt. Tateyama rises 9,892 feet in Japan’s Hida Mountains and is considered one of the country’s Three Holy Mountains. It also may be one of the snowiest mountains in Japan, and perhaps one of the snowiest places on planet Earth. The highway that runs through this epic snow country is known as yuki-no-otani, or Snow Canyon, and the height of the canyon’s snow walls can reach a staggering 66 feet. So then the question arises: How does Japan remove all of this snow without being plagued by a winter of continual snow days? READ MORE → SEVILLE, OHIO Resting Place of the Giants In 1873, the little town of Seville, Ohio, was home to its most famous citizens: Captain Martin Van Buren Bates and his wife Anna Haining Swan Bates, both who were over seven feet tall. Capt. and Mrs. Bates had traveled much of the world as representatives of P. T. Barnum’s Museum, hobnobbing with the rich and famous—including Queen Victoria, who gave Anna a diamond ring as a gift for her wedding in 1871. This is the final resting place of the world’s tallest couple. READ MORE → ATLAS OBSCURA EXPERIENCES Friday Trivia Night Come kick off your weekend from the comfort of your living room with tonight’s trivia night! Our online trivia experience offers members of our community from all across the globe to get together, and engage in two hours of brain-teasing, fact-finding, and curiosity-sparking competition. Teams of up to 5 players can join in for a two-hour contest of wits, knowledge, and general guessing, with a chance to win a surprise item—and of course, BRAGGING RIGHTS!