December 01, 2021

How Old Is This Big Tree? The Big Tree, located at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, is a colossal structure, and is thought to be one of the largest and oldest African baobab trees in the world. But how old is it, really? Dating trees often involves counting “growth rings” that appear seasonally, but this method doesn’t work well for baobabs—these trees have only very faint growth rings, and many have large cavities in their trunk and stems that confound attempts to date them. But over the past decade, scientists have turned to radiocarbon dating. For the Big Tree, researchers found that its multiple stems have different ages, with its oldest one dating back to about 870, around the time that Vikings first settled in Iceland.  READ MORE → GASTRO OBSCURA Gravity-Defying Marzipan Cake Cornucopia-shaped cakes are baked the world over, usually around harvest-time. But the Danish cornucopia cake is more than an expensive celebratory cake; for many Danes, a major life event is incomplete without a serving of overflødighedshorn, a unique marzipan cake. While marzipan cakes appeared in Denmark after almond paste arrived via Persia in the Middle Ages, cornucopia-shaped marzipan cakes are a relatively modern invention, created in the late 1700s. Ever since, they’ve remained the epitome of a baker’s skills and a mark of the high class of his clientele. READ MORE → MATAWAN, NEW JERSEY Site of the New Jersey Shark Attacks of 1916 In July of 1916, a shark made its way north and down a freshwater creek in Matawan, New Jersey, kicking off a deadly 12-day spree of shark attacks. It was determined that the shark was a bull shark, the only shark that can survive in both fresh and saltwater. The incident was heavy inspiration for Peter Benchley, who would write his 1974 novelJaws, set on nearby Long Island. READ MORE → ATLAS OBSCURA COURSES Cheese: History, Tasting, and Pairing Join cheesemonger, author, and self-proclaimed Cheese Preacher Erika Kubick for a glimpse into the long relationship between humans and cheese. In this four-part lecture series, trace the history of cheesemaking and learn how to taste, identify, serve, and pair different kinds of cheese. Starts tonight! ENROLL NOW → FROM THE ARCHIVES Chernobyl Selfie The famous photo of Chernobyl’s most dangerous radioactive material was a selfie—a ghostly scene where men in hardhats seem to be working next to toxic corium. Why would someone take a photo with what is essentially a hunk of molten radiated lava? And how did the United States get the photo? READ MORE → YAVAPAI COUNTY, ARIZONA Montezuma Castle Ninety feet off the valley floor is an ancient dwelling put under protection of the U.S. government by Teddy Roosevelt. This cliff dwelling is remarkably intact for a structure nearly a thousand years old, but naming the site for Montezuma reveals an error in the early archeology of the site: It wasn’t built by Aztecs, but by the indigenous Sinagua, the pre-Columbian people who lived in the Verde Valley of central Arizona. READ MORE → THE ATLAS OBSCURA PODCAST Micropia In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we visit Micropia in Amsterdam, the world’s only museum dedicated to microscopic organisms and learn more about our invisible life companions. Part museum, part tiny zoo, and part laboratory, it’s dedicated to collecting the tiny organisms that live on and around us. LISTEN ON OUR SITE →    LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS →    LISTEN ON SPOTIFY →    LISTEN ON STITCHER → 9 Off-Limit D.C. Places The District of Columbia is home to a number of places that you need to flash the right ID to access. From restricted rooftops to government storage facilities and underground tunnels, the city is filled with places that are off-limits to the average visitor. What’s more, many of them are hidden within popular tourist destinations and densely populated neighborhoods—so you might catch a glimpse of them, but never get any closer. These are a few of our favorite restricted spots in D.C., and the stories behind them. READ MORE → FROM THE ARCHIVES Fruitcake Collectibles Okay, so we know the above picture is not exactly the most convincing argument to buy a fruitcake, which is today associated with Christmas, but was once served at royal weddings. But consider this: Thanks to fruitcake’s longevity—along with a longstanding tradition of guests and dignitaries receiving slices of royal wedding cake in elegant boxes as souvenirs—pieces of Queen Victoria’s fruitcake still exist. And hers are not the only slices of centuries-old cake floating around today as collectibles. READ MORE →