December 17, 2021

The Queens of Ancient Nubia It’s 30 B.C., and Rome is beginning to eye the wealth of Nubia to the south. Enter Nubia’s queen, Amanirenas, who bested the Romans in battle and eventually negotiated a peace. Queens in ancient Nubia, or Kush, weren't unusual. For centuries, the Kushite kingdoms boasted of female power within its ancient history—but today, few people have heard of Nubia’s mighty queens. We spoke with scholar Solange Ashby about how the study of this incredible legacy of Nubian female power still holds weight in modern movements like Black Lives Matter.  READ MORE → GASTRO OBSCURA Christmas Tree to Cocktails After the warm glow of the festive season has left us, after we have overeaten, overspent, and overdone it, a mass culling of trees begins: 40 million of them across the U.S. and UK alone. For those of us who celebrate the Christmas holiday, we enjoy them for only a month or two before dragging them to the curb. But what if we could turn them into food and drink? READ MORE → PURANO JHANGAJHOLI, NEPAL Mulkot Mirror Wall Near the village of Mulkot Bazar, along a windy stretch of the BP Koirala Highway, a retaining wall is covered with thousands of small mirrors. The mirrors are offered up to the goddess Seti Devi Mata as prayers to avoid accidents, while a nearby temple sells additional mirrors to any travelers who wish to add to the panoramic oblation. READ MORE → ATLAS OBSCURA EXPERIENCES Monster of the Month: Elves They're up there, in the North Pole, helping Santa. How did they get there? What do they want from us? Are they really just gonna make toys for us and then leave us alone? For a holiday-themed Monster of the Month, join author Colin Dickey as he goes deep with Santa's little helpers to find out the monstrous truth beneath their heartwarming exterior... GET TICKETS → FROM THE ARCHIVES Mysterious Fort In 1702, an English fleet laid siege to the politically-important Spanish stronghold of Castillo de San Marcos, located on Florida’s Atlantic shore. But even after nearly two months of being shelled with cannonballs, the fort’s walls wouldn’t give. How did it withstand such an assault? READ MORE → GUADALAJARA, MEXICO 'Sincretismo' On one of the main avenues of the city of Guadalajara stands a dazzling sculpture that is immediately recognizable as the Virgin of Guadalupe. But take a closer look and you may be surprised to see a garland of human skulls and fork-tongued and razor-fanged snakes adorning this monument. READ MORE → FROM THE ARCHIVES Snowplowing, Japanese Style 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 → GERMANY Feuerzangenbowle Who needs cookies when you have sugar, booze, and fire? A feuerzangenbowle is a German Christmas drink (literally “fire tongs punch”), but the term also applies to the equipment you need to make it. It’s basically a traditional mulled wine (called glühwein in German) that comes with a rum-soaked sugar loaf. The latter, which sits atop a grate over the wine, is set on fire so all the delicious, boozy sugar can drip into the drink. READ MORE → ATLAS OBSCURA EXPERIENCES Charm School: DIY Filipinx Holiday Parol In this final session of Charm School, host Nina Nightingale dives into the history of the ubiquitous holiday decoration of the Philippines, the parol — a star-shaped lantern often crafted from bamboo and tissue paper. Then learn to make a parol for your own holiday celebrations!