May 04, 2022

THERE’S A RUMBLING  Alaska’s Great Sitkin Volcano  Near the tip of Alaska’s long tail of islands, a dotted line that curves across the North Pacific toward Asia, there is a giant spider lying in wait. The creature, made of fire and molten rock, sits at the center of a web spun of ice and frozen lava, its heart blood-red from its own heat. This is not a scene from a fantasy novel. It’s an image captured by a satellite passing above Alaska’s brooding Great Sitkin volcano, which rises more than 5,700 feet above the surf. While Great Sitkin has not had a large eruption since the mid-1970s, it has been letting off steam, literally, on and off since 2016.  READ MORE → ART HISTORY The Real Women Behind Masterpieces Far from being just subjects on canvas, art’s greatest muses were inspirational forces to be reckoned with. Author Ruth Millington’s new book, Muse: Uncovering the Hidden Figures Behind Art History’s Masterpieces, explores the lives of 30 of art history’s greatest muses, demonstrating how they inspired the artists they worked with. Atlas Obscura talked to Millington about the history of art’s muse, the woman who dressed Gustav Klimt’s models, and why the contributions of female muses are so often overlooked. READ MORE → GASTRO OBSCURA Meet Us In Delaware On May 7, join us in Delaware for Dogfish Head’s Weekend of Compelling Ales & Spirits. Among all kinds of odd beer–centric festivities, you’ll find us signing books, handing out delectable obscurities (think turducken-style cotton candy), and debuting our very own nesting doll–themed rare brew. Spoiler alert: there’s rose-scented sake, cider, mead, muscat wine, AND saison involved. GET YOUR TICKETS NOW → PORT JERVIS, NEW YORK The Hawks Nest New York State Route 97 traces the serpentine path of the Delaware River in Upstate New York, and is no doubt a particularly pleasant and scenic way to travel from Port Jervis to Hancock and all points in between. And it is along this highway, just four miles north of Port Jervis, that you will find one particularly picturesque and astonishing stretch of road, known as the Hawk’s Nest Highway, which is a paved-over narrow dirt road that runs along the shoulder of the bluffs towering over the river valley. READ MORE → GASTRO OBSCURA Kitchen Computers Could a computer help prepare a meal? That’s a question that—at least briefly in the late 20th century—once had an answer. With the rise of appliances and home electronics in the 20th century, several companies set out to develop kitchen computers, with the first one going on the market in 1969. Problem solved, right? Not so much. READ MORE → ATLAS OBSCURA COURSES Designing Modern Floral Arrangements Flowers in bloom can tell a story of time and place. In this course, you'll join floral designer Arrin Sutliff to learn how to source, sculpt, and edit these stories using modern arrangement styles. You'll learn how to craft intentional lines, negative space, and depth; and there will be an emphasis on base mechanics, spending time understanding how to ensure your vessel can structurally support your design. ENROLL NOW → SUBURBAN HISTORY America’s First Cookie-Cutter Suburb For decades, America’s suburbs have been a popular setting for television shows, from Leave It To Beaver to Desperate Housewives, chronicling entertaining trivialities against the backdrop of a pleasantly domestic—but fraught—version of the American dream. The idyllic ideal of modern suburbia in the United States was born in 1947 with the creation of Levittown, a large housing development in Long Island, New York. Levittown represented a quintessential symbol of family values, but also was a symbol of exclusion. READ MORE → MATMATAT-AL-QADIMAL, TUNISIA Matmata Underground Houses The Berber underground homes of Matmata lie in an arid, pockmarked landscape in the parched valleys of southern Tunisia’s Djebel Dahar region. Made famous by Star Wars, these traditional structures offer a fine escape from the heat of the day, and a sturdy home that could survive for many years. Unfortunately, many are now threatened as residents move away to live in towns and villages. READ MORE → THE ATLAS OBSCURA PODCAST Benin Bronzes In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we learn about the thousands of masks from the former Kingdom of Benin that are spread throughout museums across the world. Join us as we come face to face with these masks and untangle their history. LISTEN ON OUR SITE →    LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS →    LISTEN ON SPOTIFY →    LISTEN ON STITCHER → STRUCTURAL DELIGHTS Architecture Grown From Living Trees We usually use trees as building material in the form of struts and planks. But all over the world, people have found ways to create dwellings, bridges, and sculptures out of trees without even cutting them down. Using trees to create living structures is much slower to build (read: grow) than traditional methods, but it creates some truly fantastical natural creations. Take a look at some of the world’s coolest feats of arbortecture. READ MORE → ZWEIBRÜCKEN, GERMANY Zweibrücken R2-D2 The world is full of incredible observatories. But though most of those focus on the stars, it’s rare to find one that pays homage to the resident of a galaxy far, far away. A university in Germany transformed its hilltop observatory into the charming likeness of RD-D2, with the building holding a 14-inch reflector with a myriad of filters and attachments. READ MORE → SPONSORED BY LOUISIANA TRAVEL Teddy’s Juke Joint After touring the country as a record DJ, Lloyd “Teddy” Johnson returned to the thick woods north of Baton Rouge in the 1970s, building a bar and small concert venue onto his childhood home. By the end of the decade, blues acts from around the Delta and beyond were lining up to perform and today, Teddy books a broad range of musical acts to play at his Christmas-light-and-tinsel-spangled joint. LEARN MORE →