March 09, 2021

Jersey Shore Hauntings In the late 1970s and early 1980s, if you wanted to be scared out of your skin outside of Halloween, the place to be was the Jersey Shore, where haunted attractions dotted the boardwalk. These purpose-built, walk-through “houses of horror” were staffed in large part by student actors who loved theatrics and makeup, knew how to improvise, and operated under laws that were a lot less strict than you might expect. Anything went, anything was possible. So these places soon became legendary.  READ MORE → The Mystery of a Lonely Skull In 2015, cave explorers inching through a vertical passage in northern Italy’s Marcel Loubens Cave discovered a partial human skull. The cranium was missing its jawbone, and sat upended on a slim ledge near the top of the shaft. No other human remains were found there, and there was no sign of who might have placed the skull there, or when, or why. But today, scientists have finally cracked the code of the lonely skull. READ MORE → DURHAM, ENGLAND South Bailey Sewer Lamp Sewer lamps, such as this one, were invented after The Great Stink of 1858. During this event, London’s sewers created an incredibly foul stench, one so bad that even the House of Commons was aware of the issue. It didn’t take long for funds to be allocated to create an effective sewer system in the capital and design a way to vent them properly. Thus, sewer gas destructor lamps were born. READ MORE → ATLAS OBSCURA COURSES Cartooning Characters Back by popular demand! Our next six-part seminar with cartoonist Zawadi Noël begins on March 21, and we’re diving back into the art of cartooning! In this course, we’ll identify a character we want to bring to life—fictional or otherwise—and learn how to practice a range of drawing techniques to visually recreate and represent these characters on the page. Professional art skills not required; we welcome artists of all levels. Don’t miss out—sign up today! ENROLL NOW → GASTRO OBSCURA Seeds for a Quarantine Garden When the reality of the pandemic hit, nearly a year ago, something unexpected happened: Americans began gardening. Alarmed by a possible breakdown in food supply chains, and inspired by wartime Victory Gardens and lockdown boredom, people across the country who never grew food before developed green thumbs, causing seed companies to stop taking orders due to overwhelming demand. But this year, seed companies are more prepared. If you’d like to keep your quarantine garden going, here are eight companies offering locally adapted and culturally specific seeds to add some variety to your plots. READ MORE → ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN 'Villa of the Mysteries' Replica In 1909, archaeologists excavating the city of Pompeii uncovered a Roman villa that still contained painted frescoes on the walls of one of its rooms. The artwork depicted the mystery rites of a religious cult associated with Dionysus, and so researchers dubbed this dwelling the “Villa of the Mysteries.” In 1924, an archaeologist commissioned a replica of the wall paintings that replicated the look of the room, and these paintings eventually found their way to the University of Michigan. READ MORE → FROM THE ARCHIVES Fake Mountains The world is filled with mountains. You could probably name several giants off the top of your head: Everest, K2, Kilimanjaro, and more. But the world is also studded with artificial mountains, and in the United States, these colossal forms are the byproducts of cement and steel production. These mountains can be truly gargantuan in scope; Brown’s Dump in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, for example, was over 200 feet tall and covered the equivalent of 130 city blocks. Dismantling these mountains can be tremendously difficult and expensive, but there is potential money to be made from repurposing them. READ MORE → XIAN SHI, CHINA Xi'an City Walls Located in Northwest China, Xi’An is one of the oldest cities in the country. Of the many features that make Xi’an stand out, the fortified city walls—some of the largest, oldest and best preserved of their kind—may be the most apparent to visitors. Xi’an’s walls have stood for centuries, but they have grown in size and sophistication over time When the wall was first constructed, it was made entirely out of tamped earth before being fortified with bricks on top of the earthen walls. During the reign of the Qianlong Emperor in the late 18th century, the fortifications were expanded and new features were added, including drainage and crenels, for shooting projectiles through. READ MORE →