May 25, 2022

GASTRO OBSCURA  Fruit Curry History Ever heard of strawberry curry? It’s a British take on a long tradition of fresh fruit curries that are rarely served in Indian restaurants abroad, and therefore barely known outside family homes. Curries are normally made with meat, chicken, seafood, vegetables, beans, lentils or paneer. Across different Indian regions, however, you’ll also find ones made from pineapples, mangoes, bananas, guavas, watermelons, jackfruits, grapes, apples, and even orange peels. So why are these sweet and sour fruits cooked in spicy and savory dishes? The reasons are as diverse as the Indian subcontinent itself. READ MORE → SKIBBEREEN, IRELAND Irish Sky Garden Designed by American James Turrell, this magical knoll is the perfect symbol for the Emerald Isle, and it’s an unparalleled piece of public art. The Sky Garden is set against the natural landscape of the Celtic Liss Ard, or “High Fort,” an ancient structure half reclaimed by nature.  READ MORE → GASTRO OBSCURA COURSES | STARTS 6/4 Recreate Ancient Recipes Turn your kitchen into a vessel for gastronomic time travel, using historical recipes and modern ingredients to create dishes from ancient Mesopotamia, ancient Rome, and the Mediterranean Middle Ages during this 3-part lecture series. SIGN UP TODAY → NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY Lawrence Brook Carvings In 1876, two young men from New Brunswick, New Jersey, carved a mixture of strange symbols, ciphers, words, and cryptograms into rocks along the Lawrence Brook. Some of these carvings include the authors’ names, initials, the words “Red Rover,” skulls, a compass, a mystery cipher, and more. It’s been more than 100 years since these symbols were carved, and yet the meaning behind them still remains unclear. READ MORE → WATER SYSTEMS Spain’s Ancient Water Network High above the whitewashed village of Bérchules, nestled in the folds of southern Spain’s Sierra Nevada, is an irrigation channel. The channel, known as an acequia, is part of a vast 1,800-mile irrigation network built between the eighth and 10th centuries by the Moors in what was then Al-Andalus, and they were designed to preserve and distribute scarce water resources in the semi-arid environment. Today, this ancient water management system—the oldest in Europe—continues to sustain farmers and villages across the Sierra Nevada. But as the number of people skilled in managing acequias dwindles, the future of the entire system is in question—even as the need for the water it provides has never been greater. READ MORE → FREE MEMBERS-ONLY EVENT TOMORROW! Inside An Animatronics Factory For nearly half a century, the talented engineers and artisans at Garner Holt Productions have used cutting-edge technology and unbound creativity to breathe life into more animatronic figures than any other company in history. Now, we get to step inside their workshop to see how the magic is made. In this virtual tour, we'll get a taste of each step that goes into building a hi-tech animatronic figure. RSVP TODAY → BOTANICAL FINDS When Is An Extinct Flower Not Extinct? In 1991, botanists from the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG), a Hawai’i-based nonprofit, discovered the rare and beautiful Hibiscadelphus woodii, a native flower and relative of the hibiscus. But by 2016, H. woodii was classified as extinct. The last time the vibrant flower had been seen alive was in 2009. That is, until 2019, when scientists from NTBG made an exciting discovery while using drone technology in a very remote part of the Kalalau Valley’s steep cliffs: H. woodii was growing again. READ MORE → BOLOGNA, ITALY Towers of Bologna During the 12th and 13th centuries, for reasons that are still not entirely clear, an incredible number of towers were built throughout Bologna, making for an urban skyline that almost resembles modern-day Manhattan. The exact number of towers built in medieval Bologna is not clear; it’s been suggested that up to 180 towers were present in the city as of the 13th century, but a more realistic number is probably around 100. Today, only 22 remain. READ MORE → THE ATLAS OBSCURA PODCAST Père Lachaise Cemetery Today we’re taking a trip to Paris, France, where producer Baudelaire Ceus searches for the resting place of famed author Richard Wright among the graves other cultural icons—Gertrude Stein, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, Sadegh Hedaya, and more—in Paris’s most famed cemetery. FINDING GREAT PLACES TO GET LOST Mesmerizing Mazes and Labyrinths If you’ve ever gotten lost in a maze cut out of a cornfield or one made of mirrors at an amusement park, you’ve taken part in an ancient tradition. These puzzling, winding pathways have been found in nearly every part of the world, from the American Southwest to Scandinavia and North Africa to India, dating back thousands of years. To celebrate the launch of AO Puzzles, we’ve gathered a few of our favorite mazes and labyrinths from around the world. READ MORE → KAYCEE, WYOMING Hole-in-the Wall Outlaw Hideout Roughly between the 1860s and 1910, this area was a notorious stop on the outlaw trail during the romanticized lawlessness of the American West. One of the most famous hideouts of such outlaws as Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch, the Logan brothers, and Jesse James was a remote spot in Johnson County Wyoming called the Hole-in-the-Wall. Even today this is a remote, secluded, and hard to reach spot—the views are nice, though. READ MORE → SPONSORED BY TRAVEL NEVADA The Bristlecone Pines Some of the world’s oldest living organisms sit in Nevada’s Great Basin National Park. These Bristlecone Pines have been quietly growing on a mountain ridge in eastern Nevada for more than 5,000 years, living since before the invention of the alphabet, the creation of musical notation, and the invention of the sword. READ MORE →