Showing posts from July, 2017

London’s Mail Rail

Jul 29, 2017

For seventy-six years, starting from 1927, the London Post Office operated a fleet of driverless electric trains that scuttled around pairs ...

The Birmingham Back to Backs

Jul 28, 2017

In the late Georgian era, Britain’s urban population began to grow rapidly as the country’s economy shifted from agricultural to industrial....

Elfreth's Alley: America’s Oldest Residential Street

Jul 27, 2017

In Philadelphia’s Old City neighborhood near the Delaware River, close to Interstate 95, is a historic cobblestoned street lined with thirty...

Hamilton, The Waterfall Capital of The World

Jul 27, 2017

Niagara Falls might be the most visited waterfalls in North America but the true ‘Waterfall Capital’ of the world lies 50 miles to the west,...

Kattenstoet: The Cat Throwing Festival

Jul 25, 2017

For the last sixty years, the city of Ypres in Belgium has held a popular “Cat Parade” that draws visitors from around the country. Kattenst...

Stock im Eisen: Vienna’s Nail Tree

Jul 25, 2017

At the corner of the extravagant 19th century mansion, Palais Equitable, in the city of Vienna, Austria, is a glass case behind which is the...

Victor Noir’s Mysterious Erection

Jul 24, 2017

The Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris is home to many famous dead people, including Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison. The grave of Oscar Wilde, in...

The Sourtoe Cocktail: A Drink Garnished With A Human Toe

Jul 22, 2017

In Dawson City, by the Yukon River, up north in Canada, there is a bar where you can order a shot of whiskey garnished with a real, dehydrat...

The Gastown Steam Clock

Jul 22, 2017

Not far from Vancouver’s waterfront, in the historic Gastown neighborhood, stands one of the city’s major crowd-drawer—a steam-powered clock...

Magnitogorsk: Russia’s Steel Heart

Jul 20, 2017

At the extreme southern extent of the Ural Mountains in Russia, about 140 km west of the border with Kazakhstan, there are some hills that a...

The Way Sperm Whales Sleep

Jul 18, 2017

Swiss wildlife photographer Franco Banfi and a team of scuba divers were following a pod of sperm whales off the coast of Dominica Island in...

The Topiary Trees of San Francisco

Jul 17, 2017

San Francisco residents have a particularly strong liking for topiary trees, as apparent from these photographs taken by three different pho...

The Giddy House, Port Royal, Jamaica

Jul 17, 2017

On the grounds of Fort Charles in the small town of Port Royal, Jamaica, stands a lopsided building called “the Giddy House”. Half buried in...

The 'Great Stink' of London

Jul 14, 2017

In the summer of 1858, Londoners found themselves in the middle of a big stinking problem. For centuries, the city was abusing River Thames ...

Lake Kavicsos, Hungary

Jul 12, 2017

Kavicsos Lake, or “pebble lake” in Hungarian, is a scenic lake about 2 km across located south of Budapest, just a 30-minute ride away from ...

Canal du Midi, France

Jul 12, 2017

The Strait of Gibraltar between Europe and Africa isn’t the only waterway that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. A thous...

The Model Villages of Britain

Jul 11, 2017

Starting from the late 18th century, many English landowners and industrialists began building villages to provide housing for their workers...

The Mystery of The Longyou Caves

Jul 8, 2017

In 1992, a strangely curious man named Wu Anai, near the Chinese village of Shiyan Beicun in Longyou County, based on a hunch, began to pump...

The Humongous Fungus

Jul 7, 2017

Beneath the soil in the Malheur National Forest in eastern Oregon, the United States, lurks a very large fungus that has been slowly weaving...

Paracas Candelabra of Peru

Jul 5, 2017

The Nazca Lines in southern Peru are some of the best known geoglyphs on earth, but they aren’t the only ones in the Nazca desert. About 200...

Kito Fujio’s Dramatic Photos of Japanese Playgrounds At Night

Jul 5, 2017

Ever since Kito Fujio quit his job as an office worker to become a freelance photographer, he has been exploring every possible nook and co...

Herculaneum: Pompeii’s Less Famous Neighbor

Jul 4, 2017

In late August 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius blew its top off and for three days death rained down upon towns, villas and farms surrounding the volc...

Who Put Bella In The Wych Elm?

Jul 4, 2017

This question, which appears in the form of a graffiti on a towering brick obelisk in Hagley in Worcestershire, England, has been haunting t...

Kuching, The Cat City

Jul 1, 2017

The city of Kuching, in the state of Sarawak in Malaysia, is full of cats. There are cats on the sidewalk, at traffic signals, in parks, ins...