The Rocks That Give Birth
Kaushik Patowary
Feb 12, 2018
In the Freita mountain range in northern Portugal, close to a village called Castanheira, is a huge block of granite that periodically eject...
The Seaweed Houses of Læsø Island
Kaushik Patowary
Feb 9, 2018
On the island of Læsø, located off the coast of Denmark, there are houses with roofs made of seaweed. These roofs are up to a meter thick, a...
Why Are These Postage Stamps Cut in Half?
Kaushik Patowary
Feb 8, 2018
Would you cut a ten dollar bill in half and use as two five dollar bills? Of course not. It's silly to even suggest something like that....
Bank of Vernal: The Building That Was Mailed Through The Post
Kaushik Patowary
Feb 8, 2018
The inauguration of domestic parcel post service by the United States Postal Office in 1913 was an epochal event in the lives of thousands o...
Vinegar Valentines: The Victorian Tradition of Sending Anonymous Hate Mail
Kaushik Patowary
Feb 6, 2018
In the late 19th century, Valentine's Day was more than an occasion for lovers to express their love for each other by sending greetings...
The Basement Cemetery of The New Haven Green Church
Kaushik Patowary
Feb 5, 2018
The New Haven Green in downtown New Haven, a city in Connecticut, USA, is a small park of about 16 acres. Being surrounded by buildings of t...
The Magnificent Mudbrick Mosques of West Africa
Kaushik Patowary
Feb 3, 2018
All around the Muslim world, mosques have a typical architecture characterized by a minaret, a dome, arches and mosaics or stucco decoration...
Priest Holes: Secret Chambers That Hid Mediaeval Priests
Kaushik Patowary
Feb 1, 2018
In mediaeval England, when feuds were violent and justice swift and brutal, it was common for castles and mansions of the powerful and the w...
Yaodong: China’s Pit Houses
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 30, 2018
For more than four thousand years, on the Loess Plateau in northern China, people have been residing in caves known as yaodong, which is Chi...
Women Who Become Men: The Sworn Virgins of Albania
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 29, 2018
In the remote mountains of northern Albania are villages where there are women who live and act like men. They have short hair, wear baggy p...
