The Coffin Ships of The Great Irish Famine

Nov 25, 2017

During the Great Famine of Ireland in the mid-19th century, tens of thousands of starving Irish families fled the country and emigrated to C...

Victorian Era Murder Figurines

Nov 22, 2017

During the late 18th century, the potteries in the Staffordshire region of England began churning out detailed ceramic figures commemoratin...

The Hairy Secret Behind Indian Temples

Nov 21, 2017

Where do hairs for fashion wigs and hair extensions come from? The answer is: everywhere, but the majority of them come from China and India...

Lebanon’s Thinnest Building Was Built Out of Spite

Nov 18, 2017

Locals call the building “the Grudge” and rightly so. This extremely narrow building standing on a mere 120-square-meter piece of land in Be...

The International Church of Cannabis

Nov 18, 2017

The psychedelic interior of this 113-year-old converted Lutheran church in Denver’s Washington Park neighborhood is appropriate, for it’s th...

The Potteries of Staffordshire

Nov 16, 2017

The art of pottery making has been known since ancient times. However, the first true porcelain was made in China only during the Han Dynast...

The Forgotten Communist-Era Monuments of Bulgaria

Nov 15, 2017

From the end of the Second World War until the fall of communism in 1990, Bulgaria was a communist state ruled by the Bulgarian Communist Pa...

The Diving Horses of Atlantic City

Nov 13, 2017

For nearly half a century, Atlantic City, in New Jersey, United States, was home to an attraction almost too fantastical to believe—an appar...

The Double-Barreled Cannon of Athens

Nov 11, 2017

In front of the City Hall of Athens, in Georgia, United States, stands an unusual cannon from the American Civil War. It’s a double-barreled...

The Art of Mediaeval Book Repairing

Nov 10, 2017

In the early Middle Ages, books were made from animal hides known as parchment, rather than from paper. Preparing the parchment was a delica...

Michelangelo’s Hidden Drawings at Medici Chapels

Nov 10, 2017

In a concealed room beneath the New Sacristy of the San Lorenzo Basilica in Florence, Italy, the great Italian sculptor and architect Michel...

Lyon, The City of Murals

Nov 8, 2017

For the last four decades a group of muralists in the French city of Lyon has been transforming the city into a massive outdoor art gallery....

The Abandoned Canfranc Railway Station

Nov 7, 2017

Sitting at the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains on the Spanish side of the French-Spanish border is an immense railway station. Built wit...

Puzzlewood: Tolkien's Inspiration For Middle Earth

Nov 6, 2017

The “The Lord of the Rings” movie trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic novel of the same name were shot almost entirely in New Zealand,...

Newton's Apple Tree in Lincolnshire

Nov 6, 2017

The story of Sir Isaac Newton and the falling apple is one of the most famous anecdotes in science. The young Isaac Newton was sitting under...

Ise Jingu: The Japanese Shrine That’s Torn Down And Rebuilt Every 20 Years

Nov 3, 2017

The Ise Grand Shrine, also known as Ise Jingu, located in the city of Ise, in Japan, is one of Shinto's holiest and most important sites...

The Painted Monasteries of Romania

Nov 3, 2017

In northern Romania, in a region historically known as Bukovina, are a collection of eight Byzantine-era churches renowned for their beautif...

The Art of Well Dressing

Nov 2, 2017

Every year throughout summer many villages in Derbyshire and Staffordshire decorate their wells and water sources—a custom known as well dre...

The Udny Mort House

Nov 1, 2017

Much of what we know about the human anatomy comes from dissecting human cadavers. The practice goes back to classical antiquity. The Greeks...

Madam Coudray’s 18th Century Manikin For Midwife Trainees

Oct 31, 2017

This crude fabric doll of a small child emerging out of a fabric womb was one of the first life-sized obstetrical manikin used by Angélique ...