Poena Cullei: The Worst Roman Punishment
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 1, 2021
Throughout history Man has shown extraordinary imagination in inventing penalties and sentences for crimes committed by fellow man. The Roma...
The Ksar of Ait Benhaddou
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 30, 2021
A small but vibrant city high up on Atlas Mountains, Ouarzazate, in south-central Morocco, has long been called the “door to the desert”. It...
That Time When The French Divided The Day Into 10 hours
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 28, 2021
For centuries we have used the sexagesimal system of measuring time, where each day is divided into 24 hours, each hour into 60 minutes and ...
The Lartigue Monorail of Listowel
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 25, 2021
A small heritage market town called Listowel in County Kerry, Ireland, is home to one of the strangest monorail system ever built. Instead o...
Gympie-Gympie: The Stinging Plant Which Can Inflict Pain For Months
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 24, 2021
Gympie-Gympie sounds adorable, but if you pay any attention to its scientific name Dendrocnide moroides , you would know its to be avoided. ...
Dog on The Tuckerbox
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 23, 2021
One of Australia’s famous pioneer monuments is located in the small town of Gundagai about half way between Melbourne and Sydney. The monume...
The Anatomical Machines of Raimondo di Sangro
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 22, 2021
Housed in glass cases in the basement of Sansevero Chapel in Naples, Italy, are two extraordinary exhibits. Called “anatomical machines”, th...
The Bell Cemeteries of World War 2
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 21, 2021
Nearly every German family in every German town contributed something to the two World Wars. For many, it was their men. For others, it was ...
One-Million-Liter Test Sphere
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 18, 2021
Tucked away at a corner of Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland, dwarfed by buildings on three, sides stands a relic of Cold War—a humongous ...
How a Solar Storm Set Off Sea Mines During The Vietnam War
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 17, 2021
Buried deep within the archives of the US Navy, lied a mystery that was only recently solved. On August 4, 1972, dozens of naval mines that ...
The Flying Tanks of World War 2
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 16, 2021
Dropping supplies including combat vehicles to troops on the ground was one of the biggest achievements of the military during World War 2. ...
The Bridge Built By Women
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 15, 2021
When the Waterloo Bridge over River Thames opened in the December 1945, Deputy Prime Minister, Herbert Morrison spoke on its inauguration: ...
The Degenerate Art Exhibition of 1937
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 14, 2021
Not everybody gets modern art. From Andy Warhol’s Soup Cans to a banana stuck to the wall , there are plenty of examples from the perplexin...
HMS Diamond Rock: The Stone Frigate
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 11, 2021
South of Martinique, an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, lies a small basalt island called Diamond Rock. With an imposing peak of 175 me...
The Citadel of Bam: The World’s Largest Mud Building
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 10, 2021
Sometime between 579 and 323 BC during the Achaemenid Persian period, the Citadel of Bam (in Persian Arg-é Bam) was built in southeastern pr...
The Maharaja’s Well
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 9, 2021
We think that charity always flows from the richer nations to the poorer ones, but sometimes it also flows the other way. When Ireland was s...
Sears Mail-Order Homes
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 8, 2021
What’s the heaviest thing you can buy from Amazon? The internet says it’s a 1,500-pound, 6-feet tall gun safe , but back when Sears was the ...
The Exiled Bell of Uglich
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 7, 2021
When Ivan the Terrible died in 1584, he left behind two sons, neither of whom was suitable to carry forward their father’s heirloom. One was...
Dulmial: The Village of World War Heroes
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 3, 2021
A small Pakistani village located about 150 kilometers south of Islamabad is home to a proud monument—a 19th century cannon gifted by the Br...
The Great Sheep Panic of 1888
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 2, 2021
Sheep are notoriously timid and nervous animal, and can get startled easily. But what mysterious provocation could have caused thousands of ...
