Halloween Feature

The Startling History of the Jump Scare

By Gavia Baker-Whitelaw · October 28, 2024
Halloween Feature

5 Macabre and Mysterious Stories About Candy

By Samantha Chong · October 11, 2024
Halloween Feature

Foxfire Brings Magical Light to the Dark Forest

By Leigh Ann Henion · September 25, 2024

Haunted Halloween Harvest

Atlas Obscura Scares Up the Best of the Season

October is our favorite month to celebrate the macabre, the mysterious, and the monstrous. Join us on a wild ride through a landscape of unsolved hauntings, terrifying legends, and hidden places almost too creepy to be real. It's going to be ghoulish good fun.

Tales of Terror: The mother of all witches, creepy cryptids, the many faces of death, and more.

With chattering squirrels, chirping birds, and often lush vegetation, cemeteries are full of life—including multiple lichen species.

cemeteries

A Cemetery's Immortal Residents and the Scientist Who Studies Them

Lichens growing on gravestones appear immune to aging. What does their life cycle teach us about death?

In Mexico, today's teyollohcuani is a terrifying, shape-shifting, vampire-like witch, but the figure has deep precolonial roots and a complex evolution.

vampires

Mexico's Vampire Witch Has a Twisted Origin Story

The terrifying teyollohcuani is a shape-shifter of ancient indigenous lore, dark colonial history, and pop culture.

Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle.

witchcraft

The Greatest Witch Movie Ever Made

Why do modern witches embrace "The Wicker Man"?

An Extra-Creepy Atlas: Create your own Road Trip of the Damned with these unsettling Places you can visit IRL (in this life or the next).

Alishan, Taiwan

Pagoda of the Tree Spirit

A monument to placate the spirits of an ancient forest.

Mask of the Bat God

Mexico City, Mexico

Mask of the Bat God

This ancient jade mask depicting the Zapotec bat god was found in the ruins of the pyramids of Monte Alban.

Odesa, Ukraine

Odesa Catacombs

The largest catacomb system in the world.

You Are Fearless. You Have Scrolled Deep Into the Atlas Obscura Crypt.

Venture even deeper into the shadows for more spine-tingling Stories, positively paranormal Places, and other spooky surprises.

Scroll down at your own risk

Italian tombstone carver Luigi Brusa knew he was dying from silicosis when he had a friend carve his impressive granite tombstone, known as "The Dying Man."

graveyards

The Tombstone Sculptor Who Carved His Own Death in Granite

Nestled in Vermont’s Hope Cemetery, ‘The Dying Man’ tells the tragic tale of the area’s Italian gravestone carvers.

Oarfish sport red spine-like fins on their head and a long dorsal fin running the length of their body, as well as two oar-like pelvic fins, giving them their name.

disasters

The Legend of Japan's 'Earthquake Fish'

The serpent-like oarfish has long been considered an omen of natural disaster. Scientists are shaking up that old superstition.

Each night during his journey across the netherworld, the sun god Ra's barque crosses the desert Rostau, realm of the falcon god Sokar, borne by snakes.

maps

In Ancient Egypt, the Duat Was a Netherworld of Gods and Monsters

A guide called the Amduat helped pharaohs navigate the complex afterlife.

witchcraft

In Early Modern Russia, Witches Were Men and Belief in Magic Was Universal

Terrifying love spells and protective "spells to power" offered the chance for control in a fiercely hierarchical society.

Dark Hedges

List

A Spooky Tour Across Northern Ireland

Step into the unknown—if you dare.

The ancient Ashoka pillar.

New Delhi, India

Feroz Shah Kotla

The ruins of a medieval citadel believed to be haunted by a ministry of wish-granting djinns.

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Still hungry for more mischief and mayhem?

Satisfy your appetite for all things Halloween, from tasty treats to unsolved mysteries, with these classics from years past.