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

The black-eyed children, first described in Texas in the mid-90s, have since been seen around the world.

death

Death as a Child: The Modern Legend of the Black-Eyed Children

First described in Texas in the mid-90s, what are these disturbing figures—and what do they want?

Food with a face is disconcerting. With fangs? Even more so.

food

Gloriously Gruesome Confections for Halloween–and the Rest of the Year

A new cookbook offers recipes that are both wholesome and horrifying.

In the original Dracula novel, the count is able to bite Lucy only after her necklace of garlic flowers is removed.

witchcraft

Banishing Evil With Edible Plants

All-natural monster repellent for spooky season might lurk in your kitchen.

Vanishing hitchhiker legends are just the latest version of a folktale that may go back millennia—and continues to spread and evolve.

ghosts

The Vanishing Hitchhiker Legend Is an Ancient Tale That Keeps Evolving

The classic creepy story—a driver offers a lift to a stranger who is not of this world—has deep roots and a long reach.

The Cù Sith, an otherworldly hound of Scottish folklore, and its Irish counterpart the Cù Sidhe are sometimes described as green, the color associated with magic—and misfortune.

animals

Death as a Dog: The Cù Sith of Scotland

The spectral, terrifying dog of Scottish folklore has inspired many a nightmare for centuries—and likely for millennia.

This year, longtime Massachusetts corn maze Mike's Maze has a circus theme.

mazes

Inside the Weird World of Corn Mazes

The a-maize-ing history of getting lost among the stalks.

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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.