cemeteries
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Halloween FeatureThe Startling History of the Jump Scare
By Gavia Baker-Whitelaw · October 28, 2024
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Halloween Feature5 Macabre and Mysterious Stories About Candy
By Samantha Chong · October 11, 2024
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Halloween FeatureFoxfire 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.
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).
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
haunted
At a Haunted Grocery Store, Trying to Explain the Unexplained Has Consequences
In rural Norway, flying potatoes and other strange events troubled staff and customers for years. What happened when people shared their stories?
ancient
In Ancient Egypt, Human Sacrifice and Shabti Figures Ensured an Afterlife of Servitude
Clay figurines and murdered retainers provided plenty of company—and a workforce—for the dead.
haunted
The Best Halloween Songs To Usher in the Spooky Season
From The Exorcist's "Tubular Bells" to a murder ballad by Tom Waits.
horror
The Twisty Tale of the BBC Show Supposedly So Terrifying That It Was Destroyed
"Late Night Horror" was weird, innovative, and—mostly—will never be seen again.
science
When You Die, Your Necrobiome Recycles You
An environmental microbiologist explains why an individual's death is a new lease on life for an entire ecosystem.
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.
Explore now