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A single-crust pie of stewed apples in a custard fragrant with nutmeg, citrus, and sherry, Marlborough pie originated in England as a custard pudding and crossed the Atlantic with early English settlers. It has since embraced its Americanness as another take on the beloved national dessert: apple pie.

The practice of putting apples in a custard and baking in a pastry base is at least as old as 1660. An Eater article cites Amy Traverso’s The Apple Lover’s Cookbook, which traces the first iteration of Marlborough pudding to a recipe in The Accomplisht Cook, an English cookbook published that year.

In 1865, a young blue whale beached on the rocks of Askim Bay, not far from Göteborg. In those heady days, beached whales were not generally rescued, but slaughtered, and such was the fate of this one.

The Malm Whale spent many years traveling around Europe, inviting the curious in for a chance to experience Jonah's fate, before finally making its home at the Göteborg Natural History Museum, where it still sits today. 

https://www.atlasobscura.com//places/malm-whale

On New Year’s Eve of 1945, this station closed for good.

Up until the late 1990s the passengers on the Lexington Avenue Local (today’s 6 train) had to disembark from the train at the Brooklyn Bridge stop. That is no longer the case. The skylights have been reopened, and the station lights turned back on.

While passengers can’t disembark and experience the City Hall station as they once might have, New Yorkers who want to catch a glimpse of the stunning station can stay on the 6 train as it loops around at the southernmost point.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/podcast-old-city-hall-station

Some call this New York’s worst kept secret—a train station that’s been shut down and sealed away for nearly a century

On New Year’s Eve of 1945, the station closed for good.

Up until the late 1990s the passengers on the Lexington Avenue Local (today’s 6 train) had to disembark from the train at the Brooklyn Bridge stop. That is no longer the case. The skylights have been reopened, and the station lights turned back on.

While passengers can’t disembark and experience the City Hall station as they once might have, New Yorkers who want to catch a glimpse of the stunning station can stay on the 6 train as it loops around at the southernmost point.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/podcast-old-city-hall-station

A century ago, Manhattan residents with a hankering for dessert might flick on their finest frock coat, get a table at a white-tablecloth restaurant, and order a juicy slice of Montreal melon. It didn’t come cheap, though. A slice of the green-fleshed melon sold for a steak’s price of $1, or around $30 in today’s currency.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/montreal-melons

The indigenous people of East Greenland made this sort of underwear, known as naatsit, by sewing strips of seal pelt together using a thread of reindeer or whale sinew. The naatsit above, decorated with glass beads tied onto seal-skin fringe, was made for women and worn under seal-skin trousers. Explorer Captain C. Ryder acquired the item in the southeast Greenland settlement of Ammassalik during an expedition in 1892.

A deep dive into the legend of the Mothman, one of America’s most famous cryptids. The story starts with a strange sighting near an abandoned power plant that drew the attention of the press, visitors, and those interested in the paranormal and the unexplained.

It generated a powerful legend that, over time, became woven into the story of the town, from its tragedies to its triumphs. And today, this creature has gone from being a source of terror to a kind of folk hero.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/podcast-on-the-trail-of-the-mothman

Staircases zigzag across Pittsburgh’s hilly terrain, some relics of another era, others recently refurbished in concrete. The Rust Belt city is home to more public staircases—739 to be exact— than anywhere else in the United States, and Laura Zurowski has walked every single one of them. It’s part of a project she playfully calls Mis.Steps.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/pittsburgh-public-staircase

Still one of the strangest unsolved cases to come out of the Midlands. A skeleton in a hollow tree in Hagley Wood, 1943. A wad of taffeta in her throat, a severed hand buried nearby, no missing persons report that matched. Then two years later, graffiti starts appearing all over the West Midlands asking WHO PUT BELLA IN THE WYCH ELM. Same handwriting every time. Still no answer.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/31-days-of-halloween-who-put-bella-down-the-wych-elm

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Including (in order) Bún Riêu Gánh in Ho Chi Min City, Rung Rueang in Bangkok, Wattana Panich in Bangkok

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/worlds-best-soup

Pictured: Bún Riêu Gánh in Ho Chi Minh City, Au Pied de Cochon in Paris

Stories of creeping, flying, and swimming cryptids have long emerged from communities across what is now the United States. From figures of Native American legends to the lore behind small-town hysteria, cryptids have long captured human curiosity. Today, people erect monuments in their honor, coalesce in cult followings, and continue to seek them out. The destinations in this guide represent the best places to immerse yourself in these legends—from the Beast of Montana to a murderous goat-man in Kentucky to lake monsters in Vermont.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/cryptid-tourism-across-america

It all starts with geology. Sediments left behind by ancient seas created large deposits of limestone in the south of the city, mostly south of the Seine; and gypsum in the north, particularly in the hills of Montmartre and Ménilmontant. Highly sought after as building materials, both have been mined since Roman times.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/strange-maps-paris-catacombs

Poor Franz Reichelt. He had one dream: to create a working parachute suit. But as he tragically found, when you’re a tailor with nothing more than early 20th-century technology at your disposal, even a straightforward dream can turn deadly.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/flying-tailor-eiffel-paris-france-parachute

From an abandoned tunnel in Australia, whose dank, dark walls are the perfect breeding ground for fungus gnats; to coral reefs in the Maldives that come alive at night with shimmering phytoplankton, these places are full of fascinating history and natural wonders. They’re living proof that many of the earth’s most fantastic places are off the beaten path, in the nooks and crannies (literally) where many never think to explore.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/bioluminescent-places-around-the-world

From an abandoned tunnel in Australia, whose dank, dark walls are the perfect breeding ground for fungus gnats; to coral reefs in the Maldives that come alive at night with shimmering phytoplankton, these places are full of fascinating history and natural wonders. They’re living proof that many of the earth’s most fantastic places are off the beaten path, in the nooks and crannies (literally) where many never think to explore.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/bioluminescent-places-around-the-world