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The fate of the ancient native inhabitants of Cahokia in southwest Illinois remains a mystery.
Itinerary

Atlas Obscura’s Guide to the 10 Most Mystifying Places in Illinois

Creepy clowns, mysterious mounds, and a jail for two
Silanus, Italy

Nuraghe and Church of Santa Sabina

A lone nuraghe and a little old church with mysterious origins.
Aldeburgh, England

Moot Hall

One of the best preserved Tudor public buildings in Britain was once used for witch trials.
Grapevine, Texas

The Real Unreal

Fall through a crack in the seams of reality at this immersive art installation.
Hindhead, England

The Sailor's Stone

This curious gravestone tells the legend of an unknown mariner's grisly murder.
West Bridgewater, Massachusetts

Hockomock Swamp

Tales of ghosts, cryptids, and true crime rise from the murky waters of the largest freshwater wetland in Massachusetts.
West Bridgewater, Massachusetts

Solitude Stone

This solitary stone engraved with a poem from 1852 has a mysterious and tragic past.
The tentacles of a colossal squid sit on the surface of the water as it is defrosted at Te Papa labs in Wellington on September 16, 2014. The squid was caught by a fishing boat longline in the Antarctic over the summer and kept on ice until scientists worked to thaw it out to begin examining the specimen.
pet cemeteries

Wonder Is Everywhere: The ‘Real’ Kraken, an Ancient Pet Cemetery, and More From Around the Web

Get a peek into what we’re obsessed with right now.
April White June 10, 2024
Tofta, Sweden

Svärjarehålorna (The Swearer's Holes)

Is the centuries-old enigma of these mysterious "perjurer's footprints," where nothing ever grows, attributed to natural phenomena or to the realm of folklore?
A sign requesting information on big cats in West Sussex.
zoos

The Enduring Enigma of Alien Big Cats

What sightings of lions in Illinois and pumas in Australia tell us about our relationship with the natural world.
Colin Dickey May 30, 2024
York, Maine

Paul Bunyan's Severed Head

The head of a legendary lumberjack watches over a river in Maine.
Wrocław, Poland

Uniwersytecki Bridge Hand

A mysterious concrete hand reaches out from between the stones of Uniwersytecki bridge.
The Brocken spectre phenomenon, when a human's shadow seems enormous and far away, is the likely explanation for numerous sightings of so-called dark watchers in California's Santa Lucia Mountains.
mountains

Have You Seen a Dark Watcher?

Cryptic characters lurk in California's mountains. Or maybe it's just the weather.
Roxanne Hoorn May 2, 2024
The Wilmington “Madonna” and Ancient Yew
Wilmington, England

The Wilmington 'Madonna'

This church is home to a 1,600-year-old tree, but also a mysterious carved figure who may have been a pagan idol.
The fearsome cryptid is said to grow up to six-feet-long and spit deadly poison.
cryptozoology

Inside the Decades Long Hunt for the Mongolian Death Worm

Some say the true death worm has already been found—slithering beneath the sands of the Gobi.
Mark Hay April 30, 2024
A potential source of the mysterious Windsor Hum.
sounds

Podcast: Atlas Obscura Presents 'Windsor Hum' From Twenty Thousand Hertz

In 2011, residents on the U.S.-Canadian border started hearing a strange rumbling noise.
The Podcast Team April 29, 2024
Southampton, England

Southampton Wall Cannonballs

Many mysteries surround these objects questioning whether they are cannonballs at all.
Takia, Oman

'What Is It?'

This mysterious anthropomorphic statuette is on display at the National Museum of Oman.