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Atlas Obscura had a great success earlier this year with Obscura Day, a project to get people all over involved in their local geography and interesting places. It was so successful that they are now forming The Obscura Society, a club in which people not only explore places, but share their experiences with others.
Born of the success of Obscura Day, this real-world exploration arm of Atlas Obscura will be seeking out secret histories, unusual access, and opportunities to explore strange and overlooked places hidden all around us, all year round – and we could not be more excited about it.
New York City today, everywhere tomorrow. We are starting with five regional chapters, but we are looking forward to our slow but steady takeover of the world, with help from you, our curious explorers, armed with knowledge of that one abandoned building at the edge of town and the desire to take a bunch of people out with you to investigate it.
The other initial chapters are in the San Francisco Bay area, Boston, Detroit, and Los Angeles. Links to the local chapters and more information can be found at the Atlas Obscura blog. Link
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The Sagan Series put together an inspiring video in honor of the final space shuttle flight, narrated by Carl Sagan. You can see the sources for all the video clips at the YouTube page. -via reddit
The Great Pyramid of Giza contains narrow passageways and chambers that have never been explored. A small robot was sent into an 8-inch wide chute in 1993 and 2002, but both expeditions ran into something impassable. Now a new robot called Djedi with the ability to take pictures around corners is making headway and sending back pictures of previously unseen hieroglyphs and architecture.
The winning robot, designed by Leeds University, has indeed gone further than anyone has ever been before in the pyramid.
The project began with the exploration of the southern shaft, which ends at the so called “Gantenbrink’s door.”
The robot was able to climb inside the walls of the shaft while carrying a “micro snake” camera that can see around corners.
Unlike previous expeditions, in which camera images were only taken looking straight ahead, the bendy camera was small enough to fit through a small hole in a stone “door,” giving researchers a clear view into the chamber beyond. It was at that time that the camera sent back images of 4,500-year-old markings.
“There are many unanswered questions that these images raise,” Richardson told Discovery News. “Why is there writing in this space? What does the writing say? There appears to be a masonry cutting mark next to the figures: why was it not cut along this line?” Roberston wondered.
Read more about the Djedi project at Discovery News. Link -via the Presurfer
(Image credit: Djedi Team)
Atlas Obscura is hosting the second annual International Obscura Day on April 9, 2011, in partnership with Hendrick’s Gin. This is a day set aside for “expeditions, back-room tours and hidden treasures” in places near or not-so-near. Events will take place in 61 cities (so far). Here are some of the most popular:
In London Go out for adventure films and cocktails in the historic Royal Geographical Society Map Room
In San Francisco The National Parks Service is leading an exclusive, behind-the-scenes tour of Alcatraz followed by drinks at a speakeasy
In Los Angeles Wander the Magic Castle and mingle with Magicians while sipping Cocktails
In Florence Explore the macabre and beautiful La Specola anatomical museum
In Paris Join an expedition into the abandoned ruins of a Victorian-era tropical botanical garden
In Rome Go underground to explore ancient catacombs
In New Zealand Tour the museum of extraordinary visual design company WETA best known for their work on the Lord of the Rings Trilogy
If none of these events are near you, there are plenty more to find at Atlas Obscura. Make a point to participate in an expedition you’ll never forget! Link
Back in school, you may have learned about the European Age of Discovery: the time during the 15th-18th Centuries when Europeans traveled all over the world to lands previously unknown to them. But there were other early explorers who made remarkable journeys. Let’s look at five of them.
Pytheas lived in the Greek city of Marseilles in what is now southern France. In the 4th Century BC, perhaps with the backing of merchants who wanted a cheaper source of tin than was available using the overland through Gaul, he went on a long ocean voyage. Slipping past the Carthaginians guarding the exit of the Mediterranean, Pytheas entered the Atlantic Ocean and headed north. In what is now Cornwall, Britain, he observed the operations of tin miners and smelters. Pytheas then allegedly circumnavigated the island and made a rough estimate of its size based upon his assessment of the speed of his ship. Thereafter he proceeded to a land that he called “Thule”, which he reported as laying six days north of Britain and a day south of ice floes. Pytheas asserted that the night only lasted two or three hours. The inhabitants had an abundance of beer, amber, honey, and millet, and seemed friendly.
Some fanciful authors have proposed that Thule was Iceland, but as that island remained uninhabited until the 8th Century AD, this is a preposterous claim. It is more likely that Pytheas visited Norway, southern Sweden, or the Shetland Islands. He recorded his findings in a book, which unfortunately only survives in quotations or indirect references in works by other Greco-Roman authors, not all of whom believed Pytheas. In the 1st Century AD, Strabo writes:
Now Polybius says that, in the first place, it is incredible that a private individual — and a poor man too — could have traveled such distances by sea and by land; and that, though Eratosthenes was wholly at a loss whether he should believe these stories, nevertheless he has believed Pytheas’ account of Britain, and the regions about Gades, and of Iberia; but he says it is far better to believe Euhemerus, the Messenian, than Pytheas. Euhemerus, at all events, asserts that he sailed only to one country, Panchaea, whereas Pytheas asserts that he explored in person the whole northern region of Europe as far as the ends of the world — an assertion which no man would believe, not even if Hermes made it. (Geography, 4.2.2)
Hippalus was a 1st Century BC Greek from Egypt who sailed down the Red Sea and explored India. He speculated that the subcontinent stretched far to the south, and so if he crossed the open Arabian Sea instead of taking a coastal route, he could bypass coastal port authorities, who levied taxes on passing ships. Hippalus was able to do this after discovering a favorable monsoon wind, as Pliny the Elder describes:
If the wind, called Hippalus happens to be blowing, it is possible to arrive in forty days at the nearest mart of India, [Mangalore] by name. (Natural History, 6.26)
This wind blew west to east for six months before reversing itself, thus making regular travel on this route feasible. By reducing the number of middlemen involved in the trade routes between India and the Greco-Roman Mediterranean, Hippalus’ discovery led to a blossoming of commerce. One anonymous nautical directory written a century later gave Hippalus all the credit:
From that time to the present day ships start, some direct from Cana, and some from the Cape of Spices; and those bound for Damirica throw the shlp’s head considerably off the wind; while those bound for Barygaza and Scythia keep along shore not more than three days and for the rest of the time hold the same course straight out to sea from that region, with a favorable wind, quite away from the land, and so sail outside past the aforesaid gulfs. (The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, 57)
The life of Saint Brendan of Clonfert (484-577) is recorded in the medieval text The Voyage of Saint Brendan. It describes the Irish religious leader taking monks on a journey across the sea to a promised land where the monks could live and pray in peace. Here is a passage describing Brendan’s arrival at this mythical place:
He then said to St Brendan: ‘This is the land you have sought after for so long a time; but you could not hitherto find it, because Christ our Lord wished, first to display to you His divers mysteries in this immense ocean. Return now to the land of your birth, bearing with you as much of those fruits and of those precious stones, as your boat can carry; for the days of your earthly pilgrimage must draw to a close, when you may rest in peace among your saintly brethren. After many years this land will be made manifest to those who come after you, when days of tribulation may come upon ‘the people of Christ. The great river you see here divides this land into two parts; and just as it appears now, teeming with ripe fruits, so does it ever remain, without any blight or shadow whatever, for light unfailing shines thereon.’ When St Brendan inquired whether this land ‘would. be revealed unto men, the young man replied: ‘When the Most High Creator will have brought all nations under subjection, then will this land be made known to all His elect.’ Soon after, St Brendan, having received the blessing of this man, prepared for his return to his own country (28).
This is an allegorical rather than historical text, but it does represent the extraordinary exploratory journeys of early Christian Ireland. By the 7th Century, Irish monks had discovered and settled the Faroe Islands, and by the 8th Century, Iceland. These explorations can be confirmed by archaeological findings as well as Latin and Old Norse documents. A journey that is more speculative and daring is Greenland — an incident that would establish the Irish as the first Europeans to arrive in North America. The sole extant evidence for this journey consists of iron bells and crosses of Irish design found in Greenland.
Ahmad ibn Fadlan was a 10th Century Arab nobleman who the Caliph in Baghdad designated his ambassador to the Volga Bulgars, a tribal nation living in what is now the area of Kazan, Russia. At the time, Swedish Vikings had regular commerce through the rivers of European Russia, dragging their ships from the Baltic Sea to the Volga and Dnieper Rivers and into the Caspian and Black Seas. So Fadlan arranged for passage on a Swedish ship to the Bulgars. But when they arrived, the Swedes refused to allow him to leave, so Fadlan continued on with them, ultimately touring the Baltic Sea before returning to Baghdad. His story was adapted into the Michael Chrichton novel Eaters of the Dead, which was in turn adapted into the Antonio Banderas film The 13th Warrior. Fadlan’s frank and detailed anthropological text about his journeys is a good read, and I highly recommend it — especially his long description of Viking sexual practices, which is absolutely hilarious. But as this is a family-friendly blog, I offer instead a passage from after Fadlan witnessed a funeral:
One of the [Swedes] stood beside me and I heard him speaking to my interpreter. I quizzed him about what he had said, and he replied “He said, “You Arabs are a foolish lot!’” So I said, “Why is that?” and he replied, “Because you purposely take those who are dearest to you and whom you hold in highest esteem and throw them under the earth, where they are eaten by the earth, by vermin and by worms, whereas we burn them in the fire there and then, so that they enter Paradise immediately.” Then he laughed loud and long.
Zheng He (1371-1435) was a Chinese naval explorer. Born into a Muslim family in southern China, he was castrated at the age of 11 by a Ming general and sent to the imperial court. He rose in the service of the Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan and distinguished himself at the Battle of Zhenglunba. When Zhu Di became emperor, he instructed Zheng He to lead a naval expedition to southeast Asia to address the growing problem of piracy. This 1405 mission, consisting of 27,000 men in 315 ships, crushed piracy in the Straits of Malacca and established Ming hegemony over the region for a century.
The Emperor sent Zheng He on six expensive expeditions across the waters, most likely to build a great sea empire by collecting tribute from distant lands. Now Zheng He went to India and Ceylon, where he opened up direct trade between those nations and China. Later missions went as far as Arabia and East Africa, where Zheng He collected tribute for the Emperor. Here’s a passage about a journey to Arabia, taken from a 1431 inscription:
In the fifteenth year of Yongle, commanding the fleet we visited the western regions. The country of Ormuz presented lions, leopards with gold spots and large western horses. The country of Aden presented a giraffe, as well as the oryx. The country of Mogadishu presented zebras as well as lions. The country of Brava presented camels which run one thousand li as well as ostriches. The countries of Java and Calcutta presented the animal miligao. They all vied in presenting the marvellous objects preserved in the mountains or hidden in the seas and the beautiful treasures buried in the sand or deposited on the shores. Some sent a maternal uncle of the king, others a paternal uncle or a younger brother of the king in order to present a letter of homage written on gold leaf as well as tribute.
Zheng He died on this last voyage and was buried at sea. After his death, the great Chinese voyages of discovery stopped. There is some speculation that he travelled to the western shores of the Americas, but little evidence to support this claim. Nevertheless, Zheng He’s known travels were extraordinary maritime feats, moving farther over distant seas than anyone had ever done previously.
Images: Wikimedia Commons, Harvard University, Wikimedia Commons, Flickr user mamarie used under Creative Commons license, Flickr user hathu- used under Creative Commons license, respectively.
They are beautiful, otherworldly, full of secrets, and can kill you. It takes bravery and special training to venture into the hydrogen sulfide atmosphere of the Bahama caves known as inland blue holes. Those who dare are looking for the chemistry of how our earth supports evolving life.
Offshore flooded caves, so-called ocean blue holes, are extensions of the sea, subject to the same heavy tides and host to many of the same species found in the surrounding waters. Inland blue holes, however, are unlike any other environment on Earth, thanks largely to their geology and water chemistry. In these flooded caves, such as Stargate on Andros Island, the reduced tidal flow results in a sharp stratification of water chemistry. A thin lens of fresh water—supplied by rainfall—lies atop a denser layer of salt water. The freshwater lens acts as a lid, isolating the salt water from atmospheric oxygen and inhibiting bacteria from causing organic matter to decay. Bacteria in the zone just below the fresh water survive by exploiting sulfate (one of the salts in the water), generating hydrogen sulfide as a by-product. Known on land as swamp or sewer gas, hydrogen sulfide in higher doses can cause delirium and death.
These strange but natural environments are threatened by both rising sea levels and people who use them for garbage dumps. Link
(Image credit: Wes C. Skiles/National Geographic)
Photo: NASA
Going to Mars is costly. The conventional thinking of round-trip missions is losing more and more ground to an idea made public last year. Theoretical physicist/cosmologist Paul Davies addressed the NASA Astrobiology Science Conference, and laid out a solid (and sometimes humorous) case for the One Way Ticket plan.
He points out the commercial angle, saying that not only would a patent trade emerge from discoveries, but televised coverage of the pioneers would be lucrative as well. And those pioneers? He says our planet is full of risk-takers seeking adventure that would fill the role nicely.
By comparison, a one-way trip to Mars would not be so risky. But it does need a spirit of adventure of the sort that the early explorers had, in particular the people who opened up Antarctica. These people often went knowing that there was a high probability that they would not come back, and that if they didn’t come back, they were going to their deaths. I’m not suggesting that going to Mars necessarily means an instant death, but it may mean a premature death, it may mean your life expectancy is shortened by a little bit. But as I said, people attempt that risk in all sorts of other walks of life.
And what I have in mind is not just four miserable people sitting around on the martian surface waiting to die, (laughter) but that they would actually be doing useful job work.
You wouldn’t be going there as tourists, you wouldn’t be going there for fun. You’d be going there to do science, and emailing all this stuff back. Your publication record would be sensational. (laughter) You would no doubt have all sort of honors heaped on you.
But you wouldn’t be coming home.
Link. Previously on Neatorama: Chart of Missions to Mars
You’ve heard plenty about how the US beat the Soviets to the moon in 1969. There was another lesser-known exploratory scoop in January of 1960, when US Navy marine specialist Lieutenant Don Walsh and oceanographer Jacques Piccard climbed aboard the Trieste, a deep sea bathysphere designed by Piccard’s father Auguste Piccard, and dived to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. It was the first time human beings traveled to the deepest part of the earth’s oceans -seven miles down!
At approximately four hours into their descent–several thousand feet above the sea floor–a sharp clang sounded through the pressure sphere and the vehicle shuddered violently. Once their wincing subsided, the men did what they could to inspect the craft and its condition. It seemed that the water pressure at this never-before-encountered depth–six tons per square inch–had cracked the outer pane of the lucite window. For the moment the vehicle itself remained watertight, but the damage was worrisome. The Trieste was outfitted with a few safety systems; for instance, the ballast doors were held closed by electromagnets, so in the event of electrical failure the doors would fall open and drop the ballast, causing the vehicle to rise to the surface. But such systems would be of no help to the men inside if the 1,000 atmospheres of pressure crushed their delicate passenger compartment. Moreover, no other vehicle in existence was capable of reaching such depths, which meant that if her float tank became compromised there was no chance of rescue. Nevertheless, the stalwart scientists opted to press on.
It was also the last time anyone dived that deep. Like the space race, once it had been done, no one saw the use in continuing to pay for such risky adventures. Read the entire story at Damn Interesting. Link
As part of the International Year of Astronomy, the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s telescopic observations, you get to decide where to point the Hubble next.
“Hubble’s Next Discovery – You Decide allows people across the world to vote online and select the next object modern astronomy’s most famous telescope will view. Six objects, which the Hubble has never before viewed, are available for voting.”
From the Upcoming 
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