🌊 How a Portuguese fishing village tamed a 100ft wave
Curiosities
Portugal
Nazaré is a fishing village in the Leiria District of central Portugal that has become the world's premier destination for big wave surfing due to a u…
🚢 Endurance: Shackleton's lost ship is found in Antarctic
Curiosities
Antarctica
The Endurance, the polar exploration vessel commanded by Sir Ernest Shackleton during his 1914–1917 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, was discovere…
🏝️ Hydra: The Greek island that banned wheels
Curiosities
Greece
Hydra is a small rocky island in the Saronic Gulf that has maintained a complete prohibition on wheeled vehicles and motorized transport since its ear…
🏛️ How a country reclaimed its rightful name
Curiosities
Eswatini
On 19 April 2018, King Mswati III of Swaziland announced that the kingdom would officially reclaim its indigenous name, eSwatini. The declaration occu…
🏌️ Muthaiga Country Club
Curiosities
Kenya
Muthaiga Country Club is a private social club in Nairobi that has operated continuously since its founding in 1913 as an institution for colonial set…
🎩 Winston Churchill - 28 Hyde Park Gate
Curiosities
United Kingdom
28 Hyde Park Gate is a town house in Kensington, London, that served as the private residence of Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister during …
🏰 The British island stuck in time
Curiosities
Jersey
Sark is a small Channel Island 50 kilometres south-east of Guernsey and subject to the Bailiwick of Guernsey. Despite its status as a British Crown De…
🔞 The forbidden erotica of Pompeii
Curiosities
Italy
The forbidden erotica of Pompeii is a collection of erotic artifacts from an ancient Roman city that was buried and preserved by a volcanic eruption. …
🗻 Dreiländergrenzstein
Curiosities
Austria
The Dreiländergrenzstein is a border stone in the Alps that marks the precise point where the borders of Switzerland, Austria, and Italy converge. Sit…
🔵 Blue Zone - Icaria, Greece
Curiosities
Greece
Icaria is an island in the Aegean Sea that demonstrates measurably higher life expectancy and lower rates of chronic disease compared to global popula…
🌊 How a storm revealed a Welsh kingdom
Curiosities
United Kingdom
Cantre'r Gwaelod is a legendary submerged kingdom said to have existed in what is now Cardigan Bay off the coast of Wales. The name translates to "The…
🏝️ Gavdos: The southernmost point of Europe
Curiosities
Greece
Gavdos is a remote Greek island in the southeastern Mediterranean that holds the distinction of being the southernmost point of Europe. Located at 34.…
🦑 Australia's X-rated underwater show
Curiosities
Australia
Every winter, tens of thousands of giant Australian cuttlefish converge in the shallow waters off Whyalla in South Australia's Upper Spencer Gulf. Thi…
🌊 A huge tunnel has opened below Niagara Falls
Curiosities
Canada
A huge tunnel is a 670-meter underground passage carved into bedrock beneath Niagara Falls on the Canadian side that provides public access to early h…
🏴 Gwaun Valley
Curiosities
United Kingdom
Gwaun Valley is a rural community in Pembrokeshire, Wales, that maintains an archaic calendar tradition unknown elsewhere in the United Kingdom. The v…
🌾 England's crop circle controversy
Curiosities
United Kingdom
Crop circles are large geometric patterns flattened into grain fields that became a documented phenomenon in England from the 1970s onward. The myster…
🏚️ Epecuen, Argentina
Curiosities
Argentina
Epecuen was established in the 1920s as a therapeutic resort town on the shores of Laguna Epecuén, capitalizing on the purported healing properties of…
👻 Kolmanskop
Curiosities
Namibia
Kolmanskop is an abandoned settlement in the Namib Desert that documents the boom-and-bust cycle of early 20th-century diamond mining in southern Afri…
🏰 The Hidden History of Versailles
Curiosities
France
UNESCO World Heritage Site…
🚴 Canada's village that bought a forest
Curiosities
Canada
Cumberland is a small village on Vancouver Island that transitioned from coal extraction to community-owned forest management and outdoor recreation. …
🏝️ The Greek Island homes hidden from pirates
Curiosities
Greece
Ikaria is a Greek island in the Aegean Sea that developed an unconventional defense strategy by relocating settlements inland to evade maritime raider…
🌙 The Last Night Watchmen of Europe
Curiosities
Switzerland
The night watchman of Lausanne Cathedral is a civic official who announces the hour from the cathedral tower each night, maintaining one of Europe's o…
🏚️ Dunwich: The British town lost to the sea
Curiosities
United Kingdom
Dunwich is a former medieval port town in Suffolk, England, that has been progressively consumed by coastal erosion over seven centuries. At its heigh…
🦁 Feed them to the lions! How Ancient Rome demonstrated its brutality and power
Curiosities
Italy
Roman amphitheatres were large public structures built across the empire that hosted gladiatorial combat, wild beast hunts, and executions designed to…