1950s Berlin: Photographs of a destroyed city
Berlin, 1956. About ten years have passed since the end of the Second World War, and Germany was at the beginning of a reconstruction, first architectural and then political, which […]
Kola Superdeep Borehole: 12 Km towards the Earth’s core
Someone said that the human beings knows more about certain distant galaxies than it does about the ground that lies beneath its very feet. In fact, while it took the […]
Malinta tunnel: war and ghosts in the Philippines
We are off the coast of the Philippines. Corregidor Island was a strategic place to hold during WWII, in fact the island was seen as the key to Manila, sitting […]
The macabre egyptian “Voodoo” Doll, dated back about 3rd-4th Century AD
A binding spell is a magical formula intended to “bind” or restrain a person’s will or behavior. Examples of binding spells include love spells, attempts to silence enemies, or any […]
The bizarre medieval trials against animals
Even if it might seem bizarre to modern observers, animal trials were commonplace public events in medieval and early modern Europe. Pigs, cows, goats, horses, and dogs that allegedly broke […]
Point Nemo: the most remote place on Earth, and Space Vehicles cemetery
People often vaguely refer to “the middle of nowhere,” but as it turns out, scientists have actually figured out precisely where that point is. Point Nemo, the most remote location […]
It’s Great To Be Alive! An unintentionally funny safety booklet from the 1950s
According to this 1950s Police Safety League booklet there is life threatening danger at every corner for the teen and pre-teen! Looking at these scanned images from the guide It’s […]
The “Unknown of the Seine”: the most kissed face of all time!
In the late nineteenth century, around 1880 the body of an unidentified young woman was pulled from the River Seine in Paris. The custom at the time with unknown bodies […]
The true, complete, unaltered History of 1969’s Woodstock Music Festival – 50 years later
Exactly fifty years ago half a million hippies, beatniks, and long-hairs descended upon upstate New York for the Woodstock music festival, the music festival that changed the world. Max Yasgur, […]
Access forbidden for a century – the French “Red Zone”: a no-go area since WWI
If we think of France, we probably think of the magic of Paris, the Eiffel Tower, the scents of Provence, the lavender fields, the glamor of the Croisette during the […]
The ancient and strange English custom of wife-selling
Between the late eighteenth and the mid-nineteenth century in England, there was a strange and fascinating custom called wife-selling. Married women in England were commonly bought and sold at village […]
Shoes on the Danube Promenade: the Holocaust Memorial of the Jews of Budapest
On the banks of the Danube, in Budapest, not far from the Hungarian Parliament building, 60 pairs of 1940s-style worn-out shoes pairs of shoes are lined up. There are women’s, […]
Ortona, Italy: Moro River Canadian War Cemetery
Near Ortona, in the region of Abruzzo, Italy, there is a place that links Italians and Canadians: the Moro River Canadian War Cemetery. The Battle of Ortona was Canada’s bloodiest […]
England’s (almost) forgotten pet massacre of 1939
In the first week of September, 1939, London’s animal shelters were overflowing with guests. The queues of people and their pets meandered down the streets in a typically British manner, […]
“Sokushinbutsu”: the self-mummification ritual and the myth of non-death
Although the Japanese climate is not exactly conducive to mummification, somehow a group of Buddhist monks from the Shingon sect discovered a way to mummify themselves through rigorous ascetic training […]
Leonid Rogozov: the man who cut out his own appendix
Leonid Rogozov, a russian surgeon, was part of the sixth Soviet Antarctic expedition – a team of 12 had been sent to build a new base at the Schirmacher Oasis. […]
