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Turns out the Pacific Ocean and Utah desert have a lot in common.
space exploration

How Cold War Spying From Space Connected the Galaxy to Utah

NASA and the private space sector are now turning to technology used for a top-secret 1960s mission.
Danny Robb February 27, 2025
victorian

The Respected Oxford Professors Who Say They Time Traveled

Two Victorian academics believed they saw Marie Antoinette at Versailles.
Chris Wheatley March 12, 2024
Naughty cartographers with too much time on their hands.
hidden

Swiss Maps Are Full of Hidden Secrets

Find the Easter eggs—or the naked lady.
Frank Jacobs February 23, 2024
libraries

Podcast: Spaces for Spies

Where real-world American espionage comes to life.
The Podcast Team July 25, 2023
railroads

Podcast: The Mail Rail

Beneath the streets of London, a secret subway for snail mail.
The Podcast Team January 11, 2023
Is a fly is an odd decoration for a purse? Not when it hides the lens of a camera.
museums

For Sale: The Entire Spycraft Collection of New York's KGB Museum

If you ever needed a lipstick gun or a heartbeat detector, you could be in luck.
Matthew Taub October 29, 2020
Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico

Ski-Slope Tree Martinis

For 60 years, skiers have calmed their nerves with cocktails hidden along these slopes.
The 7 symbol in front of the Jefferson statue in the Rotunda.
Charlottesville, Virginia

University of Virginia's Seven Society

The story behind the mysterious symbol painted in front of the historic university's famous Rotunda.
A type "H" house, photographed in the 1940s.
atom bombs

How the Manhattan Project's Nuclear Suburb Stayed Secret

Oak Ridge, Tennessee, once home to 75,000, went up fast and under the radar. But it was built to last, too.
Jessica Leigh Hester May 3, 2018
Charleston Community Library is located in a northwest area of Dundee, Scotland.
libraries

The Secret Codes Hidden in the Books of a Scottish Library

The mysterious symbols are a way for elderly readers to keep track of what they've already read.
Natasha Frost April 5, 2018
A classic blue butter cookie tin (though not the Royal Dansk brand).
food

What's in Your Royal Dansk Cookie Tin?

Tell us about all the non-cookies you keep or have found in the blue containers.
Paula Mejia March 27, 2018
The door into the secret room is built to look like a bookcase.
New Orleans, Louisiana

M.S. Rau Antiques

A treasure trove of rare and exquisitely detailed antiques
Permanently Closed
Inside the garden.
Bruges, Belgium

Secret Garden of Bruges

You would never come across this tiny green oasis if you didn't know it existed.
A Zombie set aflame.
Gastro Obscura

The Zombie

Donn Beach wrote the recipe for his famously potent cocktail in secret code.
Congressional Country Club in 2011.
Bethesda, Maryland

Congressional Country Club

Proto-CIA agents trained with grenades in the sand traps and fired machine guns from the fairways.
Paris, France

'Les Spécialistes' Fake Door

This banal Parisian entranceway is not what it seems.
<em>Golf</em> was first released for the Famicom, the Japanese version of the NES.
hidden

A Hidden Vintage Game Has Been Found—Inside Nintendo's Latest Console

It's a secret tribute to a beloved former CEO.
Eric Grundhauser September 20, 2017
A discreet entrance to the White House.
Washington, D.C.

Secret Entrance to the White House

The winding route passes through an enclosed alleyway, two tunnels, and leads to the White House basement.