In the late 1800s, British author and doctor Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a novel called A Study in Scarlet about a discerning detective named Sherlock Holmes and his brainy companion Dr. Watson. Thus, the most celebrated fictional crime-solving duo in history graced the page for the first time. It is estimated that Sherlock Holmes…
In 1948, enterprising shoe salesman Mahlon Haines decided that the best way to increase sales at his ever-expanding collection of shoe stores was to build a giant shoe-shaped house in York, Pennsylvania that would pique the interest of passing motorists. Haines reportedly requested that an architect build a house that looked like a work boot…
Neon lights bring to mind the glitz and glamour of show business, seedy late nights on the Las Vegas Strip, and retro businesses doing their best to get customers through the door. In 1981, a collection of artists decided that the neon lights of the world were an underappreciated art form that deserved their own…
If you fly in an airplane over Winslow, Arizona and look out the window, you will spot a single large moon-like crater in the desert. The crater was caused by a sizable meteorite that smashed into planet Earth approximately 50,000 years ago—when mammoths and mastodons were as plentiful as coyotes and deer. Arizona’s arid climate…
During the Bronze Age (1100-800 BC), a group of people known as Celts lived in Ireland. Celts believed that forces such as wind, rain, and even moonlight were associated with spirits that had the power to grant favors to humans—if said spirits were treated with respect. Bronze Age Celts built structures—such as stone circles that…
The sunny desert city of Jodhpur in India is famous for buildings that are as blue as the sparkling waters of the Caribbean. Local lore states that Indian priests known as Brahmins painted their houses blue to signal their ties to royalty and their high social status. Some historians theorize that the copper sulfate in…
Ever since the ruins of a series of Roman temples known as Largo di Torre Argentina were excavated in 1929, residents of Rome have been releasing unwanted cats at the site. For nearly a century, countless former housecats and strays have sunbathed, strutted across the temple ruins like furry royalty, and napped on the Curia…
In the 1600s, a Swiss priest converted an alpine cave into a chapel and hermitage. For centuries, pilgrims traveled to attend church in one of Europe‘s most rustic chapels. After the last hermit died in the mid-1800s, the hermitage was converted into an inn known as Berggasthaus Aescher Wildkirchli that offered food and lodging to…