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Throwing money into the air during the celebration of the Hungry Ghost Festival.

Festivals of the Dead Around the World

In the United States, Halloween is mostly about candy, but elsewhere in the world celebrations honoring the departed have a spiritual meaning

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Halloween

This Grave Atlas Shows Where to Find the Distinguished Deceased

We know where the bodies are buried … take a virtual tour of world cemeteries that host famous artists and rogues

Geese lift off a lake in front of a sun pillar at Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge near Mound City, Missouri.

American South

The Best Places in America to See Fall Bird Migrations

All across the country, birds are making the trek south for the winter—here are some of the best places to witness their journey

Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia

Halloween

World’s Most Beautiful Cemeteries

A visit to these hauntingly beautiful cemeteries illuminates more than just mortality

A shrine marking London's Cross Bones Graveyard.

Halloween

The London Graveyard That’s Become a Memorial for the City’s Seedier Past

Thousands of bodies from London’s first red light district are buried beneath a lot in the South Bank, an area under massive redevelopment

Google's newest Street View collection takes users to Gombe Stream National Park, where Jane Goodall pioneered her chimpanzee behavioral research. "Don't forget to look up," a Google project manager says.

Exclusive: The Chimpanzees of Gombe National Park Make Their Street View Debut

For its latest collection, Google traveled to the African rainforest where Jane Goodall pioneered her groundbreaking chimp research

A hand stencil design on the wall of a cave in Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Prehistoric Rock Art to Visit Around the World

Scientists just discovered some of the world’s oldest art in a cave in Indonesia. Want to see more prehistoric masterpieces? Here are eight other options

Dinosaur bone fossils at the Dinosaur National Monument in Utah.

The Best Places in America to See Fossils

October 14 is National Fossil Day—here are some of the best places in America to take a trip back in geological time

Around half of the San Gabriel Mountains are now a national monument.

San Gabriel Mountains Designated A National Monument

President Obama grants federal protection to half of the California mountain range

Abandoned wooden houses line the main street in St. Elmo, Colorado.

Halloween

Need Some Alone Time? Check Out America’s Coolest Ghost Towns

Old mines, abandoned buildings, and the occasional curse: Ghost towns cover the United States, and they make for a fun detour

A fragmented painting of a pig-deer or babirusa (Babyrousa sp.) and hand stencil from one of the caves in Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Rock (Art) of Ages: Indonesian Cave Paintings Are 40,000 Years Old

Cave paintings of animals and hand stencils in Sulawesi, Indonesia, seem to be as old as similar cave art in Europe

Balloons taking off during the Mass Ascension at the opening of the International Balloon Fiesta at Balloon Fiesta Park in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

New Mexico’s Skies Burst With Color During World’s Largest Hot Air Balloon Festival

The 43rd Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta sends hundreds of hot air balloons soaring into the sky

Autumn in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia.

America’s Best Fall Color Drives

Want to be dazzled by Mother Nature’s fall foliage display? Just hop in the car.

Northern lights ignite the sky.

On the Hunt for the World’s Most Spectacular Sky Show

Photojournalist Randall Hyman journeys north to Tromsø, Norway, in search of the northern lights

To enter Son Doong Cave in Vietnam, visitors must descend over 260 feet.

American South

From the Biggest to the Longest, Five Amazing Caves To Visit

New measurements revealed the world’s largest cave, which is unfortunately off-limits. But what are some other impressive underworlds open for visitors?

The movement to dramatically reduce car traffic is picking up speed.

Anthropocene

Helsinki Has a Plan to Get People to Stop Owning Cars

A system being developed in Finland would allow people to subscribe to all kinds of mobility options and pay for everything on their phones

More than two years after his death, the tortoise Lonesome George has been stuffed and put on display in New York.

Lonesome George, the Last Tortoise of His Kind, Is on Posthumous Display in NYC

Driven to extinction by overhunting, the world’s last Pinta Island tortoise is now a taxidermy display at New York’s American Museum of Natural History

Members of the Apollo 15 crew training at Cinder Lake.

Can’t Make It to the Moon? Head to Arizona Instead

In 1967, the United States Geological Survey turned an old volcano into a lunar training ground for astronauts

The Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, P.A. is celebrating its city in a long-term exhibition, "Pittsburgh a Tradition of Innovation."

Celebrating Pittsburgh, the City Behind Pro Football, Big Macs and the Polio Vaccine

The Pennsylvanian city had more lives than a cat and thrives as a hub of innovation

Distinctive gold cuff links provided a recognition signal between Soviet mole Pyotr Popov and his CIA contacts.

A Private Tour of the CIA’s Incredible Museum

Inside the agency’s headquarters is a museum filled with relics from half a century of cloak-and-dagger exploits

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