Lop Nor, the Wandering Lake
Lop Nor was a salt lake in the Taklamakan Desert in remote western China. The lake no longer exists; damming the Tarim River to create an agricultural reservoir doomed it. But while Lop Nor existed, it was a terrible puzzle, because every time outsiders visited the lake it seemed to be in a different place. […]
Divine Intervention and the 885 Siege of Paris
Through much of 885 and 886 A.D., a large force of raiders from Scandinavia besieged Paris. An eyewitness account of the Viking siege has survived: the Bella Parisiacae Urbis (Battle of the City of Paris) by Abbo, a monk of the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Brother Abbo did not seek to produce a literal and accurate […]
Andrew Battel: Pirate, Convict, Merchant, and Mercenary
Andrew Battel was a failed English pirate. Captured by his intended victims, he was forced into convict labor by Portuguese colonial officials in Angola, Africa. He then went on to a varied career as a Portuguese soldier, a weird sort of half-merchant-half-mercenary dude, a minor warchief, a soldier again, and finally a deserter. His and […]
Kunming Stone Forest
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PCs on the Battlefield: the Rock Island Keelboats
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Madame Chouteau’s Clever Frontier Inheritance
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The Puzzling Genesis of the Piasa Bird
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The Confucian Village of Misfortune
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Hoskinini’s Fugitives
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Djenné
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The Hungarian Crown Heist
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Three Unusual British Castles
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The Wonders of Sir John Mandeville (Asia)
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The Wonders of Sir John Mandeville (the Mediterranean)
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A River Crossing With a Tiger
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