The year that hell froze over

October 20, 2022
by RJ Hamster

Your Weekly Escape

For the past 133 weeks, we’ve sent you this roundup of extraordinary people, discoveries, and places. This week’s will be the last—but don’t worry, you can get the same type of content in our selection of daily newsletters (sign up here). To celebrate the end, here are a few of our favorite stories about, well, the end.

PHOTOGRAPH BY DEA/ALBUM

This mythical city was doomed—it was also real. Here’s how archaeologists found it.

The acclaimed poet Homer popularized the Trojans and their city in The Iliad and The Odyssey, epic poems that tell the story of a 10-year war between Greece and Troy filled with bloody battles, fantastic adventures, heroic deeds, and tragic consequences. So how was it lost for thousands of years? And was its downfall just as epic in real life?

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THE MYSTERY OF CAHOKIA: This thriving American Indian metropolis was abandoned. Archaeologists want to know why. +

‘CROATOAN’: It was America’s first English colony. Then it was gone. +

PHOTOGRAPH BY BRITISH MUSEUM/SCALA, FLORENCE

The freakish winter that turned Europe into a wasteland

People ice-skated on the canals of Venice, church bells broke when rung, and travelers could cross the Baltic Sea on horseback. The winter of 1709 ultimately claimed the lives of a vast number of Europeans and disrupted two major wars—but to this day, there is no conclusive theory for its cause.

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE

IMAGE BY NASA AND H. RICHER (UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA)

This is what will happen right before the universe goes dark

Countless billions of years from now, after all the stars have burned out, the universe will be a cold, dark expanse where nothing of interest happens, or even could happen. But before the lights go out for good, there could be one last display of fireworks. If recent calculations are correct, everything will end with a series of bangs and then a whimper.

THE TICK-TOCK

THE DAY THE DINOSAURS DIED: New clues reveal what happened that day—and the scale of the devastation +

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF M. YAROVSKAYA AND A. LABUNSKAYA

You (and almost everyone you know) owe your life to this man

It’s October 1962, the height of the Cuban missile crisis, and there’s a Soviet submarine in the Caribbean that’s been spotted by the American Navy. What the Americans don’t know is that this sub has a tactical nuclear torpedo on board, available to launch, and that the Russian captain is asking himself, “Shall I fire?”

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT

PAID CONTENT FOR SPAIN TOURISM BOARD

PHOTOGRAPH BY MATTHIEU PALEY

Delve into legends of Spain

Beyond traditional draws of sun, sea and sand, an ancient side of Spain awaits. From winged serpents in Asturias, to siren-like creatures of the Basque Country, to geological oddities resembling giants across inland Spain. Historic cultures layered across diverse landscapes has inspired rich mythology. Follow National Geographic Photographer Matthieu Paley’s travels into Spain’s more curious, undiscovered corners.

VIEW HERE

PHOTOGRAPH BY LORI NIX AND KATHLEEN GERBER

What will our cities look like after all the humans are gone?

These artists create and photograph “models of a post-human metropolis in the future, after an unknown catastrophe.” To “unlock, engage, and provoke” viewers’ imaginations, “we want [them] to contemplate the present. Do we still have a future? Will we be able to save ourselves?”

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THE WILDEST PLACES ON EARTH: This map shows where on Earth humans aren’t +

THE HUNTINGTON LIBRARY

These 15th-century maps show how the apocalypse will go down

The geography is sketchy by modern standards, but the maps make one thing perfectly clear: If you’re a sinner, you’ve got nowhere to hide. The Antichrist is coming, and his four horns will reach the corners of the earth. And, well, it just gets worse from there.

SEE THE MAPS

OUR FAVORITE READS FROM YOUR WEEKLY ESCAPE

The solar eclipse that sparked a WWII scandal

The ghostly treasure ship of Sutton Hoo

A forgotten adventure with a telepathic tribe

In 1845 explorers sought the Northwest Passage—then vanished

Meet the man who started the Illuminati

The hellish history of the devil: Satan in the Middle Ages

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Americans brace for astronomical heating bills

RJ Hamster

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The year that hell froze over

The year that hell froze over

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