Uncanny Atlas

A directory of the unknown.

Hauntings, sightings, folklore and things that fell from the sky. Every entry links to its source, and most have a pin on the map.

Browse the directory

Hover a pin to read it, or click it to open the entry. Hover a region name to zoom there, or click it to browse.

Europe0 North America0 Latin America0 Africa0 Middle East0 South & East Asia0 Southeast Asia0 Australia & Pacific0 Polar0

Four kinds of where

A real place0

Placed fiction0

A region, not a point0

No location (listed below)31

Every entry says what it is

Claimed sighting

Folklore

Hoax, proven

Fiction

Disputed

Religious tradition

No location at all

Some things aren't anywhere.

Internet fiction, thought-forms, things kept deliberately vague. None of them fits on a map, so they're listed here.

Jikininki, the corpse-eater

A shapeless thing comes in the night and eats a corpse and its offerings, while Musō, keeping watch beside them, can neither move nor speak.

Something ToldObscurity 2 of 6

Claimed sighting

Lord Brougham's vision in the bath

From his bath, Henry Brougham saw his friend G--- sitting calmly on a chair. He wrote the whole thing down at once, dated 19 December.

Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 3 of 6

Mr. Procter's house at Willington Mill

At Joseph Procter's house by Willington Mill, glasses rose off the table with no visible cause, and a Dr. Drury who sat up there fainted at the sight of a female apparition.

Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 2 of 6

Old Jeffrey, the Epworth Rectory spirit

A spirit the Wesleys called Old Jeffrey disturbed Samuel Wesley's rectory at Epworth, mostly in December 1716 and the spring of 1717.

Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 1 of 6

Picou's werewolf by the buckwheat field

A peasant says a man named Picou saw a wolf the size of a calf over his hedge after sunset, and refuses to cross the marsh that night.

Something ToldObscurity 5 of 6

Claimed sighting

Schafarik's white object on the moon

On 24 April 1874 Schafarik of Prague watched a brilliant white object move slowly across the face of the moon and then away from it.

Something SeenObscurity 5 of 6

By moment

Everything we can date to a moment.

Only dated moments go on this line: a sighting, a panic, a first printing. Recent years get more room than ancient ones. Anything without an exact date has its own section below.

The five doors

Browse by how people come across these stories.

5 ways in. Inside each, filter by region and label.

01

SomeoneWho Was There

Witnesses, investigators, mediums, hoaxers, expeditions.

6 entries · e.g.The Great Amherst Mystery

→ 02

SomethingSeen

Sightings, apparitions, lights, craft, creatures glimpsed.

7 entries · e.g.Schafarik's white object on the moon

→ 03

SomethingTold

Folklore, legends, living tradition, internet-native lore.

6 entries · e.g.Yuki-onna, the woman in white

→ 04

SomewhereYou Can Go

Haunted sites, anomalous zones, places with a reputation, and placed fiction.

6 entries · e.g.Old Jeffrey, the Epworth Rectory spirit

→ 05

SomethingLeft Behind

Objects, footage, documents, sonar shapes, cover-ups.

6 entries · e.g.The Kentucky meat shower

→