There's some old footage from the 1960s shot in central Mozambique.

And in this footage, the camera pans across this old abandoned safari lodge and focuses

on a spiral staircase winding up the buildings exterior and leading up to the roof.

And there's this lioness climbing it, curling her body around and around as she heads up

these twisting stairs.

She pauses midway, looks out, and then continues onto the roof.

A moment later, another lion follows her up, and then another, and by the end there are

just a bunch of lions sprawled out on the roof, taking a nap in the sun.

This is the lion house.

It is an iconic part of the Gorangosa National Park in Mozambique.

You can spot lions stretching out on the roof or sometimes just hanging out inside of the

lodge, gazing out a window at you.

It is really, really striking, like this giant cat tower for top predators.

And to be honest, it is what brought us to this story in the first place.

But it turns out the story of the lion house is a lot bigger and more complicated than

just some big cats taking over a lodge.

From this rooftop purge, the lions of Gorangosa have witnessed and been a part of the unfurling

of this much larger history of Mozambique, a history that spans centuries and traces the

relationships between people, the land, and the lions, all through colonization independent

civil war, and it's messy aftermath.

I'm doing theorists, and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible

and wondrous places.

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