England’s Bolton Strid: the most dangerous stretch of water in the world
The Bolton Strid, a narrow segment of the River Wharf in North England, is a picturesque stretch of river that looks like the type of place one might find fairies […]
Tomás de Torquemada: the mad monk burns 2,000 at the stake
On this day, September 16, 1498 a frail, 78-year-old Dominican monk offered his final prayers to God, turned his face to his pillow, then died.And thousands rejoiced. He was Tomás […]
Rosa Bathurst, the sleeping beauty of the Tiber river
We are in in the Non-Catholic Cemetery in Rome, Italy.Rosa Bathurst was found after six months and she looked like she was just asleep the whole time.Rosa was a beautiful […]
The bedside ghost of Edenton’s Cupola House~
Ghost stories are one of the most fascinating ways to uncover an area’s history, past residents, culture and stories. Nestled on the banks of the Albemarle Sound, in a remote […]
The ghosts of Laurel Grove Cemetery, Savannah
Savannah is the home to some of the richest history in America. It is the oldest city in Georgia and it’s past is full of tangled and tragic events: bearing […]
When London burned: 1666’s Great Fire
Thomas Farriner was a baker who served King Charles II, supplied bread to the Royal Navy, and lived in Pudding Lane, London. All regular, until he went to bed on […]
Hands of madness: Italino and his grave at Staglieno Monumental Cemetery
Among the Italian cemeteries, the Staglieno Cemetery, Genoa, is one of the most fascinating, full of mysteries and secrets, with its statues that follow one another and those tombstones that […]
Anundshög – the Sweden’s largest burial mound, allegedly belonging to a mythical king
We are in Sweden, near Västerås in Västmanland. Scandinavia is full of burial mounds, runestones, and any sort of ancient graves. Similar to the Egyptian pyramids, great rulers were honored […]
Battle of Cajamarca: how 200 conquistadors conquered an empire of 10 million
The Inca people named their empire “Land of the Four Quarters” or Tahuantinsuyu and in 1533 it was the largest in the world: It covered 2,500 miles and stretched from […]
Z Ward: a perfectly preserved abandoned criminal asylum in South Australia.
In the sleepy suburb of Glenside, Adelaide, South Australia, rests a building long abandoned and protected from trespassers by a wall far taller than it first appears, the only complete […]
Krakatoa: the story of the world’s mightiest explosion
The biggest explosion the world has ever known (try to imagine: an estimated 13,000 times greater than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima during WWII) happened on this day, August 27 […]
The Tar River Banshee~
The Tar River flows into the Pamlico Sound after crossing much of the northeast part of North Carolina. It meanders through the fields and small towns on its way to […]
Elizabeth: the “Witch” of Union-Udell Cemetery, Ypsilanti – Michigan
For many, cemeteries are macabre enough without any paranormal activity or ghost sightings. So here’s a Michigan graveyard that is said to be one of the most haunted in this […]
The legend of the haunted house known as Villa Clara
Each place has a more or less known heritage of curious stories, legends and mysteries, and Bologna, Italy, is no exception. Among these, the presumably haunted house in Casalecchio di […]
Buried at 2,000 meters high: the inaccessible sarcophagi of Karajia in Peru
Between the steep gorges of the Andes and the immense rainforests of the Amazonas region in Peru, there are surprising historical sites that document the history of the Chachapoya people, […]
#August 14, 1936: America’s Last Public Hanging
On this day, August 14, 1936 a crowd estimated at 10,000 to 20,000 gathered at Owensboro, Kentucky, to watch the last ever public hanging in the United States. The fact […]
The (real?) story of the Surrency ghosts – Georgia
One of the most famous ghost story in the history of the South dates back to the early 1870’s in the town of Surrency, a small hamlet located about sixty […]
The unsolved mystery of Madagascar, the gold ship vanished in 1853
The frigate Madagascar left Melbourne for London on this day, August 12, 1853 with more than 150 passengers and its crew…but also nearly three tons of gold on board. It […]
The bizarre fame of Victor Noir, the man who boasts the “Sexiest” tomb in Père-Lachaise cemetery
The Cemetery of Père-Lachaise is the largest cemetery in Paris. Many famous people are buried there and Jim Morrison, Molière, Frederic Chopin, Théodore Géricault are just a few names. The […]
Bride-and-Seek: an urban legend and the origins of a Ghost Bride
After a lavish wedding in a stately mansion, members of the wedding party play a game of hide-and-seek. It isn’t long before everyone is found. Everyone, that is, except the […]
The incredible story of the balloon expedition to the North Pole
For obvious reasons, S. A. Andrée’s balloon polar expedition of 1897 seems foolhardy and doomed to failure in modern times. The aim was to cross over the North Pole in […]
Moscowa Cemetery & Crematorium – Arnhem, Netherlands
This monumental cemetery was opened in 1876. It is located in north of Arnhem, Netherlands, and over the centuries it has grown into a park of more than thirty hectares. […]
Kejonuma Leisure Land: a quaint amusement park that now lays rusting and forgotten among the foliage.
We are in Ōsaki, in Japan’s remote Tohoku region, where an abandoned amusement park rests upon the banks of the Kejonuma Dam. Once known as Kejonuma Leisure Land, the park […]
The ghost of Alice Riley and the legend spanish moss
If you go to any coastal town in the South, you’ll see huge, centuries-old live oaks with limbs covered in Spanish moss. From Myrtle Beach down through Charleston and Savannah, […]
Hans Christian Andersen and his borrowed grave at Assistens Kirkegård in Copenaghen
Assistens Cemetery, Assistens Kirkegård in Danish, in Copenhagen, Denmark, is the burial site of many local notables. An “assistenskirkegård” (which means “assistance cemetery”) is originally a generic term in Danish, […]
Mad Honey: the hallucinogenic honey that can sell for over $60 a pound on the black market
When bees feed on the pollen of rhododendron flowers, the resulting honey can become a hallucinogenic punch. It’s called “mad honey”, and it has a slightly bitter taste and a […]
The unsolved mystery of Draga Mitrićević’s death
Draga Mitrićević was a daughter of a well-to-do entrepreneur and Privy Councilor. She was educated abroad and spoke several languages and the vast family fortune and reputation was further strengthened […]
From baker to millionaire: the story of a man with a remarkable sense of entrepreneurship buried in Wiener Zentralfriedhof
Located in the outer city district of Simmering, Wiener Zentralfriedhof, or Vienna Central Cemetery, is one of the largest cemeteries in the world by number of interred, and is the […]
432 Abercorn Street: one of Savannah’s most haunted houses between history and urban legends
For generations people have talked about one house in Savannah more than any other, with creepy tales of the past owner, Benjamin Wilson, becoming more and more different and rich […]