Ghost stories
Chichén Itzá · The Well Beside the Pyramid
At sunset on the equinoxes, the Kukulcán pyramid at Chichén Itzá throws a chain of triangles of shadow onto its north staircase, like a serpent slowly descending — the result...
Chichén Itzá · The Well Beside the Pyramid
At sunset on the equinoxes, the Kukulcán pyramid at Chichén Itzá throws a chain of triangles of shadow onto its north staircase, like a serpent slowly descending — the result...
The Guanajuato Mummies · Bodies Dug Out of the ...
In the late nineteenth century Guanajuato’s cemetery began charging a burial fee, and families who could not pay had to dig up their dead. The dry soil and climate meant...
The Guanajuato Mummies · Bodies Dug Out of the ...
In the late nineteenth century Guanajuato’s cemetery began charging a burial fee, and families who could not pay had to dig up their dead. The dry soil and climate meant...
The Xochimilco Canals · Gardens on the Water
In Aztec times Xochimilco was a stretch of man-made farmland on water: floating islands built from reeds and mud, growing flowers and vegetables, with a network of canals running through...
The Xochimilco Canals · Gardens on the Water
In Aztec times Xochimilco was a stretch of man-made farmland on water: floating islands built from reeds and mud, growing flowers and vegetables, with a network of canals running through...
Island of the Dolls · A Shrine That Outlived It...
In the canals on the edge of Mexico City there is a small island, and it is covered in dolls: broken-necked, missing eyes, faded to grey. The story is that...
Island of the Dolls · A Shrine That Outlived It...
In the canals on the edge of Mexico City there is a small island, and it is covered in dolls: broken-necked, missing eyes, faded to grey. The story is that...
Old Quebec · The Lower Town Inside the Walls
Old Quebec is the only city north of Mexico that still has its full city wall. The upper town sits on the clifftop, the lower town by the water, and...
Old Quebec · The Lower Town Inside the Walls
Old Quebec is the only city north of Mexico that still has its full city wall. The upper town sits on the clifftop, the lower town by the water, and...
The Halifax Ghost Ship · Where Did the Whole Cr...
In 1872 a merchant ship was found on the Atlantic with her cargo of industrial alcohol intact, food and water aboard, the captain’s bed neatly made, the compass and sextant...
The Halifax Ghost Ship · Where Did the Whole Cr...
In 1872 a merchant ship was found on the Atlantic with her cargo of industrial alcohol intact, food and water aboard, the captain’s bed neatly made, the compass and sextant...
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump · Why the Buffalo ...
Beneath a cliff in Alberta lie buffalo bones piled up over thousands of years. The peoples of the plains drove the herds along a lane marked out with stone cairns...
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump · Why the Buffalo ...
Beneath a cliff in Alberta lie buffalo bones piled up over thousands of years. The peoples of the plains drove the herds along a lane marked out with stone cairns...
Dawson City · The Gold Seekers Left
Gold was found in the Klondike in 1896 and tens of thousands of people poured into Dawson City in the Yukon; saloons, gambling houses and dance halls went up overnight....
Dawson City · The Gold Seekers Left
Gold was found in the Klondike in 1896 and tens of thousands of people poured into Dawson City in the Yukon; saloons, gambling houses and dance halls went up overnight....
Nahanni Valley · The Headless Valley
Nahanni National Park was among Canada’s first World Heritage sites: deep canyons, high waterfalls, and hot springs steaming below the snowline. It is also the country most loaded with legend...
Nahanni Valley · The Headless Valley
Nahanni National Park was among Canada’s first World Heritage sites: deep canyons, high waterfalls, and hot springs steaming below the snowline. It is also the country most loaded with legend...
Okanagan Lake · The Long Thing in the Lake
Okanagan Lake in British Columbia runs more than a hundred kilometres, with mountains and fruit orchards on both shores. Reports of a large water creature have never stopped; locals call...
Okanagan Lake · The Long Thing in the Lake
Okanagan Lake in British Columbia runs more than a hundred kilometres, with mountains and fruit orchards on both shores. Reports of a large water creature have never stopped; locals call...
Hotel Vancouver · The Woman in Green
Hotel Vancouver stands downtown, a castle-style hotel of the railway age, with marble on the lobby floor and lifts that are still worked by hand. Its best-known figure is the...
Hotel Vancouver · The Woman in Green
Hotel Vancouver stands downtown, a castle-style hotel of the railway age, with marble on the lobby floor and lifts that are still worked by hand. Its best-known figure is the...
Fort Garry Hotel · Room 202
Fort Garry Hotel in Winnipeg stands across from the railway station, once the place where rail travellers stayed: white walls, long corridors, and no great alteration in more than a...
Fort Garry Hotel · Room 202
Fort Garry Hotel in Winnipeg stands across from the railway station, once the place where rail travellers stayed: white walls, long corridors, and no great alteration in more than a...
Chateau Frontenac · The Old Guest at the End of...
Chateau Frontenac stands on the clifftop at Quebec City, the landmark of the city and a product of the railway age: towers, copper roofs and long corridors joined together, like...
Chateau Frontenac · The Old Guest at the End of...
Chateau Frontenac stands on the clifftop at Quebec City, the landmark of the city and a product of the railway age: towers, copper roofs and long corridors joined together, like...
Banff Springs Hotel · The Room That Was Sealed
Banff Springs Hotel stands beside the hot springs in the Rocky Mountains. It is one of the Canadian Pacific Railway’s “castle hotels”: a Scottish baronial front, hundreds of rooms, built...
Banff Springs Hotel · The Room That Was Sealed
Banff Springs Hotel stands beside the hot springs in the Rocky Mountains. It is one of the Canadian Pacific Railway’s “castle hotels”: a Scottish baronial front, hundreds of rooms, built...
Centralia · The Fire Underground Is Still Burning
In 1962 a fire lit at the rubbish dump in Centralia, Pennsylvania, reached a coal seam beneath the town and followed the mine tunnels outward. It has been burning ever...
Centralia · The Fire Underground Is Still Burning
In 1962 a fire lit at the rubbish dump in Centralia, Pennsylvania, reached a coal seam beneath the town and followed the mine tunnels outward. It has been burning ever...
The Bell Witch · The Thing That Spoke
In 1817 strange noises began in the Bell household in Tennessee: knocking on the walls, blankets pulled off at night, slaps from an invisible hand. Later the thing spoke, could...
The Bell Witch · The Thing That Spoke
In 1817 strange noises began in the Bell household in Tennessee: knocking on the walls, blankets pulled off at night, slaps from an invisible hand. Later the thing spoke, could...
Roswell · A Press Release That Changed Its Story
In July 1947 a farmer near Roswell, New Mexico, picked up a scatter of metal and rubber debris. The local military first put out a press release saying that a...
Roswell · A Press Release That Changed Its Story
In July 1947 a farmer near Roswell, New Mexico, picked up a scatter of metal and rubber debris. The local military first put out a press release saying that a...
Skinwalker Ranch · The Land That Was Bought to ...
For decades, the same reports came out of a ranch in Utah: cattle found with their organs removed and no tracks around them, animals that matched no known species, lights...
Skinwalker Ranch · The Land That Was Bought to ...
For decades, the same reports came out of a ranch in Utah: cattle found with their organs removed and no tracks around them, animals that matched no known species, lights...
Winchester Mystery House · The House That Was N...
Sarah Winchester, the widow of a rifle manufacturer, was told by a medium that the family's deaths came from the rifles and that she would be safe only while the...
Winchester Mystery House · The House That Was N...
Sarah Winchester, the widow of a rifle manufacturer, was told by a medium that the family's deaths came from the rifles and that she would be safe only while the...
Eastern State Penitentiary · A Prison That Left...
Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary practised the “separate system”: one prisoner to a cell, one Bible, one skylight, and no speaking to anyone. The designers believed that quiet reflection would make...
Eastern State Penitentiary · A Prison That Left...
Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary practised the “separate system”: one prisoner to a cell, one Bible, one skylight, and no speaking to anyone. The designers believed that quiet reflection would make...
Alcatraz · The Claim That No Escape Ever Succeeded
Alcatraz sits in the middle of San Francisco Bay, where the water is cold and the currents are strong. The federal prison opened in 1934 and held Al Capone and...
Alcatraz · The Claim That No Escape Ever Succeeded
Alcatraz sits in the middle of San Francisco Bay, where the water is cold and the currents are strong. The federal prison opened in 1934 and held Al Capone and...
Waverly Hills Sanatorium · The Body Chute
Waverly Hills was Kentucky's sanatorium for tuberculosis, in the years before there was an effective drug for it. Thousands of patients died there. Bodies were moved out through a tunnel...
Waverly Hills Sanatorium · The Body Chute
Waverly Hills was Kentucky's sanatorium for tuberculosis, in the years before there was an effective drug for it. Thousands of patients died there. Bodies were moved out through a tunnel...
Salem · The Nineteen Who Were Hanged
In 1692, in the village of Salem, Massachusetts, a group of girls began having fits and named the people they said had caused them. Within a year, more than two...
Salem · The Nineteen Who Were Hanged
In 1692, in the village of Salem, Massachusetts, a group of girls began having fits and named the people they said had caused them. Within a year, more than two...
Soweto · Two Nobel Prizes on Two Streets
Soweto is a district south-west of Johannesburg. Under apartheid it was used to house black residents, and rows of houses stretch out as far as the eye can see. In...
Soweto · Two Nobel Prizes on Two Streets
Soweto is a district south-west of Johannesburg. Under apartheid it was used to house black residents, and rows of houses stretch out as far as the eye can see. In...