Ghost stories
Lofoten Islands · Mountains That Hang Over the Sea
The Lofoten islands are cut apart by narrow straits, the mountains rising straight out of the sea, racks of cod drying in rows along the shore, and in winter the...
Lofoten Islands · Mountains That Hang Over the Sea
The Lofoten islands are cut apart by narrow straits, the mountains rising straight out of the sea, racks of cod drying in rows along the shore, and in winter the...
Svalbard Seed Vault · A Million Seeds Stored In...
In the mountain outside Longyearbyen a tunnel is cut more than a hundred metres into the permafrost, ending in three chambers that hold over a million samples of crop seed...
Svalbard Seed Vault · A Million Seeds Stored In...
In the mountain outside Longyearbyen a tunnel is cut more than a hundred metres into the permafrost, ending in three chambers that hold over a million samples of crop seed...
Pyramiden · The Soviet Town That Was Left Behind
Pyramiden is a Soviet coal-mining town on the Svalbard archipelago: a cultural centre, a swimming pool, a primary school and statues, all supplied from the Soviet Union. It was evacuated...
Pyramiden · The Soviet Town That Was Left Behind
Pyramiden is a Soviet coal-mining town on the Svalbard archipelago: a cultural centre, a swimming pool, a primary school and statues, all supplied from the Soviet Union. It was evacuated...
Heddal Stave Church · The Largest One in Norway
Heddal Stave Church is the largest stave church still standing in Norway, its roof rising in tiered towers, dragons carved into the timber, the outer walls tarred several times over....
Heddal Stave Church · The Largest One in Norway
Heddal Stave Church is the largest stave church still standing in Norway, its roof rising in tiered towers, dragons carved into the timber, the outer walls tarred several times over....
Borgund Stave Church · Dragons Carved on the Do...
Borgund Stave Church is built entirely of wood: posts, arches and wall planks interlock, vertical boards are nailed on outside in layers, and stones weigh down the roof. Interlacing dragons...
Borgund Stave Church · Dragons Carved on the Do...
Borgund Stave Church is built entirely of wood: posts, arches and wall planks interlock, vertical boards are nailed on outside in layers, and stones weigh down the roof. Interlacing dragons...
Stockholm Old Town · There Is Another Layer Below
The lanes of Stockholm’s Old Town are wide enough for one person, the houses stand on an island, and below ground the medieval cellars, water channels and a whole set...
Stockholm Old Town · There Is Another Layer Below
The lanes of Stockholm’s Old Town are wide enough for one person, the houses stand on an island, and below ground the medieval cellars, water channels and a whole set...
Sami Belief in Lapland · The Stone That Must No...
The Sami live inside the Arctic Circle and herd reindeer, with their own joik, or chanting, their drums and their deities. They treat particular stones, called sieidi, as the dwelling...
Sami Belief in Lapland · The Stone That Must No...
The Sami live inside the Arctic Circle and herd reindeer, with their own joik, or chanting, their drums and their deities. They treat particular stones, called sieidi, as the dwelling...
Vadstena Abbey · The Nuns Who Stayed
Vadstena Abbey was the convent founded by Saint Bridget. From the end of the fourteenth century, generation after generation of nuns lived, prayed and copied books here, until it was...
Vadstena Abbey · The Nuns Who Stayed
Vadstena Abbey was the convent founded by Saint Bridget. From the end of the fourteenth century, generation after generation of nuns lived, prayed and copied books here, until it was...
Läckö Castle · Empty Windows by the Lake
Läckö Castle stands on a small island in Lake Vänern and is among Sweden’s oldest noble castles; its white walls and black roof are clear from the water. The castle...
Läckö Castle · Empty Windows by the Lake
Läckö Castle stands on a small island in Lake Vänern and is among Sweden’s oldest noble castles; its white walls and black roof are clear from the water. The castle...
Ale’s Stones · Stones Set Out Like a Ship
Ale’s Stones is fifty-nine boulders set out in the outline of a ship on a coastal plateau, the prow facing the sea, aligned with the sunrise at midsummer and the...
Ale’s Stones · Stones Set Out Like a Ship
Ale’s Stones is fifty-nine boulders set out in the outline of a ship on a coastal plateau, the prow facing the sea, aligned with the sunrise at midsummer and the...
Birka · The Vikings’ First Town
Birka was Sweden’s first town, a trading post of the Viking Age, where merchants dealt in furs, amber and silver; Arab coins reached here from as far away as Baghdad....
Birka · The Vikings’ First Town
Birka was Sweden’s first town, a trading post of the Viking Age, where merchants dealt in furs, amber and silver; Arab coins reached here from as far away as Baghdad....
Gamla Uppsala · Three Mounds
Gamla Uppsala has three great burial mounds. Legend makes them the graves of three gods of Norse myth — Odin, Thor and Freyr. An older account holds that this was...
Gamla Uppsala · Three Mounds
Gamla Uppsala has three great burial mounds. Legend makes them the graves of three gods of Norse myth — Odin, Thor and Freyr. An older account holds that this was...
Visby · The Names Outside the Wall
Visby was a trading town on the Baltic and belonged to the Hanseatic League in the Middle Ages. When the Danes attacked in 1361 the peasant army outside the walls...
Visby · The Names Outside the Wall
Visby was a trading town on the Baltic and belonged to the Hanseatic League in the Middle Ages. When the Danes attacked in 1361 the peasant army outside the walls...
Sala Silver Mine · The Man Who Waited a Hundred...
The silver mine at Sala was worked for more than five hundred years, reaching a depth of over three hundred metres, with galleries winding for hundreds of kilometres. It was...
Sala Silver Mine · The Man Who Waited a Hundred...
The silver mine at Sala was worked for more than five hundred years, reaching a depth of over three hundred metres, with galleries winding for hundreds of kilometres. It was...
Borgvattnet Vicarage · Sweden’s Most Famous Hau...
The vicarage at Borgvattnet in northern Sweden is the most talked-about haunted house in the country. Three ghosts are said to be there: an old man digging in the garden,...
Borgvattnet Vicarage · Sweden’s Most Famous Hau...
The vicarage at Borgvattnet in northern Sweden is the most talked-about haunted house in the country. Three ghosts are said to be there: an old man digging in the garden,...
Cape Sounion · The Column Where Wishes Were Mad...
Cape Sounion is the southernmost point of mainland Greece. On the headland above the Aegean stand the dozen or so remaining columns of the temple. The old local custom was...
Cape Sounion · The Column Where Wishes Were Mad...
Cape Sounion is the southernmost point of mainland Greece. On the headland above the Aegean stand the dozen or so remaining columns of the temple. The old local custom was...
Acropolis of Athens · The Things That Were Take...
The Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens was used as a powder magazine two hundred years ago, and a Venetian shell set it off. Part of its sculpture was afterwards...
Acropolis of Athens · The Things That Were Take...
The Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens was used as a powder magazine two hundred years ago, and a Venetian shell set it off. Part of its sculpture was afterwards...
Akrotiri · The Town Buried in Ash
Akrotiri, at the southern end of Santorini, is a Bronze Age town buried in volcanic ash: three-storey buildings, frescoes, furniture, pottery jars and streets all left in place, sixteen hundred...
Akrotiri · The Town Buried in Ash
Akrotiri, at the southern end of Santorini, is a Bronze Age town buried in volcanic ash: three-storey buildings, frescoes, furniture, pottery jars and streets all left in place, sixteen hundred...
Mount Olympus · Where the Gods Live, No One Climbs
Mount Olympus is the highest peak in Greece, its summit under cloud for much of the year. The ancient Greeks believed the twelve chief gods lived on top, and that...
Mount Olympus · Where the Gods Live, No One Climbs
Mount Olympus is the highest peak in Greece, its summit under cloud for much of the year. The ancient Greeks believed the twelve chief gods lived on top, and that...
Mycenae · The King in the Mask
The Lion Gate at Mycenae is built of blocks weighing several tonnes, with two lions flanking a column above the lintel. The shaft graves inside the walls yielded gold masks,...
Mycenae · The King in the Mask
The Lion Gate at Mycenae is built of blocks weighing several tonnes, with two lions flanking a column above the lintel. The shaft graves inside the walls yielded gold masks,...
Knossos · The Corridors You Cannot Leave
Knossos was the largest palace of the Minoan civilisation, with more than a thousand rooms set around a central court. It had drains, light wells and painted frescoes, and the...
Knossos · The Corridors You Cannot Leave
Knossos was the largest palace of the Minoan civilisation, with more than a thousand rooms set around a central court. It had drains, light wells and painted frescoes, and the...
Meteora · Monasteries Reached Only by Rope
Meteora is a group of rock pillars standing on the plain, with monasteries built on the summits. In the past the only way in or out was a basket and...
Meteora · Monasteries Reached Only by Rope
Meteora is a group of rock pillars standing on the plain, with monasteries built on the summits. In the past the only way in or out was a basket and...
Eleusinian Mysteries · The Thing That Must Not ...
The Eleusinian Mysteries continued for nearly two thousand years. Participants walked from Athens to Eleusis, watched and listened inside the temple and drank something, then went home with one line:...
Eleusinian Mysteries · The Thing That Must Not ...
The Eleusinian Mysteries continued for nearly two thousand years. Participants walked from Athens to Eleusis, watched and listened inside the temple and drank something, then went home with one line:...
Delphi · The Priestess Who Sat Above the Crack
Delphi stands on the slope of Mount Parnassus. The ancient Greeks held it to be the centre of the world, the “navel of the earth”, and the oracle of Apollo...
Delphi · The Priestess Who Sat Above the Crack
Delphi stands on the slope of Mount Parnassus. The ancient Greeks held it to be the centre of the world, the “navel of the earth”, and the oracle of Apollo...