Lying to the East of Paris in the 20th arrondissement is the city’s largest, and most famous cemetery; Père Lachaise. Bought by Napoleon in 1804, the cemetery was established to accommodate the dead as the churchyards in central Paris overflowed and burst at the seams. And unlike the churchyard cemeteries, it was open to all Parisians, regardless of race or religion, but had one rule: the deceased must have lived and died in Paris to be buried within its tree-lined avenues.

Thousands of human bones lie neatly arranged in stacks and on shelves beneath the floors of the church at St Leonards’ in Hythe, a small parish on the southeast coast of England. The ossuary holds the remains of about 2,000 individuals and is the largest collection of its kind in England. This charnel house or ‘bone-house’ as the ossuary is sometimes referred to, holds the remains of the de-fleshed dead.

St Nicholas’ Church and Leper Hospital was built in the year 1084 by Lefranc, the Archbishop of the neighbouring Canterbury Cathedral. The church and leper hospital are amoung the oldest in England purposely built to house and treat those afflicted with the disease.  Leprosy began to spread across England from the 4th century AD and was rampant by the year of the hospital's foundation. The stigma associated with the disease was high and people were shunned from society out of fear. They needed a place to live, pray, and be cared for, thus the ‘lazars’ or leper houses were formed and run by the monks of the connected churches.

A harrowing drive along a narrow mountain road filled with hairpin turns and sheer drops leads you to this ancient site built into the cliff face of the Montenegran mountains. Ostrog Monastery is one of the holiest sites of the Serbian Orthodox faith and serves as the final resting place of Saint Basil of Ostrog, who founded the monastery in the 17th century. His body lies within a small painted cave set into the cliff walls of the upper monastery. People come from far and wide to visit this holy site and to pray for the miraculous healing powers associated with the saint and his monastery.

The Hunterian Museum, located within the Royal College of Surgeons in London, is a small yet impressive museum named after the 18th-century surgeon and anatomist John Hunter and is home to England's largest collection of anatomical specimens. The collection features thousands of items, from Sir Isaac Newton’s death mask and the brain of Charles Babbage - the inventor of the computer, to body parts of all types including syphilic skulls, and even has skin tables adorning the walls of the Museum. The extensive collection takes you on a fascinating journey through the history of surgery from the 17th century to the present day.

Located about ten minutes on foot from the bustling Portobello Market, this oasis of calm is one of London’s 'Magnificent Seven', the large Victorian-era garden cemeteries established around the city to address the overcrowded and disease-ridden churchyards of central London in the early 1800s. Inspired by the grand Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, Kensal Green was built in 1833 and now houses approximately 250,000 individuals in over 65,000 graves. Composed of gothic mausoleums, crooked tombstones, and underground catacombs, the cemetery is filled with stories of London's past.

In the summer of 1518, a strange occurrence took place in the streets of Strasbourg. It began with one woman. A lady named Frau Troffea began dancing uncontrollably, with no reason or even music to incite her. Others who witnessed her dance found themselves drawn into the mayhem, with reports of over 400 people taking part. Spectators at the scene described the dancers as if they were convulsing, thrashing their limbs about, and appearing vacant-eyed, like one possessed.

High up on a hill in Buda, overlooking the city of Pest across the Danube, lies the Castle Hill area of Budapest. This historic site has seen numerous sieges and bloody battles throughout its long history, which are echoed in its cobbled streets and ancient buildings. And beneath its floors lies an even more sinister past as it was once the prison for Dracula himself.

Deep within the jungles and underground caves of Quintana Roo, along the Caribbean coast of Mexico, the crystal-clear blue waters of the cenote entice visitors to enter their cool depths. These ancient cenotes were essential to the survival of the Mayan people who believed them to be sacred gateways to the underworld below.

Escape the heat and hustle of the city and delve down 52 stone steps into an underground cavern, just next to the Hagia Sophia in the historic center of Istanbul.

This grand cemetery in North London’s borough of Camden first opened its gates in 1839 and has since become the final resting place for around 170,000 individuals buried within 53,000 graves.

Welcome to the mind of Viktor Wynd. Delve down a steep spiral staircase, underneath an Absinth bar in East London, and you will find a unique collection of curiosities both interesting and macabre.

The theatre was connected by doors to the women's ward at the hospital from where patients would be brought into surgery, blindfolded, and held down by several men on the wooden table, ready for their operation.

‘Stop! Here is the empire of death’ reads the inscription above the entrance into the Paris catacombs where over 7 million Parisians now lie.

The Red Sand Sea forts form part of the Maunsell Sea forts and constitute one of the three defensive structures built in the Thames estuary.