This infamous execution site inspired the beginning of Japan's modernization in the late 18th-century.

An unassuming churchyard is the resting place of a pioneering surveyor and reluctant namesake of a mountain.

Memorial to the lost dead of Gdansk, whose resting places were destroyed during World War II.

A botched 18th-century canal silenced one of Sweden's most magnificent waterfalls.

Said to be one of Sweden's most haunted places, this vicarage once even attracted a ghost-busting priest.

A museum dedicated to the history of psychiatric treatment featuring a gallery of art made by patients.

A unique seaside cave where Aleister Crowley faked his own death.

This small chapel is built of human bones and decorated with a golden skeleton.

Legend says this rock was once a chopping block for public executions.

A Chinese meditation center in the middle of rural Sweden, partly funded by a member of ABBA.

This micronation's flag honors its favorite drink, Kaffegöken, or "cuckoo-coffee."

The home for all things Kool-Aid offers everything except a chance to actually enjoy the drink.

Opulence and fantasy collide in this royal chair which is supposedly made with unicorn horns.

Hans Christian Andersen for the postmodern world.

A closed London rail station created to cart away the dead still bears the marks of attempts to make it less morbid.

More than a million titles fill the labyrinthine shelves of this prestigious private library.

The television series' iconic giant foot was borrowed from this classical painting.

Hidden beneath the streets of London is a secret subway that only carried mail.

Tombstones and enigmatic inscriptions hide within a vault beneath a popular London arts venue.

A private selection of curiosities, carefully curated by a young Brighton local.

One fisherman has used his love of pebbles and shore to create a crazy garden of rocky art.

To literally keep their waste out of their own backyards, the citizens of this English city built an impressive sewer system that is still in use today.

Ample proof that watery ends make for well-preserved, millenia-old mummies.

An abandoned, deteriorating tuberculosis hospital from the turn of the 20th century.