Medieval torture techniques with a modern conscience.

The giant skeleton sculpture is surprisingly well-traveled.

These "anatomical machines" are only one of the many strange items in this Italian crypt.

Virgil's many-mouthed gateway to the underworld.

Where Aleister Crowley taught magick in "La Chambre Des Cauchemars," his "Chamber of Nightmares."

The world's most active stratovolcano is almost always erupting.

David Sedaris called it "The greatest shop in the world."

Roman-era ships unearthed...

Gods clash with machines in a power plant regenerated as a museum.

Hidden beneath the famous St. Peter's Basilica is a veritable city of the dead that may hold the remains of St. Peter himself.

The only "Egyptian" pyramid in Europe and the legendary tomb of Remus.

The "Greatest Sewer" of ancient Rome is one of the oldest sewer systems in the world, and is still in use.

A hospital where antique dolls are given new life.

This ancient Roman prison is decorated with an upside-down cross not as blasphemy but as saintly tribute.

The engineering wonder and pleasure dome of a much-maligned emperor still holds undiscovered secrets.

An alchemist's "magic door" stands in the middle of a Roman park.

The crypts of Capuchin friars decorated with the bones of over 4,000 friars, including an entire "crypt of pelvises."

A collection of grotesques lines the walls of this Italian villa.

This Arabesque Italian castle was built with a primitive, if ingenious, air-conditioning system.

Thousands of well-dressed mummies below a monastery.

Hungarian mummies in beautiful painted coffins.

A marvel of technology a century ago, this disused power station now offers a lovely glimpse into the industrial design of the past.

A Hungarian pharmacy museum with a box full of mummy powder.

The abandoned "Red Star Train Graveyard" is the final rusting place for precious artifacts of train history.