Ancient Haunts and Haunting Tales

Since ancient times, ghost stories—tales of spirits who return from the dead to haunt the places they left behind—have figured prominently in the folklore of many cultures around the world. In the first century A.D., the Roman statesman Pliny the Younger recorded one of the first notable ghost stories in his letters. In Mesopotamia, ghost stories have been discovered as far back as five thousand years ago. And the works of Homer provide even more early ghost stories. Often a chilling blend of fact and fiction, many a haunting tale has been handed down through the ages to explain, entertain and evoke an eye-opening perspective of a past event or untimely death. Whether or not you will actually experience an uneasy feeling or ghostly encounter when you visit ancient haunts with a history of supernatural sightings in Europe, the possibilities they present are the stuff of stories that beg retelling.