10: Bulgarian Vampire Graves In Bulgaria, archaeologists
unearthed what they believe to be the site of a vampire burial. Not just one vampire either,
but a whole group of them. The discovery was made near the ancient temple of Perperion,
just south of the capital Sofia. Each skeleton in the cluster of vampire graves was found with an
iron rod impaled through their body, exactly where their heart would have been before it decayed.
Back in the 13th century, vampires were feared and believed to be much more real than they are today.
This was especially true for Eastern Europe. There was a great hysteria,
not that different from the witch hunts and trials in places like the Americas. People were concerned
that anyone, even those who were not thought to be vampires could rise from the dead and become one.
This is where the tradition of hammering a stake into a dead person's heart came from. It was done
to make sure anyone who died stayed in the ground. The team that found these vampires was headed
by Professor Nikolai Ovcharov. Surprisingly enough, these weren't even the first vampires
he's discovered. Before this most recent unveiling of the vampire burial ground,
he discovered a different sort of vampire burial. He uncovered a corpse at a previous excavation
700 years old, literally nailed to the ground with massive iron staples spiked through the
dead person’s limbs! Pretty terrifying. 9: Disappearance in the Paris Catacombs
In 2016, a bizarre video was uncovered beneath the streets of Paris, in some
of the most ghoulish catacombs in the world. It appears to show a man on his journey deep
into the bone-strewn tunnels underneath Paris. He can be seen in the footage discovering mountains
of human remains away from the main part of the catacombs where tourists typically visit.
The footage appears to have been taken in one of the restricted areas,
filled with remains that have not been touched since they were dumped there centuries ago.
Then, appearing to become concerned having lost his way, the cameraman drops the recorder. Footage
continues as his footsteps can be heard trailing off into the darkness, and that's it. His camera
was allegedly discovered by a group of explorers, who took the tape to the police. No one knows if
this guy got out of the catacombs alive or if his skeleton is down there, just another body amongst
millions of plague victims. There’s also some speculation that the footage is
faked for dramatic effect, but there has been nothing to disprove the tape’s authenticity.
As for the Paris Catacombs, its tunnels were originally designed to be underground crypts
in the 1700s. This was during a time when the city's cemeteries became overcrowded.
People were getting sick in the streets because there were so many bodies overflowing public
cemeteries. The catacombs were used for sealing up roughly 6 million Parisians.
And while some parts of this vast underground network of the dead are still open to visitors,
many more sections are sealed off and forbidden. Have you ever visited this place or would you want
to? Let me know in the comments below! 8: The Newgrange Tomb’s Terrible Secret
The Newgrange Tomb is one of the most mysterious and ancient tombs anywhere in Ireland.
It's older than the pyramids, it was designed with advanced knowledge of astronomy, and it
aligns perfectly with the winter and summer solstices. In fact, the inner chamber of the
tomb is brilliantly lit in a golden flash of light for about 15 minutes during the solstice.
Yet even after decades of research, nobody really knows who built this Neolithic tomb
over 5000 years ago. It was a nameless society of highly advanced, yet primitive humans.
But here's where things get gruesome. A group of scientists from Trinity College Dublin used
DNA from bones found inside the tomb to try and paint a clearer picture of what happened here.
What they found was a little disturbing. Whoever had been so important that they were
buried at the heart of this tomb was a product of incest. His parents were first-degree relatives,
meaning they were likely brother and sister. And while this may make us extremely
uncomfortable today, it wasn't that big of a deal to ancient people. According to Dr. Lara Cassidy,
it was socially acceptable to interbreed with your siblings if you were an elite member of society.
The doctor says that similar inbreeding has been recorded with the Inca god kings and the
Egyptian pharaohs. Even though it was taboo and biologically dangerous for peasants and ordinary
people to do this, it was oddly acceptable among the most powerful, most likely to
preserve the “purity” of the bloodlines. 7: Lost Tombs in the Philippines
Archaeologists discovered a creepy series of lost tombs in an ancient village in the Philippines.
The discovery was made on a jungle mountaintop, inside the remnants of an ancient settlement at
least 1000 years old. This is based on radiocarbon dating using a tooth found
from one of the graves. Within the ruins were a series of limestone coffins, a style of burial
that's never been found in Southeast Asia before. In total, researchers identified 15 limestone
graves, carved out of the rock on the forest floor. It's shocking because Filipinos almost
always used wooden coffins or clay jars when burying their dead. Researcher Eusebio Dizon
has done archaeological work throughout at least 28 countries over the past 35 years. Yet he has
never seen anything like this in the Philippines. It's proof that Filipinos learned how to make
complex tools and practiced advanced burials. The tombs were so skillfully carved they almost looked
like ancient Egyptian sarcophagi. Yet they weren't decorated with any kind of elaborate mythological
images – or really anything at all. They were simply stone tombs without any adornments.
Sadly, we can't currently say what group of people the limestone tombs belonged to.
Only a small piece of forest floor has been cleared for excavations.
The rest is still hidden under dense foliage. 6: The Grave of the Giantess
In Poland, researchers came across the burial of a medieval giantess, a certifiable titan of a woman
who stood over 7 feet (2.13 m) tall. Her grave was uncovered on the island of Ostrow, and nobody
knows who she is or where she came from. She was definitely buried sometime in the 12th century,
close to an ancient church. But not much is known about her other than that. She seems to
have suffered from some kind of rare disorder that caused her to grow much larger than everyone else.
Her skull is one of the biggest that's ever been dug up during an archaeological excavation.
Scientists believe she suffered from acromegaly. This is an extremely rare condition which causes
growth hormones to produce way more than what's normal. The result of such a condition
is that bones are extra-large. Sadly, if this is true, the giantess of Poland would
not have had a very good life. She would have been in miserable pain, probably ridiculed,
and undoubtedly suffering from degenerative joint disease. Her skeleton showed evidence
of one broken arm and one broken leg, which probably happened because even though her bones
were huge – they were weak and underdeveloped. Do you think archaeologists dug up proof that
giants existed, or was this woman really just a victim of a rare genetic condition?
Let me know your thoughts on the giantess in the comments and don't forget to hit subscribe
before the end of the video! 5: Medieval Mass Grave
In the Czech Republic, archaeologists found 30 mass graves with a total of 1500 skeletons.
These people were almost certainly the victims of horrible starvation,
the result of a mass famine that swept through Bohemia in the 14th century.
The massive number of deaths were probably a mixture of
starvation victims and victims of disease. According to Czech archaeologist Jan Frolik,
this is one of the largest sets of mass graves in Europe. Each grave contains somewhere between 50
and 70 people, with each one about 8 feet (2.43 m) deep. Considering all those bodies buried inside,
that's actually shallow. Some of the graves had skeletons stacked one upon the other 26
layers thick. Even though the graves were shallow, they were made wide enough to
accommodate as many bodies as possible. Even more gruesome is the fact that the
bodies were discovered on the outskirts of the Sedlec Ossuary, aka the Bone Church. It's a church
entirely decorated with bones, one of the most horrific places you can visit in the world today.
So, it's no surprise that there were over 1500 victims of famine and pestilence buried outside.
4: The LA Tree Mummy A man believes that in the
oldest graveyard in Los Angeles, he discovered a mummy inside of a tree. According to the man,
who refused to give his name for privacy reasons, he was walking through the Evergreen Memorial Park
and Cemetery when he discovered a mysterious box hidden inside a tree. The cemetery was established
in 1877, and it’s a pretty creepy place. Inside the box, which was exposed when the tree
got recently knocked over, was something wrapped up, looking like a baby mummy bound in rags.
The man filmed his bizarre discovery, but didn't unwrap what he claimed was probably a mummified
infant. Instead, he tucked it back in the box and put it underneath the tree.
As it turned out, he may very well have found the final resting place of a deceased infant from the
late 19th century. Experts say people in the 1800s used to do this exact thing with babies that were
miscarried. They would wrap them in cloth and bury them in a pretty box inside of a tree.
The next time you're visiting your local cemetery and you see something that looks like a tiny
treasure chest sticking out from some exposed tree roots – you had best just leave it alone.
3: Irish Zombies A pair of zombies were discovered buried in
Ireland, and they had apparently been there since the 8th century. Archaeologists uncovered the
skeletal remains of two men who had massive stones shoved into their mouths. They say the stones
were probably put there by local townsfolk who feared the dead men would rise from their graves
to feast on the flesh of the living. In other words, these men were believed to be zombies.
The graves were initially dug up during excavations between 2005 and 2009 near Loch
Key. Researchers from several different universities uncovered a total of 137 skeletons,
although they believe there are at least 3000 still scattered across the area undiscovered. Yet
out of all those burials, only two of them were identified as potential zombies. They are what
the experts call deviant burials, abnormal graves suggesting the deceased had been despised during
their lives, or thought of as witches or some other paranormal monster. The two men had black
stones thrust into their mouths with such force that their jaws were almost certainly dislocated.
And while it's true that these burials are similar to vampire burials during the days of the plague,
these two individuals died many centuries before vampires even existed as a thought.
Expert Chris Read, who was involved in the study, says the two men were likely something
called revenants. These were people who lived outside society and freaked everyone else out.
While we don’t know what happened, the rest of the community feared they would
become walking dead – and so they buried them as effectively as they knew how.
2: The Torryburn Witch The grave of the Torryburn Witch was discovered
in Scotland, and is one of the most notorious in all of the United Kingdom. Her real name was
Lilias Adie, and in the year 1704 she confessed to being a witch and to consorting with the devil.
She was due to be put on trial and then burned at the stake, but died in prison before the
townsfolk could ever get around to it. After she was dead, locals took her out in the countryside,
buried her in the mud, and sealed her grave with a giant rock slab. This was to prevent
the devil from bringing her back to life. Centuries later, her skull was stolen from
her grave and other memorabilia belonging to the witch were sold on the black market.
Nobody knows where her skull is today, although experts are fairly certain it's still floating
around somewhere. It’s probably in the macabre collection of some rich artifact hunter.
Even though her skull is missing, we at least know where the Torryburn Witch’s grave is.
The enormous stone used to seal her burial place was uncovered on a Scottish beach by archaeologist
Douglas Speirs. It had been there for a very long time without anyone realizing what it was.
It's sitting in the muck of the beach, a large stone that people would not think twice
about walking over. But unbeknownst to all the people who visited the beach,
they were treading over a supposed witch’s grave.
1: The Tombs Under Notre Dame In 2022, archaeologists discovered
a never-before-seen burial site underneath Notre Dame in Paris.
You undoubtedly remember the 2019 fire that saw the 14th-century cathedral go up in flames. Well,
since then, crews have been hard at work fixing the damage and reconstructing what was burnt.
During that work, burial sites of amazing scientific quality were found underneath
the floor! One of them was a fully preserved sarcophagus in the shape of a human made of pure
lead that nobody knew was there. It’s believed the coffin was probably made for a dignitary over
700 years ago, right after the construction of the cathedral was initially finished.
This is one of those discoveries that goes to show how little we know about the medieval world.
Even a place like Notre Dame, visited by millions of people, had secret graves hidden
right under its floor. The workers even found painted sculptures underneath the floor level,
including the bust of a man with a beard and the sculpture of a vegetable.
As for the lead sarcophagus, nobody knows exactly who's inside of it.
So far, researchers have only used an endoscopic camera to look through a crack in the coffin.
They noticed fabric, hair, and the mystery person’s head.
It was definitely a religious leader, but right now we have no idea who. It's going to take a
lot of research, time, and patience to fully solve the mystery of the Notre Dame bodies.
What other incredible and creepy discoveries do you think could be hidden inside Notre Dame?
Let me know in the comments and thanks a lot for watching today’s video! If you
haven’t yet, hit that subscribe button to help support the channel! I’ll see you again soon, bye!