Author Marion L. Starkey studying the outskirts of Gallows Hill, where Bridget Bishop was hanged as part of the Salem, Mass., witch trials.Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
“There is no end to the old houses, with resounding galleries, and dismal state-bedchambers, and haunted wings shut up for many years, through which we may ramble…and encounter any number of ghosts,” Charles Dickens once wrote.
The great English writer might as well have added Polish caves, Babylonian ruins, and Mexican mummy museums to his list of ghostly places — as we here at LIFE have done, bringing you a book filled with blood-curdling photos and eerie stories about the world’s creepiest spots.
LIFE
No, not all these spots are strictly haunted. Some are deeply mysterious, maybe even spiritual. Others are downright unnerving. But they do all have one thing in common: They seem to exist partly in the known world, and partly in a shadow realm we can’t completely comprehend.
So get ready, if you dare, to encounter any number of ghosts, ghouls, yetis, haunted dolls — and other things that go bump in the night.
Adapted from LIFE’s special edition The World’s Most Haunted Places. Pick up your copy in stores today
In this July 23, 2013 photo, sand fills an abandoned house in Kolmanskop, Namibia. Kolmanskop, was a diamond mining town south of Namibia, built in 1908 and deserted in 1956. SInce then, the desert slowly reclaims its territory, with sand invading the buildings where 350 German colonists and more than 800 local workers lived during its hay-days of the 1920s.Jerome Delay—APOrin C. Painter erected this marker in 1913 to commemorate Edgar Allan Poe’s original burial place in the Westminster Burying Ground, Maryland.Nina Leen—LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesDeputy sheriff standing outside of house belonging to alleged mass murderer (serial killer) Ed Gein, where he lived a deceptively quiet life and where parts of his victim's bodies were found in Plainview, Wisc.Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesNeat, uncluttered room in alleged mass murderer Ed Gein's house which his mother had occupied; room was never used after her death and is in stark contrast to filthy, cluttered rooms in rest of the house, where parts of his victim's bodies were found.Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesFilthy, cluttered kitchen of alleged mass murderer Ed Gein, where parts of his victim's bodies were found.Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesParanormal researcher Harry Price at the Borley Rectory, known as the most haunted house in England, circa 1931.David E. Sherman—LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesThe haunted Borley Rectory, in 1944. Photographer Scherman reported that at the moment he snapped his shutter, a white brick (which can be seen in the black entryway in C of the house) rose into the air.David E. Sherman—LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesAncient Mayan city of Chichen Itza built by Mayans in 6th century dedicated to a godlike leader, Kukulcan. Dmitri Kessel—LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesNight in the Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., cemetery where author Washington Irving is buried.Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesAuthor Marion L. Starkey studying the outskirts of Gallows Hill, where Bridget Bishop was hanged as part of the Salem, Mass., witch trials.Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
