12821. History Facts

A dead body found in the Alps in 1991 was at first thought to be a climber who had died. Investigators discovered it was a man who had been mummified naturally in the ice after dying 5,300 years ago.They named him Otzi.

12822. History Facts

So many people associated with the discovery of Otzi have died young that some believe the mummy is cursed.

12823. History Facts

The Incas of South America used to mummify their dead kings and leave them sitting on their thrones.

12824. History Facts

During a famine and drought in Jamestown, America, in 1609, one settler was executed for eating his dead wife.

12825. History Facts

Queen Christina of Sweden, who reigned from 1640 to 1654, had a miniature cannon and crossbow for executing fleas.

12826. History Facts

In the 1700s, people wore huge hairstyles made of a mixture of real hair and horse hair or other fibres. As they rarely cleaned them – keeping them in place for months on end – they carried sticks to knock vermin out of their hair-does.

12827. History Facts

Sailors in the olden days often had a single gold tooth, which could be pulled out and used to pay for their funeral if they died away from home.

12828. History Facts

The French actress Sarah Bernhardt took a coffin with her on all her travels. She learned her lines while lying in the coffin and even entertained her lovers in it.

12829. History Facts

An Egyptian mummy can have more than 20 layers of bandages, with glue between the layers. Every finger and toe was wrapped separately. It took 15 days to wrap a royal mummy.

12830. History Facts

Ancient Romans made hair dye from pigeon faeces.

12831. History Facts

Uruguay's rugby team was stranded in the Andes in South America after a plane crash in 1979. It took seventy days for them to be rescued, and they had to eat the other passengers who had died in the crash.

12832. History Facts

An Ancient Egyptian who was feeling a bit unwell might eat a mixture of mashed mouse and faeces. Mmmmmmm, bound to make you feel better!

12833. History Facts

In 1846, eighty-seven pioneers crossing the mountains of Nevada, USA, became trapped in bad weather. By the end of the winter, forty of them had been eaten by the others.

12834. History Facts

In the 1700s, European women had their gums pierced so that they could fit hooks to hold their false teeth in place.

12835. History Facts

King Pepi II of Egypt had himself surrounded by naked slaves smeared with honey so that any biting flies would be attracted to them and not bite him.

12836. History Facts

In the 1800s, flea circuses were popular – the fleas were glued into costumes and stuck to wires or each other to look as though they were performing tricks.

12837. History Facts

Ivan the Terrible blinded the two architects who designed his new church of Saint Basil's so that they could never make anything more beautiful.

12838. History Facts

The Russian ruler Peter the Great had his wife's lover decapitated and insisted that she keep his head in a jar of alcohol beside her bed as a reminder of her crime.

12839. History Facts

Mongolian leader Tamerlane played polo using the skulls of enemies killed in battle.

12840. History Facts

In the Middle Ages, people made washing powder from wood ash and urine.

12841. History Facts

In China in the 1500s, a common method of committing suicide was by eating a pound of salt.

12842. History Facts

The word ‘thug' comes from ‘Thuggees', who were an Indian cult – sometimes described as the world's first mafia – who used to trick and murder people as human sacrifices to their goddess Kali.

12843. History Facts

In the 1600s and later, Egyptian mummies were ground up to use in medicines around Europe.

12844. History Facts

Vlad the Impaler, ruler of Transylvania, had over 20,000 enemies impaled on spikes between 1456 and 1476.

12845. History Facts

British king James I's tongue was too large for his mouth so he slobbered all the time and was a very messy eater.

12846. History Facts

Charles I was executed by beheading, but had his head sewn back on so that his family could pay their respects to his body. His doctor stole a bone from his neck and had it made into a salt cellar.

12847. History Facts

A Bohemian army general was so devoted to his country that when he died he asked for his skin to be removed and made into a drum that could be beaten in defiance of Bohemia's enemies. It was used nearly 200 years later at the start of the Thirty Years War in 1618.

12848. History Facts

In the 1700s, fashionable European women commonly shaved off their real eyebrows and stuck on false ones made from mouse fur.

12849. History Facts

London prisoners condemned to death used to go to chapel on the Sunday before their execution where they had to sit around a coffin while the priest told them how sinful they were.

12850. History Facts

In times of famine, Stone Age tribes would eat old women before dogs – they thought them less useful.

12851. History Facts

The body tag from the corpse of Lee Harvey Oswald, who shot President John F. Kennedy, was sold for £3,600 at an auction.

12852. History Facts

James, Duke of Monmouth, was beheaded in 1685 but when it was discovered that there was no official portrait of him, his head was stitched back on and he posed for his portrait at last.

12853. History Facts

In 1981, 300 people thrown into the water in a ferry accident in Brazil were eaten alive by piranha.

12854. History Facts

The fifteenth-century German king Wenceslas was so angry with his chef after a particularly bad meal that he had him roasted alive.

12855. History Facts

Saint Ignatius of Antioch prayed to be eaten by wild animals; when the Roman Emperor Trajan sentenced him to be eaten by lions in 110 CE he fell to his knees and thanked him.

12856. India - Heritage

Heritage : ajanta caves, maharashtra
rock-cut caves set deep in the sahyadri hills. it has a large relief depicting the death of the buddha lying on the bed.

12857. India - Heritage

Heritage : badrinath, uttarakhand
dedicated to lord vishnu. one of the four pilgrimage spots for hindus.

12858. India - Heritage

Heritage : basilica of bom jesus, velha, goa (17th century)
the church houses the mortal remains of st.francis xavier.

12859. India - Heritage

Heritage : bahai house of worship, delhi
the lotus-shaped marvel in marble is referred to as the taj mahal of the 21st century. completed in '86.

12860. India - Heritage

Heritage : buland darwaza, fatehpur sikri
at 53.5 m., it is the highest gateway in india. built by akbar to commemorate his conquest of khandesh in gujarat.

12861. India - Heritage

Heritage : chartminar, hyderabad (1591)
a majestic monument of four minarets, to commemorate the cessation of plague in the city, according to the chronicles.

12862. India - Heritage

Heritage : dakshineshwar temple, calcutta (1855)
built by a widow-devotee, rani rashmoni.

12863. India - Heritage

Heritage : diwara temples, mount abu
a jain pilgrimage center. there are two shrine : adinath temple (1031) and nominate temple (1230).

12864. India - Heritage

Heritage : elehanta caves, maharastra (634)
situated on an island, believed to be built by pulakesini ii of the chalukya kingdom. exquisite carvings depicting the myths of shiva.

12865. India - Heritage

Heritage : gateway of india, bombay
a triumphal arch built to commemorate visit of king george v and queen mary in 1911. it is 26 feet tall.

12866. India - Heritage

Heritage : golden temple, amritsar (1577)
holiest sikh shrine. part of the exterior is gilded with gold leaf. the hari mandir is in the midst of a pool. guru granth sahib, the holy book of the sikhs. is enshrined inside.

12867. India - Heritage

Heritage : gol gumbaz, bijapur (17th century)
its dome is the second largest in the world. the whispering gallery within is so called because even the gentlest whisper echoes across its great length.

12868. India - Heritage

Heritage : hawa mahal, (palace of winds) jaipur (18th century)
the five storied facade of 953 windows was built for the women of the harem to look out without being seen themselves.

12869. India - Heritage

Heritage : humayun's tomb, delhi (1565)
by the side of mathura road, to the east of hazarat nizamu-ddin's shrine, this memorial was build by humayun's senior widow (haji hamida begum).

12870. India - Heritage

Heritage : india gate,delhi
a memorial to over 90,000 indian soldiers who died in world war1 the names of 13,516 soldiers are inscribed on it since 1971 an eternal flame has been lit the amar jyothi - to honour the unknown soldier.

Animal Facts
A jellyfish excretes faeces through its mouth – it has only one opening and uses it for all purposes.      .. More >>