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Predjama Castle

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The dik-dik marks territory by pressing a preorbital gland — located millimetres from its eyeball — directly onto twigs, essentially staking claim with its own face, one poke at a time.

In 1221, Mongol forces killed an estimated 700,000 people at Merv in a single week — then cut the qanats that had kept Central Asia's largest city alive for centuries. The desert never gave it back.

Fred Lorz crossed the 1904 Olympic marathon finish line first, accepted the gold medal from Alice Roosevelt, then admitted a car had driven him 11 of the 26 miles. He claimed it was a joke.

Casu martzu is Sardinian pecorino colonized by live cheese fly larvae; the maggots leap up to 15 centimeters when disturbed. EU law bans its sale, so it trades on the black market.

The brigantine Mary Celeste was found in November 1872 sailing itself across the Atlantic — lifeboat gone, cargo of 1,701 barrels of industrial alcohol intact, captain's log open to ten days prior.

Eric Lawes borrowed a metal detector to find a lost hammer in a Suffolk field and instead turned up 15,234 Roman coins, still in their wooden chest. The hammer was found too.

UVA lacrosse captain George Huguely V beat teammate Yeardley Love to death in her apartment hours before their 2010 graduation. He was convicted of second-degree murder; her family later won a $7.5 million civil judgment.

A single bomb hidden in a SuperFerry's cargo hold on August 2, 2004 killed 116 people in Manila Bay — the deadliest peacetime maritime attack in recorded history. Abu Sayyaf planted it for $400.

Built directly into the mouth of a vertical cave high on a cliff face in Slovenia, Predjama Castle housed a rebel knight named Erasmus of Lueg who held off a siege for over a year by receiving supplies through a secret tunnel.