Death is one of life’s great constants, but not all corpses end up in a tomb or urn on the mantelpiece. Whether turned into a landmark, mummy, art exhibit, or a magical talisman, some cadavers meet a more unusual fate.

Here are 10 bizarre ways human remains have spent time outside of the grave…

Related: 10 People Who Actually Lived With Human Corpses

10 Painting Pigment

There was a roaring trade of mummies in the 16th century, each stolen from a tomb and sold to wealthy visitors. There were even professional “mummy dealers” to be found in the streets of Egypt. Collectors would seek to obtain a whole mummy for an “unwrapping party,” but smaller parts could enter a personal collection.

Ground-up mummies were already being used as medicine, so it probably didn’t seem that strange when painters began using the pigment in art. Mummy Brown was the rich pigment extracted from ground mummies, and apparently, it was good for shading, flesh tones, and shadows. However, the pigment started to go out of fashion as many individuals found the idea of using people as paint distasteful. There is even an anecdote about one painter (Burne-Jones) having a burial ceremony for a tube of Mummy Brown after learning about the contents.

It is thought that the famed painting by Eugene Delacroix Liberty Leading the People that now hangs in the Louvre in Paris may have been painted using Mummy Brown.^[1]

9 Book Binding

Anthropodermic bibliopegy is the process of binding a book using human skin rather than normal leather. An example is Dr. John Stockton Hough of Philadelphia, who retained skin from the corpse of Mary Lynch, a 28-year-old woman who died from tuberculosis while on his ward. He tanned the skin and used it to bind three books dealing with female and reproductive health.

The Bristol Record Office in Britain owns a book covering the crime and execution of John Horwood. Horwood had become obsessed with a local girl named Eliza Balsum/Balsam and, frustrated by her romantic rebuffs, hurled a stone that shattered her skull. This led him to be the first person hanged at Bristol Jail. He was publicly dissected after the execution, and the book was bound using his flayed skin. A similar fate befell William Burke (of the infamous Burke and Hare) with a pocketbook bound with his skin residing in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.^[2]

8 Corpse Diamond

Humans are around 20% carbon, meaning that our cremated ashes can be used to create an industrial diamond. To begin the process, carbon is chemically separated and filtered from the ashes of a cremated individual. The resulting mixture is purified to remove nitrogen since this can color the resulting diamond yellow or brown. The carbon is then placed in an extremely high pressure and temperature cell (around 60,000 bar pressure and 1800 degrees centigrade) that simulates the natural conditions for the formation of diamonds. If all goes well, a clear diamond (usually blue in color due to the boron found in human ashes) is the result.

For the cadaver on a budget, another option is having your ashes mixed with glass. This can be blown into a decorative bauble that can be kept by friends or family.^[3]

7 Exhibit at Body Worlds

Somewhere between art and an anatomy exhibition, Body Worlds by Dr. Gunther von Hagens consists of (mostly) human cadavers, plasticized, partially dissected, and posed in motion. Skinless athletes might vie for space alongside a segmented horse and rider mid-jump, or a carefully extracted mesh of blood vessels might form the outline of the rabbit that once bore them.

To plasticize the bodies, preservatives are pumped through the blood system, sterilizing the corpse and arresting decay. Next, skin, fat, and connective tissue are removed, and the body is immersed in a bath of freezing acetone. The acetone replaces any water and fat remaining in the cells. Following this, the body is submerged in a bath of liquid polymer and placed in a vacuum. The low pressure causes the acetone to boil and vaporize out of the cells, only to be replaced by the liquid polymer. Finally, the cadaver is positioned and “hardened” using gas, light, or heat to set the polymer.

Though Body Worlds claims that the donor of each cadaver volunteered, there is some controversy around the display of human corpses in this fashion. Even more concerning is the reluctance of Dr. Hagens to provide a clear paper trail between each displayed body and donor.^[4]

6 Self-Made Mummy

At least 17 Japanese monks have successfully mummified themselves while emulating the ninth-century Buddhist monk Kūkai. He was said to have entered a state of meditation so deep that life had seemingly fled. According to legend, Kūkai would return at a later date to help others reach nirvana.

Monks emulating Kūkai take three years or more to perform the rite, limiting their diet to what can be foraged on Mount Yudono between meditations—nuts, berries, bark, and roots. This diet effectively starves the monk, reducing the amount of fat and muscle left in the body. The monk eventually cuts out even this meager sustenance, drinking only small amounts of water while meditating. They may also ingest a toxic tea brewed from the urushi tree. The tea causes vomiting and further dehydrates the body. Finally, the monk enters a tiny tomb and waits for death in the darkness. They ring a bell each morning to announce their continued survival—the tomb will be sealed when the bell fails to sound.

Years later, the tomb is opened, and the monk is examined for signs of rot. Few monks actually remain intact, but those that do are considered to have entered a state of profound meditation that defies death, often taking a place of pride and honor in a shrine.

From a scientific perspective, the bodies of the monks are dehydrated and deprived of both nutrients and fat. This makes them poor food for the insect grubs and bacteria that usually break down the human body. Toxins remaining in the body from the urushi tea can also help sterilize the corpse. In addition, scientists have found that a sacred spring used by the monks on Mount Yudono contains high levels of arsenic, which would also help ward off decomposers. Notably, arsenic was used for embalming corpses.

The village of Gue in the Tibetan Himalayas hosts another example. Sangha Tenzin is the 500-year-old self-mummified corpse of a Tibetan monk who seems to have emulated Kūkai. Researchers found high nitrogen levels in his body (indicating a long period of fasting) and the remains of a meditation belt holding his body in position.^[5]

5 Hand of Glory

The Hand of Glory is a macabre talisman that turns up in European folklore, especially in England. To make one, the hand must be cut from a hanged murderer while still on the gallows and then pickled. Next, a candle made from human fat is placed in the hand (or in some versions, the fingers of the hand themselves are lit) to provide the bearer with a suite of powers. Depending on the story, it could open any lock, warn the bearer about potential witnesses, or even send the occupants of a house into a coma-like sleep while it burned. It was said that only blood, blue (skimmed) milk, or the passage of time could extinguish the candle.

It is possible that the lore about the Hand of Glory arose from a translation error by the semi-literate criminals of the Middle Ages. Some of the powers associated with it are also attributed to mandragore (French for mandrake) roots, and the French for Hand of Glory is main de gloire.^[6]

4 Mount Everest Landmark

A surprisingly large number of bodies are being exposed on the slopes of Mount Everest as the ice melts. It is thought that over 300 people have died attempting the climb, and many of the bodies were never recovered. But as glaciers shrink and ice thins, those once buried are beginning to re-emerge.

Some of these unfortunates have become landmarks for climbers, such as “Green Boots,” so named for his feet extending from a small cave near the summit. Climbers on the northern route encountered this sight without fail for many years. There is also the deceptively named “Rainbow Valley” at about 8,000 meters (5 miles), marking the “Death Zone” where the human body cannot handle the scarcity of oxygen without help. This area is filled with the bright colors of climbing gear adorning the bodies frozen into the ice.^[7]

3 Expert Witness

Cruentation was a strange court proceeding in which the accused had to stand in the presence of the deceased victim. It was thought that if a corpse began to bleed or ooze, it was in the presence of the murderer. The Ordeal of the Bier by Jenő Gyárfás in 1881 uses cruentation as the subject of the painting.

Though it is extremely unlikely that any blood would remain uncongealed in a day or even week-old corpse, it is possible that the fluid results of decay could drip from the body or out of a wound. In a packed courtroom, perhaps the jostling endured by the body as it was brought in (or even the slow build-up of gas from decaying flesh) could force liquid from the mouth or wounds. Cruentation was still in use in 19th-century America, with 200 people forced to touch a pair of victims in Illinois in 1869.^[8]

2 Smoked Mummy Party Guest

The Anga people of the Aseki region in Papa New Guinea historically preserved the bodies of their fallen in a manner that can be quite startling for an outside observer. They mummified them in clay and set them up in racks with a view. The corpses were smoked in a special hut for months and then coated in red clay to protect them from the elements and help them maintain their posture. The bodies are still arrayed in shrines mounted on the local cliff sides.

Many locals believe the mummies can offer advice to their descendants, and some of the Anga believe that an individual not offered suitable amounts of respect after death may set out to cause mischief. As such, the mummies may be brought into the village during celebrations to make sure their spirit feels included and doesn’t start sabotaging crops or scaring off game.^[9]

1 Planted on a Corpse Farm

Body farms are dedicated to studying the decay of human bodies and act as a reference book for forensic science. Corpses might be placed on the ground, in a pool of water, in a shallow grave, or in a shed, and each “death” scenario can offer vital clues when comparing the remains from real crime scenes. As a cadaver decays, bacteria and liquescent flesh seep into the soil around it, encouraging the growth of other bacteria, plants, and fungi. This, along with other biological markers, can improve estimates of time of death—essential for modern crime-fighting.

The decomposition process can also produce some strange-looking “wounds” on human and animal corpses, seeming to include either surgical cuts, the exsanguination of the body, or the removal of soft tissues. A series of “cattle mutilations” was convincing enough that the FBI launched an investigation into affected cattle found on American farms, suspecting that they had been victims of cults or human malice (okay, UFOs, too, for those believers out there).

Being able to witness decomposition in action can let forensics experts identify the marks of natural death as opposed to those of murder, helping solve “unsolvable” crimes.^[10]

There’s no fooling anyone. If you go to a cemetery at night, you’re doing one of two things: partying or ghost hunting. Well, I mean, you’re not going to have a picnic with your long-buried great-great-grandma at midnight, are you? No. Most likely, you’re ghost hunting. If you weren’t, an entire category of YouTube would be out of a job.

Visiting cemeteries at night, ghosts aside, is a bit unsettling. The ground is soft because it’s been turned so many times, there are literally dead people under your feet, and typically, the lighting isn’t the best. But the cemetery threat isn’t the ghosts. In fact, an undisturbed cemetery is quite peaceful. The threat comes more from other weirdos hanging out in the cemetery while you wander aimlessly through it at night.

Still, peaceful cemeteries seldom make history—or top ten lists. We want paranormal activity in our cemeteries, dammit! So with that, here are ten cemeteries you wouldn’t want to spend the night in.

Related: 10 Graveyards Supposedly Haunted By Vampires

10 Union Cemetery, Easton, Connecticut

One of America’s most haunted and oldest cemeteries is a little cemetery in Connecticut, dating back at least 400 years: Union Cemetery. It has received enough notoriety for its hauntings that even Ed and Lorraine Warren made a case study of it. 

Union is quiet during the day, but walking through it, the energy is heavy. At night, that heavy energy springs to life. Paranormal investigators report hearing and seeing the spirits of soldiers and children, but what really grabs people’s attention are The White Lady and Red Eyes.

No one knows the origins of The White Lady, but two popular stories make her either a woman who died during childbirth or a wife murdered by her husband and dumped in a sinkhole behind the adjacent church.

Red Eyes is a bit more terrifying. Believed to be the angry spirit of Earle Kellog, who was burned to death across the street in the 1930s, Red Eyes manifests as just that: glowing red eyes. The spirit will sometimes chase people through the cemetery and breathe down their necks.

If the ghosts aren’t reason enough not to spend the night there, the police are. They will ticket you for trespassing faster than you can say “run!”

9 Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh, Scotland

Next to one of the world’s first documented concentration camps, Greyfriars Kirkyard Cemetery in Scotland has a brutal past—and a brutal ghost. Back in the 1670s, those who identified as Covenentors (Presbyterians, essentially) were put on trial for religious and political reasons. The religious end was that Presbyterian Scots wanted the freedom to practice their beliefs in the country without persecution. The parliament at the time (which was Catholic) didn’t like that idea and decided to squash it almost immediately.

Enter George Mackenzie, the ruthless judge in charge of the trials. He imprisoned and punished more than 1,200 Covenentors in a field next to the cemetery, without shelter, forcing them to live in the worst conditions with only four ounces of bread a day. Hundreds died of malnourishment.

Skipping ahead, “Bloody Mackenzie” eventually was buried in Greyfriars in a giant mausoleum. A homeless man broke into the mausoleum in 1999; people believe it unleashed an evil Mackenzie spirit—a poltergeist. The physical attacks from the poltergeist got so bad that grounds management forbid tours for a time. Tours now come with a physical and mental health warning.

8 La Noria Cemetery, La Noria, Chile

Deep in Chile’s Atacama Desert lies La Noria, an old mining ghost town with a creepy cemetery to match. Not only would you not want to visit this cemetery at night because it’s in the middle of a scorching hot desert where there are no practical resources, but also because it’s haunted (duh!).

Living conditions for residents when the town was up and running were not ideal. Several people died an untimely death, and the cemetery has been looted repeatedly. As a result, coffins remain opened and scattered through the grounds; human and animal bones lay exposed in the sand; eyewitnesses even claim to see the souls of the disturbed walk from the cemetery into town as the sun sets.

La Noria is not the happenin’ place to be at night, especially when you have angry spirits walking around.

7 Buckout Road Cemetery, White Plains, New York

A few years ago, a Canadian indie film called “The Curse of Buckout Road” was released. It was terrible, don’t watch it. But the backstory to the film, the real one, is pretty awesome.

Buckout Road is considered one of New York’s most haunted roads, known as a challenge for high schoolers and curious adults in the White Plains/West Harrison area. It used to be much scarier before they paved the road, but it’s still scary enough.

As you drive down the road, you’ll encounter a small cemetery, headstones mostly overturned. The only one remaining belongs to John Buckhout (the “h” is correct). People have reported apparitions, batteries draining, and everything else associated with a decent haunting. But the real reason why you don’t want to visit this cemetery at night is because of the road itself.

Supposedly, if you drive to the red house on Buckout Road and honk the horn three times, albino cannibals will come out and attack you. Then, of course, three witches were burned on the hill across from the cemetery, and Isaac Buckhout murdered his wife and neighbor in their nearby house.

The Buckhout’s have a lot of baggage.

6 El Panteon de Belen, Guadalajara, Mexico

El Panteon de Belen is a historic cemetery and once the resting spot for several famous people from Jalisco (they were relocated in the 1950s). It is now also a popular spot for nightly ghost tours.

This cemetery is certainly no Greyfriars, but there are enough ghost stories and sightings to make the thought of going there at night unnerving. First, this is technically a disturbed cemetery. The section, also called a patio, where the poor people were buried, was demolished because the headstones were unrecognizable. Second, the people who are buried here most likely died from epidemics and poor living conditions.

Because of this, the living regularly see the dead walking around the cemetery. In particular, a pair of lovers, a monk, and a vampire.

5 Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery, Midlothian, Illinois

No creepy cemetery list would be complete without Bachelor’s Grove. You may have seen the picture of the ghost taken here: a woman sits on a gravestone, ankles crossed, dressed in dated garb. She is called the Madonna of Bachelor’s Grove and is the cemetery’s very own White Lady. People report seeing her on full moon nights, carrying an infant.

But this is child’s play compared to what else people have seen. People report a full-house (yes, an actual house) apparition, a 1940s gangster-style ghost car, and a farmer and his horse who died when they were tragically pulled into a pond.

4 Highgate Cemetery, London, England

I don’t know about you, but I’m not a vampire hunter, nor would I want to test my luck at finding one. If this also sounds like you, possibly don’t go to Highgate Cemetery at night. Highgate Cemetery is one of the most haunted graveyards in England, and we can see why.

People see vampires draining the blood of animals there, as well as an “imp-like creature” roaming the grounds. Because of this, “vampire hunters” would dig up caskets, open them, and stab the dead with wooden stakes. This behavior ended in 1970. People also see a ghostly bicycle rider (not Nicholas Cage) and a man in a top hat.

If only the cemetery’s famous residents would make an appearance instead: Karl Marx and Douglass Adams, to name two of them.

3 Chase Vault, Barbados

Those who are dead should stay dead, right? Well, the ghosts who inhabit Chase Vault may think otherwise. Since the 19th century, the coffins inside the semi-sunken tomb have rearranged themselves regularly. Every time the vault was opened up to add another body, people would find the coffins violently tossed around. Imagine what that spirit would do to you if you decided to sleepover

2 Cemetery Hill, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

For the record, I have visited Cemetery Hill twice and have yet to experience anything that would keep me from going back at night. Other people would feel otherwise. 

Cemetery Hill is technically not a graveyard but was certainly the last place many soldiers would ever step foot. The Battle of Gettysburg during the Civil War was the bloodiest, and because there were so many dead bodies on the hill after the battle, the stench of death was overwhelmingly powerful. They couldn’t bury the bodies fast enough. It was so bad that passers-by would cover their noses from the smell even after the bodies were interred.

Even now, people report smelling peppermint, one of the scents used to cover up the stench.

1 Green Lady Cemetery, Burlington, Connecticut

As you drive down the pot-hole-ridden, dirt road of Upson Road, you wonder why you even ventured to drive down it. Seriously, it’s a terrible road. But the reward is well worth it. The Green Lady Cemetery in Burlington, Connecticut, is ruined, absolutely ruined. No grave markers remain. The last headstone, a replica that belonged to the Green Lady herself, was stolen in 2010. People notoriously vandalize the trees and remaining stone walls around it. 

At night, many have seen the Green Lady appear as a full-body apparition shrouded in a green mist with a lighted smile. But others just say that it was a story a camp counselor at the fresh air camp across the street made up one day. Note, the camp is fully abandoned.

Regardless, other stories of satanic rituals and untimely deaths circulate, and it is no place for someone who doesn’t want to be arrested at night.