Fortresses

This 15th-century island fortress later served as home to the executioners no one wanted to live near.

The ancestral home of beloved English poet Lord Byron has a bizarre history.

Stunning ruins of what was once the center of one of the greatest empires in East Africa.

An imposing Omani fortress surrounded by date palm trees.

A remarkably well preserved tower dating all the way back to the Iron Age.

A medieval church built up to defend its village.

A line of abandoned, alien-like fortresses dot the mountains of North Italy.

This daunting 1st century fortress was purportedly the site of one of the most dramatic revolts of the Jewish-Roman wars.

You can see three Irish counties from this Neolithic hillside fort, once the seat of the Kingdom of Ailech.

A stone in Wolin, Poland, marks the possible location of a legendary Viking fortress.

The ruins on a deserted tropical island in the Philippines bear the scars of WWII.

Inmates dig the graves at the largest prison cemetery in the U.S., the final resting place of both cowboys and Indians.

A ruined Maya city that suffered a years-long case of mistaken identity.

This fortress sits atop a centuries-old well system.

The shell of a medieval fortress offers commanding views of the area it once protected.

An expansive complex of subterranean tunnels is all that remains of one of Europe's most formidable medieval fortresses.

An ancient and majestic fortress that played an integral role in Portugal's road to independence.