Every ghost story on Earth, checked against the record.

576 legends. For each one we separate what the documents actually say from what people tell each other after dark.

Documented Partially documented Oral tradition Internet origin Unverified Disputed Fiction How we verify →
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AFRICA Oral tradition Oct 2

Mmoatia: Ghana’s Backward-Footed Akan Forest Dwarfs

Hunters in Ghana's Akan-speaking forests are warned to watch the ground for footprints that point the wrong way. Whoever made them is said to be about…

AFRICA Partially documented Sep 30

Touni Minwi: Mauritius’s 1994 Werewolf Panic

Touni Minwi doesn't lurk in shadows and wait. He greases his own skin with oil, climbs onto a roof, and drops down into a stranger's yard…

AFRICA Unverified Sep 29

The Headless Lady of Frégate Island, Seychelles

The headless lady of Frégate Island is a ghost said to walk the shoreline of a tiny private island in the Seychelles at dusk, retreating into…

Barbados Partially documented Sep 28

Violet of Fisherpond: Barbados’s Locked-Door Ghost

She doesn't moan or rattle chains. She locks the bathroom door. Violet is the ghost of Fisherpond Great House, a 1635 sugar-plantation manor in Barbados's Saint…

AFRICA Oral tradition Sep 26

Ebigane: Gabon’s Shapeshifting Bat-Buffalo Vampire

In the epic songs of the Fang people of Gabon, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea, an ebigane (also spelled ébigane) is not one fixed monster but a…

AFRICA Unverified Sep 25

Chipekwe: Zambia’s Unverified One-Horned Lake Monster

Fishermen on Lake Bangweulu in Zambia used to talk about something in the water that hippos would not go near. They called it chipekwe — a…

ASIA Unverified Sep 24

Bibi-Khanym: The Kiss Legend That Birthed the Veil

She kissed a stranger through her veil, and the mark it left is why, legend says, Central Asian women started covering their faces. That is the…

Fiji Oral tradition Sep 23

The Veli: Fiji’s Hairy Little People of the Forest

Fijian villagers still leave a plate of food at the treeline when someone new arrives, and old hunters still refuse to whistle after dark in certain…

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