The Nazis told their prisoners Arbeit macht frei, or "Work sets you free." In truth, millions of forced laborers were worked to death.In December 2009, the infamous sign above the entrance to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp was stolen. When recovered two days later, Polish police discovered the thieves had cut the metal placard into three pieces. Each third contained a single word from the sentence every arrival at the Nazi death camp and every enslaved prisoner trapped within its walls had been forced to read day in and day out: Arbeit Macht Frei or “Work sets you free.

Also known as Canities subita, Marie Antoinette Syndrome is the name for a mysterious condition said to suddenly turn all of your hair white due to fear or stress — but the scientific jury is still out on whether or not it’s real. Alexander Kucharsky/Museum of the History of FranceAn unfinished portrait of Marie Antoinette, showing the young queen after her hair turned white. Once, a queen went to sleep a brunette and woke up with white hair.

One Middle Eastern nation shares 93 percent of its DNA with the ancient race of Canaanites thought to be lost to history.DR. CLAUDE DOUMET-SERHALOne of the Canaanite skeletons tested for this study. So central are the Canaanites to Hebrew and Christian scripture, that even non-believers today surely know their name. Yet, for centuries, not even scientists knew what became of this ancient race — until now. Because the Canaanites inhabited the Levant (modern-day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and Palestine) in the second millennium BC, experts had always figured that the group’s bloodline eventually grew diluted and all but disappeared due to the vast and varied turnover of ethnic groups in the region at that time.

"No one sees her bony body or her weakened condition, because of her costume. No one sees the tears in her eyes, injured by the bright lights that decorate her mask."The elderly elephant in Sri Lanka is clearly malnourished shown by her bone-thin figure. Each year, the streets of Sri Lanka light up with a magnificent spectacle of parading dancers and elephants decked out in elaborate costumes and lighting to celebrate the country’s annual Esala Perahera festival.

The Well of Hell, also called the Well of Barhout, is likely millions of years old and drops 367 feet into the earth. AFP via Getty ImagesThe “Well of Hell” sinkhole in eastern Yemen. For centuries, it’s terrified locals as a possible prison for jinn, or genies. Now, cave explorers have dropped to the bottom of Yemen’s “Well of Hell” for the first time. The sinkhole, formally known as the Well of Barhout, gapes out from the desert in the al-Mahra province in eastern Yemen.