Stories of eerie mansions and scary castles, said to be the residence of ghosts or strange supernatural phenomenon, are not new. But believing these stories is another thing. Do haunted places really consist of paranormal activity and ghosts of people long dead or are they just there to tickle or thrill our imagination?

Throughout the ages, people have believed in ghosts. Some believe such places are almost sacred and should not be disturbed. Others feel these entities are menacing and try to get rid of them or stay as far away from such places as possible; while there are some folks who take them as an everyday occurrence and accept the seen and the unseen entities around them as a norm of life and go about their business as usual.

There are many famous places around the globe which are reputed to be haunted with their previous residents’ spirits and are of great interest to a number of researchers and curious individuals. One such place is The Tower of London.

It has been a host - if we can say that — to many executions and murders over the years as it was a prison for the royalty, as well as the common prisoners. Many have been the victim of its “off with their heads” policy and some of them have lived on in the form of ghosts for many years, according to people.

The most often seen person or spirit is that of Queen Anne Boleyn who had the misfortune of being the wife of the famous, or shall we say infamous King Henry VIII. The once-loved queen fell prey to the King’s wrath when his advisors poisoned him about her being unfaithful as the King was extremely fond of his wife, which did not stand in favour with his courtiers.

Like the usual practice, the queen was imprisoned in the tower and beheaded on the 19th of May 1536. Her spirit is often seen, claim the guards, near the place of her execution near the queen’s house and sometimes, with her are seen many others royals in an eerie procession. She walks down the aisle of where she was buried which was under the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula.

One other lady who has made the tower her permanent residence for centuries is the Countess of Salisbury. Even she fell under the axe on the order of King Henry VIII. But this time it was because he feared her political power. The 70-year-old countess is supposed to have resisted her executioner who ran after her and completed his task. It is said that her apparition is seen along with the horrible scene of the way she died.

Then there was the famous Sir Walter Raleigh, who was also beheaded at the tower by James I, but lived in better accommodation than the others. Even today, his living quarters are kept in the same condition as they were in the 16th century. His apparition that is said to appear, looks like the portrait hangs in the part called the Bloody Tower.

Then there is the sad story of Lady Jane Grey, who was beheaded by her own power-hungry father. In 1957, a guard heard a kind of striking sound above his guardhouse at 3am.

He opened the door and saw a white shape standing at the top of the tower. It was February 12 — the same day that she was executed back in 1554 just after her husband met the same fate after being imprisoned in the Tower.

The disappearance of two princes in 1483 is perhaps the most heart-rending tale of all — Edward V and Richard, the Duke of York, who were 12 and nine years old, respectively.

It has been assumed that they were murdered. Two guards, passing the Bloody Tower in the 15th century, saw the shadows of the two princes going down the stairs, dressed in their nightshirts. The same outfits they were wearing the night they disappeared. They stood holding hands and then quietly and slowly faded out. The remains of the two ill-fated princes were found in a chest in 1674 by workers and were buried according to royal rites.

So, what are ghosts or apparitions? Researchers on paranormal activity believe that they can be detected through electromagnetic pulses like energy fields. While there is also the assumption that even though the spirits have passed on, some scenes are “locked in” time capsules-like recordings and just get played over and over again. Is there a logical explanation for supernatural phenomenon? Not really, otherwise there would be no mystery.