Traveling the World

Mauthausen, Austria: These stairs are the site of one of the most barbaric things ever done to man. Prisoners of the Mauthausen death camp were forced to carry heavy stone blocks up 186 steps from the stone quarry at the base of the site. It became known as the “Stairway of Death” because many times over people fell backwards due to the purposely odd design of the steps, which caused confusion amongst those who stepped on them. You can’t see the design now, since after the war ended the steps were re-constructed so visitors wouldn’t have the same fate.