Skull Tower

Skull Tower in Nis is quite literally, as the name would suggest - a big tower made from human skulls. After the failed Serbian uprising against the Ottomans in 1809, the Turkish governor at the time, Hurshid Pasha decided it would be a major deterrent to others to take the heads of 1,000 executed Serb prisoners and turn them into a 5 meter high tower. Most of the skulls have since been stolen, however a few poor ones still remain with either circular bullet holes between the eyes, or a sword chop in the middle of the head. A lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon! :(

The "Window Pagoda" is actually only about a dozen square meters of large circular buildings, one small earth pit, some small earth pits inlaid with human skulls. There are 14 rows of small earth pits on each wall, each row can put 17 people's heads, and the four walls can put a total of 952 heads, but now only about half of them are left. Still a bit scary.