Why is New Orleans known as a haunted hotspot? The mystical and dark history spans centuries.

New Orleans' haunted lore — marked by tales of haunted alleyways, esoteric rituals and sullen spirits — rings through the narrow streets of the French Quarter, where tourists and occultists alike take joy in the mix of horror and history.

From its inception, the Crescent City was plagued with tragedy. Deadly yellow fever epidemics, natural disasters and a legacy of violent slavery marred its early nineteenth-century beginnings.

But what others might bury, New Orleans resurrects in the form of ghost tours, cemetery walks and nightly retelling of its most gruesome legends.

Each fall as Halloween nears, dozens of tourists flock to the city for a taste of the supernatural, crowding the city's oldest neighborhood on the ghost and vampire walking tours as the city capitalizes on the trend o