The most terrible executions in the history of mankind. The most terrible executions of the ancient world

Back in the 19th and early 20th centuries, execution was considered a preferable punishment compared to prison because being in prison was a slow death. The stay in prison was paid for by relatives, and they themselves often asked that the culprit be killed.
Convicts were not kept in prisons - it was too expensive. If relatives had money, they could take their loved one for support (usually he sat in an earthen pit). But a tiny part of society was able to afford it.
Therefore, the main method of punishment for minor crimes (theft, insulting an official, etc.) was the stocks. The most common type of last is “kanga” (or “jia”). It was used very widely, since it did not require the state to build a prison, and also prevented escape.
Sometimes, in order to further reduce the cost of punishment, several prisoners were chained in this neck block. But even in this case, relatives or compassionate people had to feed the criminal.

Each judge considered it his duty to invent his own reprisals against criminals and prisoners. The most common were: sawing off the foot (first they sawed off one foot, the second time the repeat offender caught the other), removal kneecaps, nose cutting, ear cutting, branding.
In an effort to make the punishment more severe, the judges came up with an execution called “carry out five types of punishment.” The criminal should have been branded, his arms or legs cut off, beaten to death with sticks, and his head put on display in the market for everyone to see.

In Chinese tradition, beheading was considered a more severe form of execution than strangulation, despite the prolonged torment inherent in strangulation.
The Chinese believed that the human body is a gift from his parents, and therefore returning a dismembered body into oblivion is extremely disrespectful to the ancestors. Therefore, at the request of relatives, and more often for a bribe, other types of executions were used.

Removal. The criminal was tied to a pole, a rope was wrapped around his neck, the ends of which were in the hands of the executioners. They slowly twist the rope with special sticks, gradually strangling the convict.
The strangulation could last a very long time, since the executioners at times loosened the rope and allowed the almost strangled victim to take several convulsive breaths, and then tightened the noose again.

"Cage", or "standing stocks" (Li-chia) - the device for this execution is a neck block, which was fixed on top of bamboo or wooden poles tied into a cage, at a height of approximately 2 meters. The convicted person was placed in a cage, and bricks or tiles were placed under his feet, and then they were slowly removed.
The executioner removed the bricks, and the man hung with his neck pinched by the block, which began to choke him, this could continue for months until all the supports were removed.

Lin-Chi - "death by a thousand cuts" or "sea pike bites" - the most terrible execution by cutting small pieces from the victim's body over a long period of time.
Such execution followed for high treason and parricide. Ling-chi, for the purpose of intimidation, was performed in public places with a large crowd of onlookers.

For capital crimes and other serious offenses, there were 6 classes of punishment. The first was called lin-chi. This punishment was applied to traitors, parricides, murderers of brothers, husbands, uncles and mentors.
The criminal was tied to a cross and cut into either 120, or 72, or 36, or 24 pieces. In the presence of extenuating circumstances, his body was cut into only 8 pieces as a sign of imperial favor.
The criminal was cut into 24 pieces as follows: eyebrows were cut off with 1 and 2 blows; 3 and 4 - shoulders; 5 and 6 - mammary glands; 7 and 8 - arm muscles between the hand and elbow; 9 and 10 - arm muscles between the elbow and shoulder; 11 and 12 - flesh from the thighs; 13 and 14 - calves; 15 - a blow pierced the heart; 16 - the head was cut off; 17 and 18 - hands; 19 and 20 - the remaining parts of the hands; 21 and 22 - feet; 23 and 24 - legs. They cut it into 8 pieces like this: cut off the eyebrows with 1 and 2 blows; 3 and 4 - shoulders; 5 and 6 - mammary glands; 7 - pierced the heart with a blow; 8 - the head was cut off.

But there was a way to avoid these monstrous types of execution - for a large bribe. For a very large bribe, the jailer could give a criminal awaiting death in an earthen pit a knife or even poison. But it is clear that few could afford such expenses.

From the very beginning of human history, people began to invent the most sophisticated methods of execution in order to punish criminals in such a way that other people would remember it and, on pain of a harsh death, they would not repeat such actions. Below is a list of the ten most disgusting execution methods in history. Fortunately, most of them are no longer in use.

The bull of Phalaris, also known as the copper bull, is an ancient execution weapon invented by Perilius of Athens in the 6th century BC. The design was a huge copper bull, hollow inside, with a door on the back or side. It had enough space to accommodate a person. The executed person was placed inside, the door was closed, and a fire was lit under the belly of the statue. There were holes in the head and nostrils that made it possible to hear the screams of the person inside, which sounded like the growling of a bull.

It is interesting that the creator of the copper bull himself, Perilaus, was the first to test the device in action on the orders of the tyrant Phalaris. Perilai was pulled out of the bull while still alive, and then thrown off the cliff. Phalaris himself also suffered the same fate - death in a bull.

Hanging, drawing and quartering is a method of execution common in England for treason, which was once considered the most terrible crime. It applied only to men. If a woman was convicted of high treason, she was burned alive. Incredibly, this method was legal and relevant until 1814.

First of all, the convict was tied to a horse-drawn wooden sled and dragged to the place of death. The criminal was then hanged and, just moments before death, taken out of the noose and placed on the table. After this, the executioner castrated and disembowelled the victim, burning the insides in front of the condemned man. Finally, the victim's head was cut off and the body was divided into four parts. The English official Samuel Pepys, having witnessed one of these executions, described it in his famous diary:

“In the morning I met Captain Cuttance, then I went to Charing Cross, where I saw Major General Harrison hanged, drawn and quartered. He tried to look as cheerful as possible in this situation. He was removed from the noose, then his head was cut off and his heart was taken out, showing to the crowd, which caused everyone to rejoice. Previously he judged, but now he was judged.”

Usually all five parts of the executed were sent to different parts of the country, where they were demonstratively installed on the gallows as a warning to others.

There were two ways of being burned alive. In the first, the condemned man was tied to a stake and covered with firewood and brushwood, so that he burned inside the flame. They say that this is how Joan of Arc was burned. Another method was to place a person on top of a stack of firewood, bundles of brushwood and tie him with ropes or chains to a post, so that the flame slowly rose towards him, gradually engulfing his entire body.

When an execution was carried out by a skilled executioner, the victim burned in the following sequence: ankles, thighs and arms, torso and forearms, chest, face, and finally, the person died. Needless to say, it was very painful. If a large number of people had to be burned at the same time, the victims dying from carbon monoxide before the fire reached them. And if the fire was weak, the victim usually died from shock, blood loss or heatstroke.

In later versions of this execution, the criminal was hanged and then burned purely symbolically. This method of execution was used to burn witches in most parts of Europe, however it was not used in England.

Lynching is a particularly torturous method of execution by cutting small pieces from the body over a long period of time. Practiced in China until 1905. The victim's arms, legs and chest were slowly cut off until eventually the head was cut off and stabbed directly in the heart. Many sources claim that the cruelty of this method is greatly exaggerated when they say that the execution could be carried out over several days.

A contemporary witness to this execution, journalist and politician Henry Norman, describes it as follows:

“The criminal was tied to the cross, and the executioner, armed with a sharp knife, began to grab handfuls of fleshy parts of the body, such as thighs and breasts, and cut them off. After that, he removed the joints and parts of the body protruding forward, one by one the nose and ears, and fingers. Then the limbs were cut off piece by piece at the wrists and ankles, elbows and knees, shoulders and hips. Finally, the victim was stabbed directly in the heart and his head was cut off.”

The wheel, also known as Catherine's Wheel, is a medieval execution device. A man was tied to a wheel. After which they broke all the large bones of the body with an iron hammer and left them to die. The wheel was placed on the top of the pillar, giving the birds the opportunity to profit from the sometimes still living body. This could continue for several days until the person died from painful shock or dehydration.

In France, some relaxations in execution were provided when the convict was strangled before the execution.

The convict was stripped naked and placed in a vat of boiling liquid (oil, acid, resin or lead), or in a container with cold liquid, which gradually warmed up. Criminals could be hung on a chain and immersed in boiling water until they died. During the reign of King Henry VIII, poisoners and counterfeiters were subjected to similar executions.

Flaying meant execution, during which all the skin was removed from the body of the criminal, using sharp knife, and it had to remain intact for demonstration for intimidation purposes. This execution dates back to ancient times. For example, Apostle Bartholomew was crucified on the cross upside down, and his skin was torn off.

The Assyrians flayed their enemies to show who held power in the captured cities. Among the Aztecs in Mexico, ritual flaying or scalping was common, which was usually carried out after the death of the victim.

Although this method of execution has long been considered inhumane and prohibited, in Myanmar, a case of flaying all men in a Karenni village was recorded.

The African necklace is a type of execution in which a car tire filled with gasoline or other flammable material is placed on the victim and then set on fire. This led to the human body turning into a molten mass. The death was extremely painful and a shocking sight. This type execution was common in South Africa in the 80s and 90s of the last century.

The African necklace was used against suspected criminals by "people's courts" established in black towns as a means of circumventing the apartheid judicial system (a policy of racial segregation). This method was used to punish members of the community who were considered employees of the regime, including black police officers, city officials, and their relatives and partners.

Similar executions were observed in Brazil, Haiti and Nigeria during Muslim protests.

Scaphism is an ancient Persian method of execution that results in painful death. The victim was stripped naked and tied tightly inside a narrow boat or a hollowed-out tree trunk, and covered on top with the same boat so that the arms, legs and head stuck out. The executed man was force-fed milk and honey to induce severe diarrhea. In addition, the body was also coated with honey. After this, the person was allowed to swim in a pond with stagnant water or left in the sun. Such a “container” attracted insects, which slowly devoured the flesh and laid larvae in it, which led to gangrene. In order to prolong the torment, the victim could be fed every day. Ultimately, death was most likely due to a combination of dehydration, exhaustion and septic shock.

According to Plutarch, by this method in 401 BC. e. Mithridates, who killed Cyrus the Younger, was executed. The unfortunate man died only 17 days later. A similar method was used by the indigenous people of America - the Indians. They tied the victim to a tree, rubbed it with oil and mud, and left it for the ants. Usually a person died from dehydration and starvation within a few days.

The person sentenced to this execution was hung upside down and sawed vertically in the middle of the body, starting from the groin. Since the body was upside down, the criminal's brain had a constant flow of blood, which, despite the large blood loss, allowed him for a long time stay conscious.

Similar executions were used in the Middle East, Europe and parts of Asia. It is believed that sawing was the favorite method of execution of the Roman Emperor Caligula. In the Asian version of this execution, the person was sawed from the head.

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The death penalty - there is so much horror in this word. The associations are not pleasant. The torment of man and the cruelty of the executioners gives me goosebumps. There are many methods of carrying out the death penalty, and each of them is even more severe and inventive than the other. The past of all mankind was so cruel and brutal that life was worthless, and hundreds of people died in painful torture. The most terrible executions ancient world have long been a thing of the past, but some of them can be read about in historical literature.

Persian toughness

The most terrible and painful executions have begun since the times of the ancient Persians. One such method involved tying the victim to a tree, leaving only his limbs. Next they fed him honey and milk to induce diarrhea. The victim's body was coated with sweet and sticky honey to attract as many insects as possible. They in turn multiplied in the feces and his skin. The victim died in agony several weeks later from septic shock and dehydration.

Execution by an elephant

In Carthage, Rome and Asian countries, the death sentence was carried out with the help of an animal, namely an elephant. Asian elephants were trained for many years and could either kill the victim immediately or take turns, slowly breaking bones one after another.

Many European travelers describe this method of execution in their observations. Using a similar method of killing a person, Asian rulers demonstrated that they were the rightful rulers of not only people, but also animals. This method of execution was mainly used for prisoners of war.

European cruelty

But the executions of Rome and Carthage did not end there. A crowd of onlookers gathered in the amphitheaters to watch how huge, wild tigers and lions tore to death the criminals released into the arena. Such an execution was a holiday for everyone and whole families came to watch it.

In that era there was another terrible execution - crucifixion. This is how the Son of God Jesus Christ was executed. The man was stripped, beaten with sticks, thrown with stones, and then forced to carry his cross to the place of execution. On the hill, the cross was buried in the ground and a person was nailed to it with huge nails. The convict died long and painfully from thirst and painful shock. This method of execution was mainly used for criminals who had committed more than one atrocity.

The most terrible executions in the world took place in Rus'. The victims of such massacres were primarily those who committed crimes against the government, as well as those related to sex, culture and religion. From those very times the expression came about: impalement. This was the execution itself, when a person was impaled, slowly pierced through his body. People died from hellish pain within a few days.

Ancient Egypt was also famous for its method of execution. This method was called “punishment by the wall.” The name speaks for itself. People were simply immured alive in the wall and they died of suffocation. The composer Verdi in his opera "Aida" describes this moment when main character and her lover is sentenced to such punishment.

Executions of the Celestial Empire

The most cruel people in the history of mankind were the Chinese. How the execution would take place was decided by the executioners and judges themselves. Their fantasies cannot be compared with others in their ingenuity. One method was to stretch a person over young bamboo shoots. Since the plant itself grows quickly, within a few days the bamboo entered the person like a spear and continued to grow in his body. The slow death of a person in agony came.

It was in China that they came up with the idea of ​​burying a living person in the ground, and he died there from suffocation. Another method of torture and long suffering of a person was death by a thousand cuts. If a criminal was sentenced to a year of torment, then the executioner extended this execution for a year. Every day he came to the criminal’s cell and cut off a small part of his body. Then he immediately cauterized the wound with fire to stop the bleeding and prevent the person from dying.

And the procedure was repeated day after day for a year until the person died. Moreover, if the executioner failed to cope with the task and the convict died before the appointed time, an equally painful death awaited him.

The worst executions in human history were carried out on Chinese women. They were simply sawed in half. It is worth noting that they were nagged for any reason and because of any offense. The women were undressed, hung by their hands on rings, and secured between their legs. sharp saws. Naturally, they could not hang for long and sawed themselves right down to their breasts.

We have looked at some of the most terrible executions in the entire history of mankind, but this is just a small part of the sophisticated imagination of our ancestors. Different cultures also used a method of execution such as skinning alive. The person was simply tied to a table or pole and the skin was cut off into small pieces. All this happened in front of other people, and for many it was entertainment. Death occurred from loss of blood and pain shock.

The “Wheel” execution is one of the same mass events. The victim was tied to a rotating wheel, and the executioner dealt chaotic blows to different parts bodies. After such torture, the person was left to die in front of the entire crowd.

Execution of the criminal world

One of the last types of execution of our time comes from Africa. This method of execution has been used repeatedly by criminal groups. The essence of the execution was that rubber tires were put on a person, doused with gasoline and set on fire. The man was simply burning alive, screaming in pain.

The death penalty in modern civilized society is prohibited in many countries of the world, but countries such as China still use this capital punishment for very serious crimes. Of course, such cruelty as in ancient times no longer occurs. IN modern society The death penalty is applied in the form of execution, lethal injection or the electric chair. Today the criminal dies instantly.

IN modern world There is no place for torture; it is no longer used by the judiciary in order to punish someone or to obtain a confession of what they have done. Now only a torture museum can illustrate how the Inquisition tortured.

Today the most terrible torture is the electric chair, but what happened before... it’s scary to imagine

The torture was so cruel that not everyone has the willpower to look at the dummies that are provided by the Torture Museum so that everyone can see the face of justice in the Middle Ages.

It is difficult to determine the most terrible torture, since each of them was quite painful and cruel, but it is still possible to identify the 20 most terrifying.

Video about the most terrible tortures

"Spicy Pear"

Let's start with torture, which can rightfully be included in the top twenty of the most inhumane abuses of people. The torture of the Inquisition included this method of punishing sinful people. In the Middle Ages, resorting to this cruel form of torture, the church punished sinners who were exposed in love for the same sex, for example, a woman with a woman or a man with a man. Such a relationship was considered blasphemy and desecration of the church of God, so these people faced terrible punishment.

Tool for terrible torture— “Spicy Pear”

Instruments of torture of this type were pear-shaped. Accused female blasphemers had a “pear” placed in their vaginas, and male sinners had a “pear” placed in their anus or mouth. After the weapon was inserted into the victim's body, the executioner began the second stage of torture, which consisted of making the person suffer terribly after gradually, when unscrewing the screw, the sharp leaves of the pear opened inside the flesh. Opening up, the pear tore the internal organs of a woman or man into pieces. Death occurred because the victim was losing a large amount of blood, or from deformation internal organs, formed when the deadly killer pear opened.

Ancient tortures of the world include punishing the guilty with the help of rats

This is one of the most cruel tortures, which was invented in China, and was especially popular among the Inquisition in the 16th century. The victim experienced terrible torment. The main instrument of torture was rats. The person was placed on the table large sizes, in the area of ​​the womb they placed a fairly heavy cage filled with rats, which had to be hungry. Of course, this is far from the end: then the bottom of the cage was removed, after which the rats ended up on the victim’s belly, at the same time hot coals were laid on the top of the cage, the rats got scared from the heat and, trying to escape from the cage, gnawed at the person’s belly, so way of escaping. in terrible pain.

Torture with metal

cat claw

The sinner was gradually and slowly torn out in pieces of skin, flesh and ribs with an iron hook, running along his back.

Gloomy rack

This instrument of torture is known in several forms: horizontal and vertical. If the vertical version was used on the victim, then the sinner was caught under the ceiling, while the joints were twisted, and weight was constantly added to the legs, stretching the body as much as possible. The use of a horizontal version of the rack ensured the rupture of the muscles and joints of the convict.

It is a kind of crushing machine for killing the convict. The principle of operation of the cranial press was to gradually compress the victim’s skull; this press crushed the teeth, jaw, and cranial bones of a person until the sinner’s brain fell out of his ears.

The name of the weapon itself is quite insidious, but it’s not only the name that excites. This inquisitorial instrument did not break or tear anything on the victim’s body. With the help of a rope, the sinner was lifted and seated on a “cradle”, the top of which was in the shape of a triangle and quite sharp. They sat on this top in such a way that the sharp edge fit well into the anus or vagina of the victim. The sinners lost consciousness from pain, they were brought back to consciousness and continued to be tortured.

The shape of this weapon resembles female figure- this is a sarcophagus, the inside of which is empty, but not without spikes and many blades, the location of which is provided in such a way that they do not touch the vital parts of the body of the accused, while cutting other parts. The sinner died in agony for several days.

Thus, sinners, thieves and other people who were accused of one or another evil act against the church, the king and so on, suffered a fate. The convicts experienced the most terrible torment, being in the hands of a cruel executioner.

It’s good that today it’s only history and instruments of torture are not used.

According to ancient Greek myth, the goddess Athena invented the flute, but noticing that playing this instrument disfigures the face, this lady cursed her invention and threw it as far as possible with the words - Let the one who picks up the flute be severely punished! The Phrygian satyr Marsyas did not hear these words. He picked up a flute and learned to play it. Having achieved certain success in the musical field, the satyr became proud and challenged Apollo himself, an incomparable performer and patron of music, to a competition. Marsyas, naturally, lost the competition. And then this bright god, the patron of all arts, ordered to hang the daring satyr by the hands and tear off his (alive) skin. Needless to say, art requires sacrifice.

The goddess Artemis - a symbol of purity, innocence and hunting success - while swimming, noticed Actaeon spying on her and, without thinking twice, turned the unfortunate young man into a deer, and then hunted him down own dogs. The thunderer Zeus ordered the rebellious titan Prometheus to be chained to a rock, where a huge eagle flies every day to torment his body with sharp claws and beak.
For his crimes, King Tantalus was subjected to the following: standing in water up to his chin, he could not quench his painful thirst - the water disappeared at the first attempt to drink, he could not satisfy his hunger, because the juicy fruits hanging right above his head were carried away by the wind when he stretched out his hand to them, and to top it all off, a rock towered above him, ready to collapse at any moment. This torture became a household name, receiving the name Tantalum torment. The villainess Dirk, the wife of the stern king of Thebes, Lycus, was tied to the horns of a wild bull...

The Hellenic epic is replete with descriptions of the slow and painful deaths of both criminals and righteous people, as well as various types of physical suffering to which people and titans were subjected as punishment. Like mythology, the epic, to one degree or another, reflects real life, where instead of gods, the source of man-made torment is people - either vested with the right of power, or vested with the right of force.
Since ancient times, humanity has brutally dealt with its enemies, some even ate them, but mostly they were executed and deprived of their lives. in a scary way.
The same was done with criminals who violated the laws of God and man.
Over a thousand-year history, extensive experience has accumulated in the execution of condemned people.
Dictators of Ancient Rome, possessing both rights, tirelessly replenished the arsenal of forms and methods of executioner art. Emperor Tiberius, who ruled Rome from 14 to 37 AD, stated that death was too lenient a punishment for a convicted person, and under him it was rare that a sentence was carried out without mandatory torture. Having learned that one of the convicts, named Karnul, died in prison before his execution, Tiberius exclaimed: “Karnul has escaped me!” He regularly visited prison dungeons and was present during torture. When one person sentenced to death begged him to speed up the execution, the emperor replied: “I have not forgiven you yet.” Before his eyes, people were hacked to death with thorny branches of thorns, their bodies were ripped open with iron hooks, and their limbs were cut off. Tiberius was more than once present when the condemned were thrown from a cliff into the Tiber River, and when the unfortunate ones tried to escape, they were pushed under the water with hooks by the executioners sitting in the boats. No exceptions were made for children and women.
An ancient custom forbade killing virgins with a noose. Well, the custom was not violated - the executioner certainly deflowered minor girls before execution.
Emperor Tiberius was the undoubted author of such torture: the condemned were given a fair amount of young wine to drink, after which their genitals were tightly bandaged, as a result of which they died a long and painful death from urinary retention.



Tiberius's successor on the imperial throne, Gaius Caligula, remained in the memory of descendants as a symbol of monstrous atrocity. Even in his early youth, he experienced great pleasure in being present at tortures and executions. Having become a sovereign ruler, Caligula realized all his vicious inclinations on an unbridled scale. He personally branded people with a hot iron, personally forced them into cages with hungry predators, personally ripped open their stomachs and released their entrails. As the Roman historian Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus testifies, Caligula “forced fathers to be present at the execution of their sons; He sent a stretcher for one of them when he tried to evade due to ill health; the other, immediately after the spectacle of the execution, he invited to the table and with all sorts of pleasantries forced him to joke and have fun. He ordered the overseer of gladiator battles and persecutions to be beaten with chains for several days in a row in front of his eyes and killed no sooner than he smelled the stench of rotting brain. He burned the author of Atellan at the stake for a poem with an ambiguous joke in the middle of the amphitheater. One Roman horseman abandoned wild animals, did not stop shouting that he was innocent; he brought him back, cut off his tongue and drove him into the arena again.” Caligula personally sawed the convicts in half with a dull saw, gouged out their eyes with his own hands, and cut off the breasts of women and the members of men with his own hands. He demanded that during execution with a cane, not too strong, but frequent and numerous blows be used, repeating his infamous order: “Beat him so that he feels that he is dying!” In his presence, convicted men were often hung by their genitals.


Emperor Claudius also had a peculiar “hobby” of being personally present at the torture of the condemned, although he did not take direct part in it. Emperor Nero went down in history not only as an amateur artist and arsonist of the city of Rome, but also as an amateur executioner. Of all the means of slow killing, Nero preferred poisons and opening of veins. He liked to offer the poison to the victim with his own hand, and then watched with interest as she writhed in the throes of agony. He forced other convicts to open their veins themselves, sitting in a bathtub filled with warm water, and to those of them who did not show the necessary determination, he assigned doctors who provided “ necessary help" Years passed, emperors succeeded each other, and each of them made his contribution to the development of this ominous sphere of human atrocity.
The Roman emperors took pleasure in contemplating the executions of young Christian virgins, whose breasts and buttocks were torn with red-hot tongs, boiling oil or resin was poured into the wounds, and these liquids were poured into all orifices. Sometimes they themselves played the role of executioners, and then the torture became much more painful. Nero rarely missed an opportunity to torture these unfortunate creatures.
The Marquis de Sade in his works pays enough attention to various types of death torture:
The Irish usually placed the victim under a heavy object and crushed it.
The Gauls broke their backs...
The Celts stuck a saber between the ribs.

American Indians insert into urethra sacrifice a thin reed with small thorns and, holding it in the palms, rotate it in different sides; The torture lasts quite a long time and causes unbearable suffering to the victim. The same descriptions of torture came from Ancient Greece.
The Iroquois tie the ends of the victim's nerves to sticks, which rotate and wrap the nerves around them; during this operation, the body twitches, wriggles and literally disintegrates before the eyes of admiring spectators - at least that’s what eyewitnesses say.
In the Philippines, a naked victim is tied to a pole facing the sun, which slowly kills him. In another eastern country The victim's stomach is ripped open, the intestines are pulled out, salt is poured in, and the body is hung in the market square.
The Hurons hang the corpse over the bound victim in such a way that all the filth flowing from the dead, decaying body falls on his face, and the victim gives up the ghost after much suffering.
In Morocco and Switzerland, the convicted person was squeezed between two boards and sawed in half.
The Egyptians inserted dry reeds into all parts of the victim's body and set them on fire.
The Persians, the most inventive people in the world when it comes to torture, placed the victim in a round dugout boat with holes for the arms, legs and head, covered him with the same one, and ultimately he was eaten alive by worms...
The same Persians ground the victim between millstones or tore the skin off a living person and rubbed thorns into the flayed flesh, which caused unheard-of suffering.
Disobedient or guilty inhabitants of the harem have their bodies cut in the most tender places and in open wounds molten lead is dropped drop by drop; lead is also poured into the vagina...
Or they make a pincushion out of her body, only instead of pins they use wooden nails soaked in sulfur, set them on fire, and the flame is maintained by the subcutaneous fat of the victim.
In China, the executioner could pay with his own head if the victim died before the appointed time, which was, as usual, very long - eight or nine days, and during this time the most sophisticated tortures replaced each other continuously.
In Siam, a man who has fallen out of favor is thrown into a pen with angry bulls, who pierce him through with their horns and trample him to death.
The king of this country forced a rebel to eat his own meat, which was cut from his body from time to time.
The same Siamese place the victim in a robe woven from vines and stab him with sharp objects; after this torture, his body is quickly cut into two parts, the upper half is immediately placed on a red-hot copper grate; This operation stops the bleeding and prolongs the life of a person, or rather a half-man.
The Koreans pump the victim with vinegar and, when it is swollen to the proper size, beat it like a drum with chopsticks until it dies.
Good old England.
Torture never existed in England, wrote Victor Hugo. “That’s exactly what history says.” Well, she has considerable aplomb. Matthew of Westminster, stating that “the Saxon law, very merciful and lenient,” did not punish criminals with death, adds: “Limiting themselves only to cutting off their noses, gouging out their eyes and tearing out parts of the body that are signs of sex.” Only that!" Such mutilating punishments (often not much different from the death penalty) were carried out in public in order to have a deterrent effect on potential criminals.
In city squares, in front of a huge number of spectators, the condemned had their nostrils torn out, their limbs chopped off, they were branded and flogged with a whip or batogs. But executions with preliminary torture were the most popular. A fairly vivid description of such an execution is given in the famous novel by V. Raeder “Leichtweis Cave”: “They did not stand on ceremony with the looters. The general did not even convene a field court, but with his authority he ordered the robbers to be hanged on the first tree that came across. But when they reported to him about the cruelties committed by both scoundrels and showed him the cut off fingers, he decided to increase the punishment by ordering to cut off both of Vyacheslav’s hands and burn out both of Rigo’s eyes before the execution. The cruelty of this sentence should not be surprising. Not to mention the fact that the scoundrels committed the most heinous crime of which man is capable, this took place at a time when traditional torture had only recently been abolished by Frederick the Great, and even then only in Prussia. The general considered himself entitled to apply the most severe punishment to the looters in order to discourage others from committing similar atrocities...” And then the hour of execution comes. “The soldier who was entrusted with the duty of executioner was a butcher by profession. He took off his uniform and stood on the platform in a gray linen robe, borrowed from one of the paramedics. The sleeves of the robe were rolled up to the elbows. Vyacheslav approached the chopping block. To carry out the torture, which corresponded to the cruel customs of that time, the executioner came up with a unique device. He connected two large nails driven into the block with thick wire and forced Vyacheslav to put his hands under it. Then he swung his axe. A heartbreaking scream was heard, blood sprayed out like a fountain, and a severed hand rolled from the block onto the platform. Vyacheslav lost consciousness. They rubbed vinegar on his forehead and cheeks, and he quickly came to his senses. Again the executioner swung the ax, and Vyacheslav’s second hand fell onto the platform. The paramedic present at the execution hastily bandaged the bloody stumps. Then Vyacheslav was dragged to the gallows. They put him on the table, and the executioner put a noose around his neck. Then the executioner jumped off the table and waved his hand to the soldiers. They quickly pulled the table out from under the condemned man’s feet, and he hung on the rope. His legs twitched convulsively and then stretched out. A faint cracking sound was heard, indicating that the cervical vertebrae had shifted. Retribution has been completed. The soldiers dragged Rigo to the platform. - Get everything you deserve, villain! - said the executioner, sticking the tip of a red-hot iron rod into the gypsy’s eye. It smelled like burnt meat. Rigo's heartbreaking screams made even the gray-haired veterans flinch. The executioner, without allowing Rigo to come to his senses, quickly thrust a second red-hot rod into his remaining eye. Then the condemned man was led to the gallows.”
This, so to speak, is the ceremonial and spectacular side of the torture business, which, in fact, is the tip of the iceberg, the main part of which lurks in the depths of gloomy dungeons, equipped with ingenious and sinister devices generated by the irrepressible energy of destruction, prevailing over many other energies of the human personality

Decapitation

The physical separation of the head from the body using an ax or any military weapon (knife, sword); later, a machine invented in France - the Guillotine - was used for these purposes.
It is believed that with such an execution, the head, separated from the body, retains vision and hearing for another 10 seconds. Beheading was considered a “noble execution” and was reserved for aristocrats. In Germany, beheading was abolished in 1949 due to the failure of the last guillotine.

Hanging

The medieval gallows consisted of a special pedestal, a vertical pillar (pillars) and a horizontal beam, on which the condemned were hanged, placed above something like a well. The well was intended for falling off body parts - the hanged remained hanging on the gallows until complete decomposition.
Strangulation of a person on a rope noose, the end of which is fixed motionless, death occurs after a few minutes, but not at all from strangulation, but from squeezing carotid arteries, and after a few seconds the person loses consciousness and later dies.
In England, a type of hanging was used, when a person was thrown from a height with a noose around the neck, and death occurs instantly from rupture of the cervical vertebrae. There was an “official table of falls” with the help of which the required length of the rope was calculated depending on the weight of the convict; if the rope is too long, the head is separated from the body.
A type of hanging is garrote.
In this case, the person is seated on a chair, and the executioner strangles the victim with a rope noose and a metal rod.

The last high-profile hanging was Saddam Hussein.

Quartering

It is considered one of the most cruel executions, and was applied to the most dangerous criminals.
During quartering, the victim was strangled, then the stomach was ripped open and the genitals were cut off, and only then the body was cut into four or more parts and the head was cut off.
The execution was public. After this, parts of the criminal’s body were shown to spectators or distributed to four outposts.
In England, until 1867, it was customary to quarter people for serious anti-state crimes. In this case, the convict was first hung on the gallows for a short time, then removed, the stomach was ripped open and the entrails were released, while the person was still alive. And only after that they cut him into four parts and cut off his head. For the first time in England, David, Prince of Wales (1283) was subjected to this execution.
Later (1305) the Scottish knight Sir William Wallace was also executed in London.
Thomas More, writer and statesman, was also executed. It was decided that he would first be dragged along the ground across the whole of London, then at the place of execution he would first be hanged for a short time, then removed, his genitals would be cut off while still alive, his stomach would be ripped open, and his entrails would be torn out and burned. After all this, he was to be quartered and each part of his body nailed over a different gate of the city, and his head transferred to London Bridge. But as a last resort, the sentence was commuted to beheading.
In 1660, King Charles II of England sentenced to quartering ten officials accused of murdering his father, Charles I. Some convicts, as an exception, were left on the gallows until death, rather than undergoing the entire act of execution. Their bodies were even given to relatives for burial. This is how quartering took place in England.
France had its own traditions of quartering - with the help of horses. The guards tied the criminal by the arms and legs to four horses, after which the horses were whipped up and they tore off the limbs of the condemned man. In fact, the convict’s tendons had to be cut. After the execution, the victim's body was burned. This is how Jacques Clement was quartered in 1589 for the murder of Henry III. But when quartered, Jacques Clément was already dead, as he was stabbed to death at the scene of the crime by the king’s guards. Revaliac (1610) and Damien (1757) were subjected to such execution on charges of regicide.
Execution by tearing a body in half was used back in pagan Rus'. The criminal's arms and legs were tied to bent trees, which were then released. According to Byzantine sources, this is how the Drevlyans executed Prince Igor (945) for trying to collect tribute from them for the third time.
In Russia, during quartering, the legs were cut off, then the arms and head, for example, this is how Stepan Razin was executed (1671). E. Pugachev (1775) was also sentenced to quartering, but Catherine the Second ordered that his head be cut off first, then his limbs. This quartering was the last in Russian history, as later sentences were commuted to hanging (for example, the execution of the Decembrists in 1826). Quartering ceased to be used only at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries.

Wheeling

A type of death penalty widespread in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. In the Middle Ages it was common in Europe, especially in Germany and France. In Russia, this type of execution has been known since the 17th century, but wheeling began to be regularly used only under Peter I, having received legislative approval in the Military Regulations. Wheeling ceased to be used only in the 19th century.
The death penalty was widespread in the Middle Ages. Professor A.F. Kistyakovsky in the 19th century described the wheeling process used in Russia:
St. Andrew's cross, made of two logs, was tied to the scaffold in a horizontal position.
On each of the branches of this cross two notches were made, one foot apart from each other.
On this cross they stretched the criminal so that his face was turned to the sky; each extremity of it lay on one of the branches of the cross, and at each place of each joint it was tied to the cross.
Then the executioner, armed with an iron rectangular crowbar, struck the part of the penis between the joints, which lay just above the notch.
This method was used to break the bones of each member in two places.
The operation ended with two or three blows to the stomach and breaking the backbone.
The criminal broken in this way was placed on a horizontally placed wheel so that the heels converged with backside heads, and left him in this position to die.

Burning at the stake

Capital punishment in which the victim is burned at the stake in public.
Execution became widespread during the period of the Holy Inquisition, and about 32 thousand people were burned in Spain alone.
On the one hand, the execution took place without shedding blood, and the fire also contributed to the purification and salvation of the soul, which was very suitable for the inquisitors for driving out demons.
To be fair, it should be said that the Inquisition replenished the “budget” at the expense of witches and heretics, burning, as a rule, the wealthiest citizens.
The most famous people, burned at the stake by Giordano Bruno - as a heretic (engaged in scientific activities) and Joan of Arc, who commanded the French troops in the Hundred Years' War.

Impalement

Impalement was widely used in Ancient Egypt and the Middle East; its first mentions date back to the beginning of the second millennium BC. e. Execution became especially widespread in Assyria, where impalement was a common punishment for residents of rebellious cities, therefore, for instructive purposes, scenes of this execution were often depicted on bas-reliefs. This execution was used according to Assyrian law and as a punishment for women for abortion (considered as a variant of infanticide), as well as for a number of particularly serious crimes. On Assyrian reliefs there are two options: in one of them, the condemned person was pierced with a stake through the chest, in the other, the tip of the stake entered the body from below, through the anus. Execution was widely used in the Mediterranean and the Middle East at least from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. It was also known to the Romans, although it was not particularly widespread in Ancient Rome.
Throughout most of medieval history Impalement was very common in the Middle East, where it was one of the main methods of painful death penalty. It became widespread in France during the time of Fredegonda, who was the first to introduce this type of execution, condemning a young girl of a noble family to it. The unfortunate person was laid on his stomach, and the executioner drove a wooden stake into his anus with a hammer, after which the stake was dug vertically into the ground. Under the weight of the body, the person gradually slid down until after a few hours the stake came out through the chest or neck.


The ruler of Wallachia, Vlad III the Impaler (“impaler”) Dracula, distinguished himself with particular cruelty. According to his instructions, the victims were impaled on a thick stake, the top of which was rounded and oiled. The stake was inserted into the anus to a depth of several tens of centimeters, then the stake was installed vertically. The victim, under the influence of the weight of his body, slowly slid down the stake, and death sometimes occurred only after a few days, since the rounded stake did not pierce the vital organs, but only went deeper into the body. In some cases, a horizontal crossbar was installed on the stake, which prevented the body from sliding too low, and ensured that the stake did not reach the heart and other the most important organs. In this case, death from rupture of internal organs and large blood loss did not occur very soon.

The English homosexual king Edward was executed by impalement. The nobles rebelled and killed the monarch by driving a hot iron rod into his anus. Impalement was used in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until the 18th century, and many Zaporozhye Cossacks were executed in this way. With the help of smaller stakes, they also executed rapists (they drove a stake into the heart) and mothers who killed their children (they were pierced with a stake after burying them alive in the ground).

Chair of the Jews

It would be more accurate to call it impalement not on a stake (as during execution), but on a special device - a wooden or iron pyramid. The accused was undressed and positioned as shown in the picture. The executioner, using a rope, could regulate the pressure of the tip and could lower the victim slowly or jerkily. Having completely let go of the rope, the victim was impaled with all his weight on the tip.

The tip of the pipramide was directed not only into the anus, but also into the vagina, under the scrotum or under the tailbone. In this terrible way, the Inquisition sought recognition from heretics and witches. The picture on the left shows one of them. To increase pressure, weights were tied to the victim's legs and arms. Nowadays they torture in this way in some countries. Latin America. For variety, an electric current is connected to the iron belt encircling the victim and to the tip of the pyramid.

It was very popular to hang victims by various parts of the body: men - with an edge by a hook or by the genitals, women - by the breasts, after first cutting through them and passing a rope into the through wounds. The last official reports of such atrocities came from Iraq in the 80s of the 20th century, when mass repressions were carried out against the rebel Kurds. People were also hung as depicted in the pictures: by one or both legs, with a weight tied to the neck or legs, or by the hair.

Hanging by the rib

A form of capital punishment in which an iron hook was driven into the victim's side and suspended. Death occurred from thirst and loss of blood within a few days. The victim's hands were tied so that he could not free himself. Execution was common among the Zaporozhye Cossacks. According to legend, Dmitry Vishnevetsky, the founder of the Zaporozhye Sich, the legendary “Baida Veshnevetsky”, was executed in this way.

Throwing to predators

A common type of ancient execution, common among many peoples of the world. Death came because you were eaten by crocodiles, lions, bears, sharks, piranhas, ants.

Buried alive

Burial alive was used for many Christian martyrs. In medieval Italy, unrepentant murderers were buried alive.
In Russia in the 17th and 18th centuries, women who killed their husbands were buried alive up to their necks.

Crucifixion

The person condemned to death had his hands and feet nailed to the ends of the cross or his limbs were fixed with ropes. This is exactly the way Jesus Christ was executed.
The main cause of death during crucifixion is asphyxia, caused by developing pulmonary edema and fatigue of the intercostal and abdominal muscles involved in the breathing process.
The main support of the body in this pose is the arms, and when breathing, the abdominal muscles and intercostal muscles had to lift the weight of the entire body, which led to their rapid fatigue.
Also squeezing chest tense muscles shoulder girdle and chest caused fluid stagnation in the lungs and pulmonary edema.
Additional causes of death were dehydration and blood loss.
Rack A device that has become almost synonymous with the word torture. There were many varieties of this device. United them all general principle work - stretching the victim's body while simultaneously tearing joints. The rack, of a “professional” design, was a special bed with rollers at both ends, around which ropes were wound to hold the victim’s wrists and ankles. As the rollers rotated, the ropes pulled in opposite directions, stretching the body and tearing the defendant's joints. It must be taken into account that immediately at the moment of loosening the ropes, the tortured also experienced terrible pain as at the moment of their tension.

Sometimes the rack was equipped with special rollers studded with spikes, which, when pulled along them, tore the victim into pieces.

XIV century. Prison of the Holy Inquisition in Rome (or in Venice, Naples, Madrid - any city in the Catholic world). The interrogation of a person accused of heresy (or blasphemy, or freethinking, does not matter). The interrogated person stubbornly denies his guilt, well aware that if he confesses, the fire awaits him. The investigator, having not received the expected answer to his questions, nods to the executioner standing nearby... The accused’s hands are tied behind his back with a long rope. The free end of the rope is thrown over a block mounted on a beam under the very ceiling of the underground hall.
The executioner, spitting on his hands, grabs the rope and pulls it down. The prisoner's bound hands rise higher and higher, causing terrible pain in the shoulder joints. Now the twisted arms are already above his head, and the prisoner is jerked up, right up to the ceiling... But that’s not all. He is quickly lowered down. He falls onto the stone slabs of the floor, and his hands, falling by inertia, cause a new wave of unbearable pain in the joints. Sometimes additional weights are tied to the prisoner's legs. This was a description of more simple option rearing. Often, to increase the pain, a weight was hung from the victim’s feet. In Rus', a log was most often used as a load, which was inserted between the victim’s bound legs. It should be noted that when using this method, in addition to stretching, dislocation of the shoulder joints also occurred.

Spanish boot The next group of devices was based not on the principle of eversion or stretching of the limbs of the interrogated, but on their compression. Various types of vices were used here, from the most primitive to complex ones, such as the “Spanish boot”.

The classic “Spanish boot” consisted of two boards, between which the leg of the interrogated person was placed. These boards were internal part a machine that pressed on them as wooden stakes were immersed into it, which the executioner drove into special sockets. In this way, gradual compression of the knee, ankle joints, muscles and lower legs was achieved, until they were flattened. There is no need to talk about what kind of torment the interrogated person experienced, what screams resounded in the torture dungeon, and even if a person found in himself unprecedented courage to silently endure the torment, then what kind of expression in his eyes the executioners and the interrogator could see.

The principle of the “Spanish boot” was used as the basis for the devices varying degrees complexities that were used (and are used in our time) to compress the fingers, the entire limb and the head. (The most accessible and do not require any material and intellectual costs are pinching the head, tied in a ring with a towel using a twisted stick, pencils between the fingers, or just a door.) The picture on the side shows two devices that worked on the principle of the Spanish boot. Besides them, there are also various iron rods with spikes, a device for pouring boiling water or molten metal into the throat and a lot of God knows what else.
Water torture
Inquisitive human thought could not ignore the rich possibilities of water.
Firstly , a person could be completely immersed in water, from time to time, giving him the opportunity to raise his head and breathe air, while asking whether he had renounced heresy.
Secondly , it was possible to pour water (in large quantities) inside a person so that it would expand him like an inflated balloon. This torture was popular because it did not cause serious bodily harm to the victim and then he could be tortured for a very long time. During torture, the nostrils of the interrogated person were closed and liquid was poured into his mouth through a funnel, which he had to swallow; sometimes instead of water they used vinegar, or even urine mixed with liquid feces. Quite often, to increase the suffering of the victim, they poured hot water, almost boiling water.

The procedure was repeated several times to pour the maximum amount of liquid into the stomach. Depending on the severity of the crime of which the victim was accused, from 4 to 15 (!!!) liters of water were poured into her. Then the angle of the accused’s body was changed, he was placed on his back in horizontal position and the weight of the full stomach squeezed the lungs and heart. The feeling of lack of air and heaviness in the chest complemented the pain from distended stomach. If this was not enough to force a confession, the executioners placed the board on bloated belly tortured and put pressure on him, increasing the suffering of the victim. In modern times, this torture was often used by the Japanese in prison camps.
Third , the bound heretic lay on a table with a recess like a trough. His mouth and nose were covered wet rag, and then began to pour water on it slowly and for a long time. Soon the rag was stained with the blood of the nose and throat, and the prisoner either managed to mutter words of confession of heresy, or died.
Fourth , the prisoner was tied to a chair, and water slowly trickled onto his shaved top, drop by drop. After a while, each falling drop echoed in my head as a hellish roar, which could not but encourage confession.
Fifthly , the temperature of the water could not be ignored, which in certain cases enhanced the required effect of the influence. This is scalding, dipping in boiling water or boiling completely. For these purposes, not only water, but also other liquids were used. In medieval Germany, for example, a criminal was boiled alive in boiling oil, but not immediately, but gradually. First, they lowered the feet, then to the knees, etc. until “full readiness.”
Torture by soundIn Muscovy under Ivan the Terrible, people were tortured like this: they were put under a large bell and they began to ring it. More modern method- “Music box”, was used when it was undesirable for a person to cause injury. The convict was put in a room with bright lights and no windows, in which “music” played continuously. A continuous set of unpleasant and in no way melodically related sounds gradually drove me crazy.

Tickle tortureTickling. Not by that much effective method, like the previous ones and therefore was used by executioners when they wanted to have fun. The condemned person's arms and legs are tied or pinned down and his nose is tickled with a bird feather. The man flutters up and feels as if his brain is being drilled. Or a very interesting method - the heels of a tied convict are coated with something sweet and pigs or other animals are released. They begin to lick their heels, which sometimes ends in death.
Cat's paw or Spanish tickle

And this is not all that humanity has invented.