History, for the most part, is brutal. From the very beginning of human civilization, we have been fighting our fellow humans for practically any reason you can think of: religion, politics, slavery, feuds, land and beyond. Sit back and think for a second of all the wars where people just like you were brutally and savagely raped and murdered. Think of family lines that have been ended. Entire civilizations and cities have been erased off the face of the earth, and forgotten to the passage of time.

Some places in the world just have it harder than others when it comes to being history’s bitch. Some cities have seen so many countless atrocities performed, that it’s kind of hard to fathom. I’ve compiled a list of cities that have faced the hardest times and most unbelievable circumstances, and listed them below.

Starting off with Baghdad. Yes, the place you and your buddies ran around in Call of Duty and have seen some hard, hard times. In the 1200’s, Baghdad was more or less considered one of the crown jewels of the Eastern world. The Abbasid Caliphate rules for around 400 years according to one reddit user, and in that time people flocked to the city to study and enrich its culture. There was a tipping point in the city’s history, however, that involved the invasion of the Mongols.

Baghdad, contrary to popular history, committed an error that cost them their empire. 200 Mongolian traders were executed, and their heads were sent back as a statement of “no, we will not trade with you.” One certain Genghis Khan was understandably upset by this, as he was trying to get a leg up on trade with the Eastern world. The rest, as they say, is history. The Mongols killed an estimated 90,000 Baghdad residents on their path towards destroying the known world. Baghdad hasn’t exactly been booming in recent years either ever since the United States invaded.

Paris is generally considered the city of love, of food, of cheese, whatever. Paris’ history is anything but lovely. For starters, the Nazi’s infamous invaded and occupied Paris during the second world war. Prior to that, numerous French revolutions led to thousands of deaths, ranging from the peasantry all the way up to the King and Queen. Their national anthem even talks about “watering the fields with the blood of our enemies,” if that isn’t enough evidence. The most famous part of Paris though is the fact that the city is the world’s largest graveyard. Underneath Paris lie countless catacombs filled with the bones of millions of people.