If you’ve been reading the Q10 for a while now, you probably already know that I have a somewhat strange obsession with visiting cemeteries when I travel, typically ones with people of interest resting within their hallowed walls. But there are some rather important figures whose graves I will never get to visit – not because they were cremated, but because we simply don’t know what happened to their bodies. You’d be surprised at the historical figures who have become lost in the afterlife. Here are a few.

1. Davy Crockett. He died defending the Alamo; almost everyone knows that. But what no one really knows is what happened to him after that. Santa Anna had the Alamo defenders’ bodies burned until they were nothing but ashes, and although there’s a marble box at the Cathedral of San Fernando purported to contain the ashes of Crockett, Jim Bowie and William B. Travis, most historians believe it’s unlikely the dust within is actually theirs.

2. Vlad the Impaler. This might be one grave best left unknown. The Wallachian ruler’s head was displayed on a stake for some time after his death to prove the tyrant was no more, but the whereabouts of his body seems to be up for discussion. It’s generally agreed that it’s probably buried in one of two monasteries: Comana or Snagov.

3. Genghis Khan. Speaking of tyrants, here’s another one who has gone missing. Unlike Vlad, though, Genghis has disappeared at his own request. He asked to be buried in an unmarked grave and his wishes were granted. Legend has it that slaves buried the body somewhere in Mongolia – possibly Khentii Aimag, Khan’s birthplace. After the body was buried, the slaves were killed. And then the soldiers who killed the slaves were killed. Another tale has an entire river being diverted to cover the spot to make Khan virtually impossible to find. Whatever trick was employed to hide the body was obviously quite effective – nearly 800 years later, we still don’t know where he is.

4. and 5. Cleopatra and Mark Antony. As I mentioned last week, Cleo may be lost in the sands of Egypt forever. Ancient historian Plutarch wrote that she was buried with Mark Antony in an undisclosed location, and if we didn’t have that vague piece of information, the scavenger hunt for the Queen of the Nile would be even more impossible. Some evidence seems to show that she had a tomb built for herself prior to her death by asp, and that tomb is now resting on the ocean floor with the rest of ancient Alexandria. On the other hand, recent excavations at the Taposiris Magna temple in Abusir, Egypt, may point to the famous couple being buried there.

6. Mozart. It is generally accepted that Mozart was buried in a mass grave, as was supposedly common at the time. In 1801, a gravedigger unearthed a skull he claimed belonged to the famous composer – the man claimed he helped dig the grave and that he knew for a fact the head was Wolfgang’s. Tests on the skull have been inconclusive over the years, with some even finding the skull was that of a female’s. Should you want to visit the bones that may or may not belong to Mozart, you can visit the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg.

7. Alexander the Great. When Alexander died, he was buried in a tomb made of pure gold. As you can imagine, a coffin like that was pretty much destined to be looted. And it was – possibly by notables such as Caligula and Ptolemy IX Lathros. Caligula was said to have taken Alexander’s breastplate and Ptolemy is allegedly the one who melted the coffin down for coinage. Because of the disrespect to Alexander, Septimus Severus had the tomb closed sometime around 200 A.D. and it’s been missing ever since. Theories have placed the missing ruler from Australia to Venice.

8. Leonardo da Vinci. Well, Leonardo has a grave marker, we’re just not completely positive that it’s the artist himself who is buried under it. There are records that show da Vinci was buried in a church called Saint-Florentin, part of the Château Amboise in Loire Valley, France. But the church fell to ruin sometime during the French Revolution and it was decided that demolishing it and starting over was the best bet. It was more than 60 years later that excavations turned up some bones and a bit of stone that contained a couple of letters in da Vinci’s name. This was apparently enough to declare that the remains belonged to the great artist and he has been a tourist attraction ever since. Guidebooks and the notice at the Château Amboise are sure to refer to them as the “presumed” remains of da Vinci.

9. Hitler. Well, we now know what happened to his remains, but for many years, the location of the corpses of Hitler and Eva Braun were kept top secret for fear the site would become a Neo-Nazi place of worship. It wasn’t until 1970 that what was left of the dictator was burned, then dumped into the Biederitz River. A fragment of jawbone still exists, says the Russian State Archives – they keep it to serve as evidence that Hitler really did die. Other historians and researchers question the authenticity of the jawbone, however.