Legend of Transylvania

The real Count Dracula was a prince -- and dastardly to the core

The Dracula of Bela Lugosi -- and hundreds of spin-offs since the Hungarian actor made the vampire famous -- is by far the best-known image of the blood-sucking legend. But the real Count Dracula wasn't a count, couldn't transform into a bat, and didn't sleep in coffins.

Prince Vlad did, however, hail from the Transylvania area -- and he did have a predilection for bloody tortures. Known as Vlad Tepes -- the Impaler -- for his method of impaling his enemies on thick stakes (rumor has it by the thousands), this medieval ruler was reportedly the basis for Bram Stoker's Dracula.