The Memory Palace

The Memory Palace, also termed the Method of loci, according to wikipedia, is a method whereby a person builds up spaces within his/her mind in order to remember a list or events or anything really. The person, to recall these memories, simply 'walks' through these spaces in their mind in order to recall them. The method was used and perhaps first discovered by ancient Romans and is used by people today to win memory contests or in application of everyday life. One does not have to be particularly intelligent in order to use this technique, just disciplined. Apparently one person used this technique to memorize over 65,000 digits of pi. And Dr. Hannibal Lecter used the technique in the fictional film.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci

http://mnemotechnics.org/files/2011/03/Emma-Willard-1846-temple.jpg