The sites are not for the faint of heart, as visitors will enter places where death once truly existed.
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| Island of the Dolls, Mexico:The island of Isla de las Munecas south of Mexico City has a dark history. The island’s caretaker, Don Julian Santana Barrera, found the body of a young girl drowned in deep water. After spotting a doll floating on the water, he hung it from a tree to appease the child’s spirit. Barrera continued to hang dolls or their parts from the tree, filling the island with dolls for 50 years, until he drowned in the canals. Tourists come to Isla de las Dolls to see Barrera’s haunting work. Photo: Flickr/Kevin. |
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| Leap Castle, Ireland: Leap Castle has been feared since the 15th century, when a priest was brutally murdered in his chapel by his brother in front of his entire family. Rumors also say the entire castle is cursed by a host of spirits. The castle also has underground dungeons where prisoners were left to die. These spirits, along with countless deaths throughout Leap Castle's bloody history, have tainted its reputation. Photo: mikroman6/Getty Images |
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| Hanging coffins in Sagada, Philippines:Instead of burial, the Igorots of the Sagada highlands believe that placing coffins high up in the air helps the dead ascend to heaven more easily, and is not affected by floods or wild animals. Many of the tribe prepare their own coffins. Although the Igorots do not fear death, visitors are still surprised by the coffins. For an extra thrill, visitors can visit the Timbak cave system to see the “fire mummies” that have been buried there for hundreds of years. Photo: Deddeda/Getty Images. |
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| Hill of Crosses, Lithuania:Located on the outskirts of Siauliai in northern Lithuania, the Hill of Crosses emerged during the uprising against the Russian tsar, which left hundreds dead. With no bodies found, their relatives left crosses to commemorate their passing. Today, the area is filled with more than 200,000 crosses, large and small, simple and elaborate, along with roses, portraits and handwritten prayers. Photo: RenataAphotography/Getty Images. |
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| Poveglia Island, Italy:When the plague raged through Venice, the government decided to quarantine the patients on the small island of Poveglia, located in the Venetian lagoon. It is estimated that as many as 160,000 plague patients lived and died on the island between 1793 and 1814, creating mass graves. Poveglia also had a psychiatric hospital that operated from 1922 to 1968. It is rumored that the head psychiatrist there tortured and murdered many of the patients, then went insane and committed suicide. Photo: Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images. |
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| Aokigahara Forest, Japan:Since the 1950s, more than 500 people have come to the foot of Mount Fuji to commit suicide. Locals believe that demons and spirits linger among the dense, dark canopy of Aokigahara. Others say that the trees themselves absorb the evil spirits. As the death toll continues to rise, the government has hung signs in the forest urging people to choose life over death. Photo: JTB Photo/Getty Images. |
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| Temple of the Tophet, Tunisia:The Roman historian Diodorus once told a gruesome story about the Carthaginians, who killed their own children as sacrifices to the gods. Historians later found evidence of this in the Temple of the Tophet, which contained thousands of tiny skeletons. They also claimed that wealthy families would buy children from poor households and sacrifice them to satisfy the gods’ bloodlust. Today, more than 20,000 urns containing the ashes of children under the age of four remain. Brave visitors can visit the temple. Photo: Richard I'Anson/Getty Images. |
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| "Dead City" Dargavs, Russia:Located in North Ossetia-Alania, near Russia’s border with Georgia, the city of Dargavs is a charming rural area with simple stone houses at the foot of a hill. However, this is only a place for the dead. The houses are actually catacombs filled with the bones of the dead around the city, buried with full clothes and personal belongings. This place has been known as the “city of the dead” since the 14th century. Locals warn that visitors to this cemetery will be cursed. Photo: vkph/Getty Images. |
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| Catacombs of Paris, France:Deep beneath the streets of the City of Light lie more than 200 miles of underground catacombs filled with the bones of the French dead. The catacombs were built when Paris cemeteries were overrun with mausoleums, and the city decided to bury the bodies underground. They are the final resting place of 6-7 million people. Their skulls are stacked neatly along winding paths beneath Paris. Visitors are only allowed to see a small portion of the catacombs, but it is enough to terrify even the bravest. Photo: Patrick Kovarik/Getty Images. |
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| Sedlec Ossuary, Czech Republic:The small gothic church on the outskirts of Kutna Hora holds the bones of some 40,000 people who wished to make a quick transition to the afterlife. A local woodcarver was hired to turn the bones into chandeliers, candlesticks, and even medallions to decorate the church with haunting artwork. Photo: Dea/M.Borchi/Getty Images |
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| Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Cambodia:During the long and bloody war in Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge turned a Phnom Penh school into a prison, where an estimated 20,000 people were tortured or killed. Prisoners were forced to confess to crimes they did not commit, or to name their collaborators. The prison is now a museum, where visitors come to pay their respects to the dead and learn from the past. Photo: Stefan Rupp/Getty Images. |
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| Chauchilla Cemetery, Peru:The Nazca people of Peru buried their dead fully clothed and brightly painted, placing them in mud and brick tombs to prepare them for their journey to the afterlife. In the 1920s, archaeologists unearthed the mummies that now reside in the Chauchilla cemetery. Despite being more than 1,000 years old, many of the mummies still had hair, skin, teeth and clothing. They sat upright in their tombs, their skulls staring at visitors. Photo: Istvan Kadar Photography/Getty Images. |
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| Stanley Hotel in Colorado, USA:The horrifying experience at the Stanley Hotel became the inspiration for Stephen King’s horror story The Shining. Since the novel was adapted into a film and released in 1980, ghost-loving tourists have flocked to the hotel to search for the spirits of the hotel’s original owners. For those looking for a thrill, the hotel hosts late-night mystery investigations and adventure packages led by paranormal experts. Photo: Jim West/Alamy Stock Photo. |
According to Zing
