Our world is full of stark contrasts. It has beautiful corners, as if created by the hands of angels, and there are terrifying places that only the “adrenaline junkie” will risk going to go in search of especially thrills. We present you the 10 most scary places in the world.
10. Capuchin Catacombs, Palermo, Italy
These terrible catacombs appeared at the end of the 16th century, when there was no room for corpses in the cemetery at the Capuchin monastery. At first they were intended exclusively for the burial of monks, but when the rumor about the natural processes of mummification taking place in the catacombs passed, the locals also wanted to be buried there (in their best clothes, of course). But such an honor did not fall to everyone, but only to the famous citizens, benefactors and patrons of the monastery.
As a result, for the burial of everyone, they had to dig additional corridors and rooms (cubes). Unlike other catacombs, the Capuchin underground cemetery contains only mummified, skeletonized, and embalmed bodies. It is the largest necropolis of mummies in the world.
Currently, about 8,000 bodies are located in the underground tombs of the Capuchins. The last burial took place in the 20s of the twentieth century. There are separate corridors, including for monks, for prominent people, for children under 14, and even for virgins. The corpses are more like museum exhibits, they are dressed in rich outfits, and their bodies are perfectly preserved. It is forbidden to take photos in one of the most terrible places on Earth, and discussions are underway to completely ban access to onlookers in the catacombs.
9. Aokigahara, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan
This seemingly calm forest at the foot of Mount Fuji has an extremely unpleasant history. It is the second most popular suicide destination in the world (after the Golden Gate Bridge). Every year, Japanese police, along with volunteers, scour the forest, finding from 30 to 80 bodies. There are posters on the forest paths that encourage potential suicides to think about loved ones and call to get help.
Some believe that in one of the most terrible places on the planet there are demons who whisper the poor fellow with thoughts of losing their lives. In the Middle Ages, desperate poor brought their old and weak relatives to Aokigahara, leaving them to starve to death. It is believed that the spirits of the dead did not leave their last refuge and take revenge on the living for their suffering.
More pragmatic people indicate a high density of trees, which is why all the sounds in the forest are muffled and getting lost there is easier than a lung. Many tourists even mark their way with a ribbon or cord, so that later it is easier to find the way back. You should not rely on a compass, it is "going crazy", since there are iron ore deposits in this area.
8. Pripyat, Ukraine
The most terrible places in the world do not have to be full of dead. An abandoned place, full of invisible eyes and therefore even more dangerous radiation, can be no less terrible than the last refuge of suicides.
In the city of Pripyat, founded in 1970, about 50,000 people lived at the time of the evacuation after the Chernobyl accident. Since that time, Pripyat is an uninhabited city, although buildings, furniture and all other signs of life are located exactly where the previous owners left them. Textbooks were left in classrooms at school desks, rotting dolls lay in toy beds, and photographs reminiscent of a carefree life hang on peeling walls.
Today, the most famous landmark of Pripyat is a rusty "ferris wheel" in a city amusement park. It is unlikely that it will ever work again.
7. Vejo Rönkkönen, Parikkala, Finland
Vejo Rönkkönen was one of the most famous contemporary folk artists in Finland. And he was a recluse and refused to show his works in public. He built a collection of more than 450 concrete figures of people and animals in his yard, thereby creating an original and rather frightening sculpture garden.
The largest composition is a group of approximately 200 statues located in various yoga poses. Although this group of sculptures has something disturbing (for example, artificial teeth), they aren’t nearly as intimidating as eerie, freestanding statues. How about, for example, a statue of a nun with a toothy smile or a figure in a cloak, with black dips instead of eye sockets, drawing long arms to people passing by? Visit the Vejo Rönkkönen Garden ... if you want to never sleep again.
6. Nagoro, Japan
Among the scariest places on Earth is a tiny Japanese village with one very noticeable feature: the number of dolls in full size exceeds the living population in a ratio of almost 100: 1.
Dolls are the work of the local artist Tsukimi Ayano, who began to make replicas of her neighbors after they died or left the village.
Creepy doppelgangers can be seen in different places of Nagoro. Here a fisherman sits on the shore, and an elderly couple froze in eternal rest on a bench, while puppet students filled the classroom waiting for the teacher.
Now in Nagoro, there are about 350 dolls and less than 40 living people.
5. “Gates to Hell”, Ahal province, Turkmenistan
The “hellish" name for the crater located in the middle of the Karakum desert in Turkmenistan was given by the local population. When Soviet scientists searched for oil in 1971, they accidentally stumbled upon an underground void (cavity), and the oil rig collapsed there, creating a crater and releasing dangerous methane gas into the air.
Scientists decided to set fire to the crater to burn methane formed in the cavity, and created the Dante anomaly, which has been burning and burns for the past 46 years.
4. Fort Bhangar, Rajasthan, India
This building, which was more reminiscent of a feudal castle than military fortification, was erected in the 17th century for the grandson of the warlord Man Singh I. Inside it were many buildings, including trading shops, temples and even the palace of the ruler.
According to one of the local legends, the adept of black magic Sinh fell in love with the beautiful princess Ratnavati. Knowing that the girl would not even glance in his direction, the sorcerer gave enchanted spirits to the princess's maid so that she would hand them to the princess. However, Ratnavati, finding out who gave her such a gift, broke the perfume. A huge stone appeared from the fragments of the bottle, which rolled to the house of Sinha and crushed it. Before his death, the black magician cursed the inhabitants of Bhangar, promising that they would all die an unnatural death and could not be reborn. A year after the death of Sinha, a war broke out in which all the townspeople died.
According to another legend, the fort and its inhabitants were cursed by the hermit Baba Balatha, who did not want the shadow from the highest building of the city to fall on his dwelling. As a result, all the inhabitants of Bhangar disappeared without a trace.
Now, no one is allowed into the fort from dusk until dawn. It is said that those who went to this place after sunset never returned.
3. Changi Beach, Singapore
Nowadays, a clean and beautiful beach is one of the places where thousands of innocent Chinese found their death at the hands of the Japanese during World War II. This event is known as the Suk Ching massacre (translated from Chinese as “deliverance through purification”).
Massacres of civilians were carried out with the aim of destroying all those leading anti-Japanese policies, as well as loyal to the British Empire and the Republic of China.
Japan never apologized for this terrible event.
Many people when they visit Changi Beach hear crying and screaming, and at night there supposedly you can see pits for burial of bodies.
2. Snake Island, São Paulo, Brazil
In second place in the top 10 most terrible places on Earth is the island of Keymada Grandi, stepping on which Indiana Jones could with full confidence moan “Snakes? Why are there always snakes? ” If I could, of course.
He got his nickname because of the insanely high density of gold spearheads (they are also botrops). Studies have shown that on average per square meter of the island accounts for one to five of the most venomous snakes in the world.
About 11 thousand years ago, sea level rose and separated Snake Island from the mainland of Brazil. In isolation, nothing prevented snakes from multiplying and multiplying, and adapting to changing conditions.
Since there was no prey left at the land level on the island, snakes learned to hunt in the treetops and even catch birds on the fly. Their poison has become five times stronger than that of their colleagues from the mainland, he is able to kill his victim instantly, and also literally melts human flesh. Due to numerous deaths, when trying to colonize the island, the Brazilian government forbade anyone (with the exception of scientists) to step on the surface of Keymada Grande.
1. Paris catacombs
These catacombs are a network of burial chambers that extend 250 km under the French capital. They contain the bones of about six million people. They began to be transported there from the end of the 18th century from crowded city cemeteries and continued to be transported until the mid-19th century.
Somewhere in the catacombs are the remains of the famous French - the revolutionary Maximilian Robespierre, writers Charles Perrault and Francois Rabelais, mathematician Blaise Pascal.
During the Second World War, the headquarters of the Resistance was in the catacombs of Paris. It is curious that just 500 meters from it was a Nazi secret bunker.
The temperature in the dark narrow passages is about 15 degrees Celsius and the cold, coupled with countless skulls, creates an atmosphere of fear and hopelessness. Despite this, there are a lot of tourists in the Paris catacombs (more precisely, in the 2.5-kilometer part open for visiting).
The most terrible places on the planet can be full of bones and skulls, poisonous reptiles and deadly gases. But they are united by one thing - it is better to read about them ten times than to visit once.
