[DiamondSmiles]

Originally Posted by DifJuz ↗

Clicked on this and got my local weather forecast!

My apologies. I'm putting them up one by one. I got another complaint :)

Enjoy!

The Most Terrifying Places on Earth

From a UFO forest in spooky Transylvania to an island of mutilated dolls in Mexico, a witches market in Bolivia and the site of a notorious nuclear disaster in Ukraine — for those looking to dabble in the dark side, there is no shortage of terrifying tourist attractions across the globe.

Some of these places are steeped in the supernatural, others are real-life reminders of humanity’s horrific history. In the spirit of scary, here are some lesser-known destinations to add to your goose-bump bucket list.

Text by Julia Dimon | Photo editing by Connie Ricca


Pisla de las Muñecas, Mexico City

Located in the canals south of Mexico City, the Isla de las Muñecas, (Island of Dolls), is certainly one of the world’s weirdest tourist attractions. Picture thousands of dismembered, decaying and decapitated dolls strung up from trees, their lifeless eyes staring blankly. Ahhh!

The story dates back around 50 years, when the island’s only resident, Don Julian Santana, found the body of a little girl who drowned in the canal. Haunted by her death, he turned the island into a shrine of dangling dolls, in an attempt to free her tortured soul. When Santana drowned in the canal in 2001, locals said it was the evil spirits of the dolls that killed him.


Sedlec Ossuary, Czech Republic

Located in the suburbs of Kutna Hora, one hour outside of Prague in the Czech Republic, the Sedlec Ossuary is also known as the Church of Bones. From the outside, it’s an unassuming medieval Gothic church, but enter to find a unique, death-themed interior design with the skeletal remains of 40,000 to 70,000 humans. Picture a chandelier of artistically arranged femurs and fibulas, a bony coat of arms and a ghoulish garland of skulls draping the vault of the chapel.


Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Cambodia

In order to truly understand the horrors of Pol Pot’s murderous Khmer Rouge regime, one must visit Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum located just outside the capital city of Phnom Penh. This two-story building was once a high school, but from 1975-79 it became a secret prison called S-21, one of the country’s most notorious concentration camps, which saw the murder and torture of an estimated 17,000 prisoners. From the photo displays of victims to the first-hand artistic representations of the horrors that occurred here, a visit to Tuol Sleng is a profound, haunting experience.


Mercado de Sonora, Mexico City

For locals who dabble in the occult, the mercado de Sonora in Mexico City has all the eerie ingredients you’ll need to cook ritualistic remedies. This fascinating market is loosely organized into three parts: healing herbs, Afro-Cuban paraphernalia and black magic. You can buy live snakes for mysterious brews, animal-shaped ceramic charms, taxidermy rabbits, tribal rattles, statues of Satan and powdered potions for health, wealth and romance.


Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado

Fans of the Stephen King novel and horror film “The Shining” will want to book a night’s accommodation at The Stanley, a heritage hotel in the Rocky Mountain town of Estes Park, Colo. Room 217 is where the author himself stayed, and it was here that he was inspired to write the spooky Redrum tale. The Stanley Hotel is said to have ghosts of its own Children are heard playing in hallways, and on the fourth floor, furniture is said to have moved around on its own. The hotel offers a five-hour ghost hunt to some of the most paranormal spots on the property. Might as well relax and enjoy your stay — after all, "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."


Chernobyl, Ukraine

It happened on April 26, 1986. Chernobyl's Reactor No. 4 exploded, releasing 100 times more radiation than the atom bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Today, tourists can visit the abandoned post-apocalyptic town of Pripyat, just a mile away from the reactor, where around 50,000 people were speedily evacuated that day. A visit here promises a bone-chilling walk through the crumbling structures, broken windows, rusted cribs and scattered children’s belongings. It’s a haunting, hands-on history lesson.


Mercado de las Brujas, La Paz, Bolivia

Located near the Iglesia de San Francisco, in the capital city of La Paz, the Mercado de las Brujas, (the Witches' Market), is where Bolivians come to buy all their ritualistic needs, from medicinal herbs to stone statues of “Mother Earth” Pachamama. Buried among stalls selling hand-made jewelry and alpaca ponchos, you’ll find vendors selling a most unusual souvenir: dried llama fetuses, traditionally sold to new homeowners. Bolivians bury the package under the foundation of their new home and hope that good fortune will follow.


Jack the Ripper Tour, London

While it may seem obnoxiously touristy, a nighttime walking tour following in the bloody footsteps of the 19th-century serial killer Jack the Ripper is surprisingly frightening. Creeping in the shadows, down dark alleyways to the sites where the murders took place, the tour re-creates the gruesome details of the Ripper’s unsolved crimes. Yes, you need to bring your imagination, but if you’re willing to participate, (and if your guide is good), it’s a chilling look into the mind of one of the world’s most infamous murderers.


Great Eastern Garbage Patch, Pacific Ocean

North of the Hawaiian Islands, far from civilization at the center of a set of swirling ocean currents called the North Pacific Gyre, there is a massive buildup of trash known as the Great Eastern Garbage Patch. A floating island of waste the size of Texas, this part of the Pacific is littered with bottles, grocery bags, toothbrushes and plastic junk that has drifted from the mainland. The ocean water is saturated with confetti-sized plastic particles. Fish that feed on plankton ingest some of that plastic, and the toxic trash works itself back up the food chain, onto our plates.


Hoia-Baciu Forest, Romania

If you’re a believer, the Hoia-Baciu Forest, just outside Cluj Napoca, is rumored to be a hotbed for unexplained activity and supernatural anomalies. Dubbed the “Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania,” this forest first gained international attention in 1968, when biologist Alexandru Sift captured a photo of what appeared to be a disc-shaped UFO. Since then, UFOs, apparitions, abnormalities on photos, nocturnal lights and other unusual things are regularly reported in this area.


Catacombe dei Cappuccini, Palermo, Sicily

Life is fleeting and rotting skeletons are really, really creepy — those are the two lessons one takes away from the Catacombe dei Cappuccini. Since 1599, important Sicilians have been interred here, all purposefully mummified. Visitors head underground and then walk down long aisles, viewing clothed bodies in various stages of decomposition, some with jaws gaping open in a silent scream. Spookiest is the doll-like remains of 2-year-old Rosalia Lombardo, who looks remarkably fresh despite having passed away in 1920. The catacombs are open only in the daytime, unfortunately — or fortunately.

[tim]

I love sex

[Karma]

It doesn't work diamondsmiles. I even typed in 'the most terrifying places on earth' but it doesn't come up with anything other than local weather.

[DiamondSmiles]

Originally Posted by Karma ↗

It doesn't work diamondsmiles. I even typed in 'the most terrifying places on earth' but it doesn't come up with anything other than local weather.

For you, Karma, I'll put them up individually :)

All fixed!

I'm sorry about that, people!

[Karma]

Originally Posted by diamondsmiles ↗

For you, Karma, I'll put them up individually :)

All fixed!

I'm sorry about that, people!

[evonnecropolis]

Personally i would KILL to go to Sedlec Ossuary.

[DiamondSmiles]

Originally Posted by evonnecropolis ↗

Personally i would KILL to go to Sedlec Ossuary.

Someone in another post is going there soon. I don't recall her name, but, it's another of my threads.

[Sharon]

Cool places

The Jack the Ripper location isn't far from where we live.

[Hankk]

[Darkest Angel]

Nice job!