25 Scariest Places on the Planet

We are not trying to scare you with sinister fictions, but simply want to take you on a tour of very real places that exude danger and mystery.

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Processions at this cemetery took place for almost four centuries (from 1439 to 1787). More than 100 thousand dead were buried on a relatively small plot of land, and the number of tombstones reached 12 thousand. The cemetery workers covered older burials with earth and erected new tombstones in the same place. There are places on the cemetery grounds where 12 grave tiers were located under the earth's crust. Over time, the subsidence of the earth revealed old tombstones to the view of the living, which began to shift the more recent slabs. The view was not only unusual, but also eerie.

There is a very strange abandoned island in Mexico, most of which is inhabited by scary dolls. They say that in 1950, a certain hermit Julian Santana Barrera began collecting and hanging dolls from trash cans, trying to calm the soul of a drowned girl nearby. Julian himself drowned on the island on April 17, 2001. There are currently about 1,000 exhibits on the island.

Hashima is a former coal mining settlement founded in 1887. The island was considered one of the most densely populated places on earth - with a coastline of about a kilometer, its population was 5,259 in 1959. When coal mining here became unprofitable, the mine was closed, and the island town joined the list of ghost towns. This happened in 1974.

The chapel was built in the 16th century by a Franciscan monk. The chapel itself is small – only 18.6 meters long and 11 meters wide – but it houses the bones and skulls of five thousand monks. The phrase “Melior est die mortis die nativitatis” (“Better the day of death than the day of birth”) is written on the roof of the chapel.

Suicide Forest is the unofficial name of the Aokigahara Jukai forest, located on the island of Honshu in Japan and famous for the suicides that often take place there. The forest was originally associated with Japanese mythology and was traditionally considered to be the home of demons and ghosts. It is now considered the second most popular place in the world to commit suicide (after the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco). At the entrance to the forest there is a sign that reads: “Your life is a priceless gift from your parents. Think of them and your family. You should not suffer alone. Call us at 22-0110.”

Brazilian artist Herbert Baglione made an art object out of a building that once housed a psychiatric hospital. He depicted the spirit of the place. Now, ghostly figures of tormented patients wander around the former hospital.

The church in the Czech village of Lukova has been abandoned since 1968, when part of its roof collapsed during a funeral. Artist Jakub Hadrava has populated the church with ghostly sculptures, giving it a particularly sinister appearance.

The Catacombs are a network of winding underground tunnels and caves beneath Paris. The total length, according to various sources, is from 187 to 300 kilometers. Since the end of the 18th century, the remains of almost 6 million people have been buried in the catacombs.

Due to an underground fire that broke out 50 years ago and continues to burn to this day, the population has decreased from 1,000 people (1981) to 7 people (2012). Centralia is now considered the smallest population in the state of Pennsylvania. Centralia served as a prototype for the town in the Silent Hill series of games and in the film based on this game.

The Akodesseva market of magical objects and witchcraft herbs is located right in the center of Lome, the capital of the state of Togo in Africa. Africans of Togo, Ghana and Nigeria still practice voodoo and believe in the miraculous properties of dolls. Akodesseva's fetishistic assortment is extremely exotic: here you can buy cattle skulls, dried heads of monkeys, buffalos and leopards and many other equally "wonderful" things.

Poveglia is one of the most famous islands in the Venetian Lagoon, in northern Italy. It is said that since Roman times the island was used as a place of exile for plague patients, and as many as 160,000 people were buried there. The souls of many of the dead supposedly turned into ghosts, which now haunt the island. The island's dark reputation is further compounded by stories of horrific experiments that patients in the psychiatric hospital were allegedly subjected to. For this reason, paranormal researchers call the island one of the most terrifying places on earth.

The Hill of Crosses is a hill on which many Lithuanian crosses have been erected, their total number being approximately 50 thousand. Despite the external resemblance, it is not a cemetery. According to popular belief, whoever leaves a cross on the Hill will be accompanied by good luck. Neither the time of the Hill of Crosses’ appearance nor the reasons for its emergence can be said with certainty. To this day, this place is shrouded in mystery and legend.

The famous Kabayan Fire Mummies, dating back to 1200-1500 AD, are buried here, as are what locals believe are their spirits. They were made using a complex mummification process and are now carefully guarded because they are often stolen. Why? As one of the thieves said, "he had the right to do so," since the mummy was his great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather.

The old arch bridge is located near the Scottish village of Milton. In the middle of the 20th century, strange things began to happen on it: dozens of dogs suddenly threw themselves from a height of 15 meters, fell on the rocks and crashed to their deaths. Those that survived returned and repeated the attempt. The bridge turned into a real "killer" of four-legged animals.

Actun Tunichil Muknal is a cave near the town of San Ignacio, Belize. It is an archaeological site of the Mayan civilization. It is located on the territory of the Mount Tapira Natural Park. One of the halls of the cave is the so-called cathedral, where the Mayans made sacrifices, as they considered this place to be a xibalba — an entrance to the underworld.

Leap Castle in Offaly, Ireland, is considered one of the world's cursed castles. Its gloomy landmark is a large underground dungeon, the bottom of which is studded with sharp stakes. The dungeon was discovered during restoration of the castle. In order to remove all the bones from it, workers needed 4 carts. Locals say that the castle is inhabited by many ghosts of people who died in the dungeon.

The Chauchilla cemetery is located about 30 minutes from the Nazca desert plateau, on the southern coast of Peru. The necropolis was discovered in the 1920s. According to researchers, the cemetery contains bodies that are about 700 years old, and the last burials took place here in the 9th century. Chauchilla differs from other burial sites in the special way in which people were buried. All the bodies are “squatting”, and their “faces” seem to be frozen in a wide smile. The bodies are perfectly preserved due to Peru’s dry desert climate.

The most infamous feature of the Carthaginian religion was the sacrifice of children, mostly infants. Crying was forbidden during the sacrifice, as it was believed that any tear, any plaintive sigh, would diminish the value of the sacrifice. In 1921, archaeologists discovered a site where several rows of urns containing the charred remains of both animals (sacrificed instead of people) and small children were found. The site was called Tophet.

Queimada Grande is one of the most dangerous and famous islands on our planet. It has only forest, rocky inhospitable coast up to 200 meters high and snakes. There are up to six snakes per square meter of the island. The poison of these reptiles acts instantly. The Brazilian authorities have decided to completely ban visiting this island for anyone, and locals tell bloodcurdling stories about it.

The largest monument in Bulgaria, located on the 1441-meter-high Buzludzha mountain, was built in the 1980s in honor of the Bulgarian Communist Party. It took almost 7 years to build and involved more than 6,000 workers and experts. The interior was partially finished in marble, and the stairs were decorated with red cathedral glass. Now the memorial house has been completely looted, leaving only a concrete frame with reinforcement, resembling a destroyed alien ship.

Dargavs in North Ossetia looks like a nice village with small stone houses, but it is actually an ancient necropolis. People were buried in various types of crypts along with all their clothes and personal belongings.

During the First and Second World Wars, the hospital was used by the military, and in 1916, Adolf Hitler was treated there. After the Second World War, the hospital ended up in the Soviet occupation zone and became the largest. The complex consists of 60 buildings, some of which have now been restored. Almost all of the abandoned buildings are closed to access. Doors and windows are securely boarded up with high boards and sheets of plywood.

The abandoned Cincinnati subway depot was originally designed in 1884. But after World War I and changing demographics, the need for a subway disappeared. Construction slowed in 1925, with half of the 10-mile line completed. The abandoned subway is now given tours twice a year, but many people have been known to wander its tunnels alone.

On the island of Luzon, in the village of Sagada, there is one of the most frightening places in the Philippines. Here you can see unusual burial structures made of coffins placed high above the ground on the rocks. There is a belief among the indigenous population that the higher the body of the deceased is buried, the closer his soul will be to heaven.