Chris Wahl
Have you ever dreamed of visiting places so strange and unique that they seem as though they belong in a fantasy novel? Well, let me take you on a tour of some of the strangest places on Earth that are surprisingly real. From fiery pits that never go out to islands ruled by cats, these destinations are perfect for anyone looking to add a little weirdness to their travel bucket list.
Whether you’re an adventurer seeking the bizarre or just looking for some travel inspiration, these spots offer experiences you won’t find anywhere else. So scroll down to check out some of the strangest places on Earth that you simply have to see to believe. These spots are weird, wonderful, and 100% real, proving once again that truth is often stranger than fiction. Maybe you’ve already had the pleasure of visiting some of these sites, maybe you’ve added some to your list, and maybe some of them serve as a warning of places you would prefer to avoid. That’s for you to decide!
1. Wisteria Tunnel is located at the Kawachi Fuji Gardens in Kitakyushu, Japan. Flowering trees hang overhead and the different colored rows speckle the garden.
2. Take a trip to Turkey’s inner Aegean region near the River Menderes Valley and you’ll encounter Pamukkale’s thermal springs. People have bathed in these hot mineral-saturated waters for thousands of years, dubbing the area Pamukkale, or cotton castle.
3. The stone forest in Madagascar is actually a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s a collection of razor-sharp vertical rocks. This is the world’s largest stone forest, you will not find taller or more extensive stone trees anywhere. These are towers of eroded limestone and yes they do look a bit scary. As if a furious magician turned beautiful green trees into stone a long, long time ago.
4. Lake Retba or Lac Rose is located in the north of the Cap Vert peninsula of Senegal. It got its name due to the Dunaliella salina algae making its water look like strawberry milk shake. Pink color is clearly visible during the dry season. The lake is also famous for its high salt content, allowing people stay on the surface similar to the Dead Sea experience.
5. The Parisian Catacombs function as a gigantic ossuary and cemetery for approximately 6 million bodies. Beyond just bones, there is also the non-tourist section of the Catacombs, where a mostly illegal and unpoliced second city extends for miles beneath Paris.
6. Nestled next to the Atlantic Ocean, the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland is easily one of the most incredible, bizarre natural wonders in the world. The Causeway is home to more than 40,000 columns, most of which have six sides and form a honeycomb-like pattern.
7. The Waitomo Glowworm Caves are definitely worth seeing not only because of their historical and geological significance. The glow worm, Arachnocampa luminosa, is a unique creature living in New Zealand. Thousands of these small worms radiate their otherworldly luminescent light hanging from the cave rocks during your unforgettable boat ride. The glowworms create a really magical view, every tourist should see at least once in a lifetime.
8. Like something out of a 1950s sci-fi movie… The Buzludzha monument in Bulgaria – or to give the building its official name, the ‘House-Monument of the Bulgarian Communist Party’ – was envisaged as a symbolic meeting place for the communist regime. Resembling something straight out of a 1950s sci-fi flick, the colossal concrete saucer perches at an altitude of 1441 metres above sea level – on one of the most inhospitable peaks of the Balkan Mountains.
9. Hoia Baciu Forest is known as the Bermuda Triangle of Romania. The forest is complete with legends of missing people, electronic devices that spontaneously stop working, and UFO sightings.
10. Five-Color Pond is one of the smallest but the most amazing water basins in Jiuzhaigou lakes. Despite the shallowness, it has a breathtaking colored underwater landscape and some of the brightest and clearest waters in the area. As the legend goes, the Goddess Semo used to wash her hair here and the God Dage brought her water every day.
11. The Crooked Forest is located right outside of Nowe Czarnowo, West Pomerania, Poland. The grove contains approximately 400 pine trees with bent trunks. They were planted sometime in 1939, but why or who made them crooked is unknown.
12. Far from abandoned, during the Cold War this top-secret submarine base was a hive of activity. Hidden in the hillside and designed to withstand a direct atomic attack, this giant underground complex once housed a fleet of Soviet nuclear warheads and submarines. Once so secret that the surrounding town of Balaklava had to be erased from maps, today visitors can explore the maze of dark winding canals that make up this now deserted site.
13. Empty since 1967, this “Model Prison” still radiates desperation and paranoia. Inspired by the Panopticon, its oppressive architecture was designed to create a sense of constant, invisible omniscience. Commissioned in 1926 by dictator Gerardo Machado, the prison’s inmates once included Fidel Castro. However, under Castro’s government the population ballooned to over 6,000 “enemies” of the state. Now a museum, visitors can experience the forbidding atmosphere still present in these echoing corridors and vacant cells….
14. Have you ever dreamed of a walk in the clouds? Well your dreams can become reality at the whimsical Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, home to the world’s biggest salt flat at 10,582-square-kilometers. Walk on the crusty surface while gazing dreamily off into the clear, blue yonder.
15. This cave in the glacier appeared as a result of glacial mill. The rain and melt water on the glacier’s surface are forming streams that flow into the crevices. The streams melt holes in the glacier forming long ice caves with intricate walls and ceilings. Cold wind finishes the job and we can observe a momentary marvel ready to collapse at any time. Due to the constant glacier movement one can hear a scaring cracking sound inside the cave. The incipient crevices let the indirect daylight into the tunnel and we can observe its mysterious play on ice bubbles.
16. Caves of marble reflect the blue water.
17. A beach buried in colorful sea glass.
18. Tepui – Since long before the arrival of European explorers, the mountain has held a special significance for the indigenous people of the region, and it is central to many of their myths and legends It is a pretty remarkable place. It is a tabletop mountain with sheer 400-metre high cliffs on all sides. There is only one ‘easy’ way up, on a natural staircase-like ramp on the Venezuelan side – to get up any other way takes and experienced rock climber. On the top of the mountain it rains almost every day, washing away most of the nutrients for plants to grow and creating a unique landscape on the bare sandstone surface.
19. Although it may seem like this block structure is man-made, it was actually formed by hexagonally jointed basalt columns within a Paleocene lava flow.
20. The Ryugyong Hotel is a true display of North Korea’s madness. Work started on this 105 story hotel only a few years before a massive famine plagued the country. Abandoned for 16 years, work once again began in 2008, when it was coated in $150 million worth of glass.Foreign guests have reported that although the structure now looks complete on the outside, a lot of the interior is still abandoned and incomplete.
21. The I.M. Cooling Tower is part of an abandoned power plant located in Monceau, Belgium. While in use, the tower cooled incoming hot water by using wind. The wind would enter the opening at the bottom of the tower and rise up, cooling the hot water. The air would then become warm and leave the tower. During its prime, the I.M. Cooling Tower could cool up to 480,000 gallons of water per minute.
22. Meteor Crater is a meteorite impact crater located approximately 43 miles (69 km) east of Flagstaff, near Winslow in the northern Arizona desert of the United States. Because the US Department of the Interior Division of Names commonly recognizes names of natural features derived from the nearest post office, the feature acquired the name of “Meteor Crater” from the nearby post office named Meteor. The crater was created about 50,000 years ago during the Pleistocene epoch when the local climate on the Colorado Plateau was much cooler and damper. At the time, the area was an open grassland dotted with woodlands inhabited by woolly mammoths, giant ground sloths, and camels. It was probably not inhabited by humans; the earliest confirmed record of human habitation in the Americas dates from long after this impact. The object that excavated the crater was a nickel-iron meteorite about 50 meters (54 yards) across, which impacted the plain at a speed of several kilometers per second.
23. Found on both land and in the ocean throughout the Bahamas and the national waters of Belize are deep circular cavities known as Blue Holes which are often the entrances to cave networks, some of them up to 14 kilometres in length. Divers have reported a vast number of aquatic creatures some of which are still new to science. In addition, they’ve recorded chambers filled with stalactites and stalagmites which only form in dry caves.
24. A maze of cracked concrete, crumbling plaster and snapshots of frozen lives, Battleship Island’s post-apocalyptic remains resemble a long-forgotten war zone. It was abandoned overnight after the closure of the coalmine in 1974. Fallen facades of buildings expose grids of homes littered with reminders of their inhabitants: shoes remain where they were kicked off, half-read newspapers litter the floor and once-loved posters slowly peel off bedroom walls.
25. Located in northern Japan, this was once the largest sulfur mine in the Far East. After closing in the 70′s however, it was abandoned and the only thing remaining are the large residential complexes that used to house all of the workers. What makes this place so creepy though is the heavy mist that constantly shrouds the area. It’s so heavy in fact that some people have reported taking days to find the place.
26. A vast stretch of snow-covered bleakness, this Ukrainian city has been deserted since the nuclear accident of April 1986. In just four hours, Chernobyl’s entire population was evacuated, and with radiation remaining too high for human habitation the people never returned. Amongst the overwhelming sense of abandonment, the most iconic reminder of the disaster is a rusting Ferris wheel in an amusement park that was due to open just days after the accident took place.
27. A rotting carcass of deserted corridors and empty patient wards, this military hospital once housed German and Soviet soldiers but has been largely unused since the late 1990s. Derelict it may be but it has not been entirely abandoned; empty bottles and rubbish scattered on the ground hint at the disparate groups of opportunistic looters, weekend wanderers, curious travellers and inspired photographers who are drawn to the decayed aesthetic of this moribund site.
28. Eccentric and extravagant, this Victorian mansion is a maze of dead-ends, secret doorways and stairs that lead to nowhere. Driven by paranoia and superstition, the widow of gun magnate William Wirt Winchester began building in 1884 and never allowed construction to cease. In the 38 years before her death, the residence mushroomed into a labyrinth of architectural oddities spanning seven stories. Although damaged in the 1906 earthquake, sightseers can explore the house’s 160 surviving rooms.
29. The world’s second largest man-made hole, Mirny was constructed by Stalin to satisfy the Soviet Union’s demand for industrial diamond. Further digging efforts were eventually abandoned when it became too difficult to continue digging this massive hole.
30. Empty and unfinished for nearly two decades, this failed energy project in South Carolina got a new lease of life in 1987 as an underwater film set for science-fiction thriller The Abyss. Forgotten once again after filming finished, the sets were left on the site until they were finally demolished in 2007. However, there is hope on the horizon: a new power plant is due to be built adjacent to the old structure.
31. Willard Asylum for the Chronic Insane was built in 1869 and closed in 1995. Housing 4000 patients at its peak, more than half of the 50,000 patients who called Willard Asylum their home died within its walls. This makes the asylums morgue (pictured above) one of the creepiest places we can imagine. By its closure, most patients were eventually integrated back into society, but in the early days “people didn’t leave unless it was in a box.”
32. Have you ever seen anything like that? Chand Baori is a famous stepwell in the village of Abhaneri near Jaipur in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is located opposite Harshat Mata Temple and was constructed in 800 CE. Can you imagine that those 3500 narrow steps in 13 stories extend 100 feet into the ground, making it one of the deepest and largest stepwells in India.
33. Hidden from stranger’s eyes, the beach of Marieta Islands, Puerto Vallarta can be called a lost secret world. Marieta Islands are archipelagos formed as a result of volcanic activity. This natural wonder possesses its unique marine ecosystem. The beach is a real paradise for people fond of snorkeling and scuba diving. Diverse, virgin flora and fauna in combination with transparent crystal water make the experience unforgettable. Humpback whales, sea turtles and dolphins are just a few animals that can be seen there.
34. Resting deep beneath the busy streets of New York City lies a subway station that no train has stopped at in almost 70 years, except for one public expedition on the stations 100 year anniversary.
35. Cano Cristales is a unique biological wonder often referred to as “the river of five colors” or “the river that ran away from paradise” and “the world’s most beautiful river”. Greater part of the year, Cano Cristales looks like any other river, but during a brief period of time yearly, it bursts into blossom and turns into the vibrant explosion of colors. Between wet and dry seasons, when the water level is just as required, a unique Macarenia clavigera plant turns the river into a sparkling ruby red stream, contrasting to the patches of yellow and green sand, blue water, and the enumerable shades in between.
36. After opening in the 70s this theme park was abruptly closed down supposedly due to a number of deaths on its rides and what was once intended to be the happiest place on Earth is now gradually being swallowed by the encroaching wilderness. The close proximity to Fukushima (where the nuclear reactor melted down) and the ever present fog make this one of the top contenders for the next big zombie outbreak.
37. The Leshan Giant Buddha in Sichuan was carved out of a mountainside in the 8th century. At 233 feet high, it is one of the largest images of the Buddha in the world.
38. If you want to see something really magnificent, put Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming into your list. This hot spring is the largest in the United States and the third largest in the world. The devilish colors of the spring strike the imagination! The water is saturated blue, with red lava-like color surrounding it. Would you like to know the secret? This amazing tint is produced by the pigmented bacteria. They form microbial mats around the edge of the water. Seasonal temperatures as well as levels of chlorophyll and carotenoids greatly influence the hue of the bacteria. The mats do not form in the center of the spring because the water is too hot for bacterium’s live cycle. The water is heated by the underground vents, which are a part of the volcanic system, the Yellowstone stands on.
39. Taiwan’s other-worldly “ruins of the future” are a set of pod-like buildings built in 1978 as a vacation resort. However, two years later the project collapsed due to financial problems and a number of deaths during construction. Deserted for a further 28 years, demolition finally began in 2008. Despite the original structures’ futuristic design, the land remains rooted in the past with current developers hoping once again to build a seaside retreat in the area.
40. At ground level it’s difficult to make out the shape radiating from where you stand. This 30-mile-wide series of concentric rings in the town of Ouadane calls to mind crop circles. But it wasn’t etched by aliens or fashioned by pranksters with too much time on their hands. The upwelling of sedimentary rock has naturally eroded to create what appears to be a rippled pond frozen in the moment after a pebble has disturbed its surface.
41. In 1977, the city of Sarajevo, Bosnia was chosen as the host city for the 1984 Winter Olympics. That same year, Bosnia proposed the construction of the bobsleigh and luge track and, by 1982, had completed its construction. During the 1984 Winter Olympics, the track had a total of 30,000 bobsleigh spectators and 20,000 luge spectators. After the Olympics, the track was used by world cup competitors. In 1991, the Yugoslav wars shook the region, and the Siege of Sarajevo caused damage to the track since Bosnian Serb forces used the track as an artillery position. Today, the bobsleigh and luge tracks have fallen into disrepair and have been tagged with graffiti.
42. Socotra is considered to be a unique archipelago in the Indian Ocean for the diversity of its exotic flora and fauna. Its weird alien plants are the result of island’s long geological isolation together with unbearable heat and drought. One of the most unusual Socotra’s plants is the dragon’s blood tree, resembling a strange umbrella. Aboriginals believed its red sap to be the blood of a dragon.
43. Shicheng has been under water for 53 years since the Xin’an River Hydro Plant flooded the area. The city was founded 1,300 years ago.
44. Once the world’s most expensive prison, from 1829 this facility boasted grand architecture, modern luxuries and notorious inmates including Al Capone. One of the first penitentiaries, it combined impressive design and strict discipline to inspire regret and reform in the hearts of convicts. However, since its closure in 1971, the complex has crumbled into a mass of deteriorating cellblocks, which are now recognised as a National Historic Landmark.
45. Cincinnati attempted to build a subway system in the early 1900s, only to run out of funding. The empty tunnels still run along beneath the city, half finished and fully creepy.
46. Have you ever stood at the Hell’s Door? Go to Derweze village, which name means “The Gate” in Turkmen language if you search for extreme! This terrifying attraction is located in the middle of the Karakum Desert, about 260 km north from Ashgabat. The Derweze area is rich in natural gas. Soviet geologists got into a cavern filled with natural gas while drilling. Due to the ground collapse, a large hole has created. The Door to Hell was set alight and has been burning continuously for over 40 years. It was decided to burn off the gas, but the roasting breath of the inferno is still trying to break into the world of living! Inexplicably, spiders seem to love this place and swarm there by the thousands.
47. Hell’s Door
48. Centralia – At its peak, this Pennsylvania coal-mining town was home to almost 3,000 people. Today, it has a population of 10. What happened? In 1962, workers set trash on fire in an abandoned mine, but an exposed vein of anthracite coal also caught fire. The fire spread throughout mines beneath the town, and for the next 20 years, numerous attempts were made to extinguish it. Then in 1981, the ground crumbled beneath 12-year-old resident Todd Domboski, and Pennsylvania basically condemned the town and spent $42 million to relocate residents.The fire continues to burn today — in fact, experts say there’s enough coal to feed the fire for 250 years. Although a handful of people remain in Centralia, all properties in the town were reclaimed by the state under eminent domain, and the borough’s ZIP code was revoked in 1992. Residents have filed lawsuits to reverse the eminent domain claim — they believe the state simply wants to get the mineral rights to the coal, which is estimated to be worth $1 billion — but so far these attempts have failed.
49. Bubblegum Alley is an attraction you can be a part of. The wall of chewed bubblegum in San Luis Obispo, Calif., has been growing since the 1970s. The sticky, colorful wall is a must-see for gum chewers and those who want to ick out their germaphobe travel companions.
50. Found deep in the swamp of former Aztec country is what has come to be known as the Island of the Dolls. Although it is now abandoned at one time it had a single inhabitant. His name was Don Julian Santana Barrera and according to legend, one day a young girl drowned just off shore (don’t ask us how she got there). At any rate, not long after this, Don Julian found her doll floating in the water. Then he found another, and another. Supposedly as tribute he decorated the entire island with the dolls before mysteriously drowning in the very same canal as the little girl.
51. Reportedly one of the most haunted castles in the world, Leap Castle’s hallways are patrolled by the Elemental — an unexplainable force. Also, Leap Castle was the site of historic slaughter, and it was also built on top of a torture pit.
52. There are numerous places to view mummified bodies if you are so inclined but the Capuchin Catacombs are without doubt the most gruesome place in the world to see them. Frequently referred to as the ‘Museum of Death’ – and not without good reason as there are over 8,000 mummies dating back to the 16th century lining the walls of the catacombs here – this place is eerie, sombre and intriguing. The most bizarre aspect of it all is that they give off no smell whatsoever. The assembled ranks of the dead, many with quite elegant costumes that have decayed over the years, are mainly skeletons – although some still have mummified flesh, hair, and even eyes. A law passed by the Italian government in 1881 meant the catacombs were no longer allowed to continue with this mummification process, although special permission from the government saw the interring of a 2 year old child called Rosalia Lombardo in 1920. She is known as the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and it is said that her sister and other members of her family often visited her after her death. Her body is still perfectly intact to this day and she can be seen propped up in a glass case.
53. Wonderland was going to be China’s answer to Disneyland, but multiple times larger. Construction problems led to the project being totally scrapped. The crumbling remains are completely open to any would-be adventurer or warlord, though.
54. There are some bizarre museums out there, and the Avanos Hair Museum is maybe one of the strangest in the world. A dark cavern that sits below a pottery shop, the “museum” features thousands of locks of hair.
55. Hidden sixty metres below the streets of Moscow lies ZKP Tanansky, a 7000 square metre space which once served as a secret Cold War–era communications centre. Built in the 1950s, this vast complex was designed to withstand a direct nuclear attack and filled with enough supplies to stay running for months afterwards. Since its declassification in 1995, Bunker 42 has drawn many visitors keen to delve into the secrets of the past.
56. In this photo you see the abandoned railway track, located nearly 350km from Kiev, which has transformed into a special romantic place, frequently visited by couples. The Tunnel of Love is especially beautiful in spring, when the green trees growing from both sides of the track form an improvised arch around it. This arch stretches for up to three kilometers and looks like a green picturesque tunnel of trees. The railway is occasionally used by the fiberboard factory, which preserves the tunnel in its initial look.
57. Constructed by the British Royal Navy during the Second World War as an advance line of defense these forts now sit abandoned a few feet above the waves of the North Sea.
58. At the turn of the 20th century, Waverly was a state-of-the-art tuberculosis treatment facility. In the 1960s it became a mental institution, but was shut down years later due to rampant reports of patient abuse. One of the most famous features of this sadistic madhouse, was the “Body Chute” or “Death Tunnel” — a railcar system for transporting corpses from the top of the hill to the bottom. It is said to be haunted by the psychotic ghosts of 65,000 patients who died at the hospital. There are hundreds of unique horror stories that range from forced lobotomies to forced abortions. Records show some doctors who sexually abused female patients would sometimes fake the women’s suicides. If you really want to test the theory of whether ghosts exist or not, the Asylum accepts visitors — but be warned, there is no electricity in the tunnel …
59. At the edge of Ecuador sits a rickety tree house (casa del árbol) overlooking an active volcano in the near distance. With it comes a swing with no harnesses, inviting only the bravest of risk-takers to experience a killer view.
60. Originally Kryziu Kalnas was a ceremonial site where Lithuanians would mourn the dead lost at war. The Soviet Union twice bulldozed this area, only for locals to build it bigger. Today, over 100,000 crosses stand on the hill.
61. Son Doong is the world’s largest cave, created 2–5 million years ago. A half-mile block of 40-story buildings could fit inside it!
62. The world’s biggest mall has it all: imitation cities, over 1,500 stores and even an indoor theme park. However, far from being the Great Mall of China, since 2005 99% of its stores have been vacant. Instead of hordes of shoppers, handfuls of people scurry past shells of shops and naked mannequins. Symbolic of China’s failure to stimulate spending, this is the most notorious example of the increasingly common fate of China’s mega malls.
63. Spotted Lake is a saline endorheic alkali lake located northwest of Osoyoos in British Columbia. In the summer, most of the water in the lake evaporates leaving behind all the minerals. Large “spots” on the lake appear and depending on the mineral composition at the time, the spots will be different colors. The spots are made mainly of magnesium sulfate, which crystallizes in the summer. Since in the summer, only the minerals in the lake remain, they harden to form natural “walkways” around and between the spots.
64. The Kabayan Mummy Burial Caves are exactly as they sound. They’re just manmade caves full of some of the most well-preserved mummies in the world, isolated from the rest of the world in remote mountains.
65. Coober Pedy is one of the most unusual places in the world. It is a town where (due to the heat) approximately 80% of the population live and work underground. This is a mining town – opal mining to be precise – and following the early discovery of opals here by a teenager there has been a huge influx of miners since 1915. There are tunnels and associated pitfalls everywhere and mining still goes on here today. Other subterranean structures operating in the same manner as an above ground equivalent include a church, shops, pottery, art gallery, hotel, and other assorted offices and businesses. Most unusual of all must surely be the golf course where not a single blade of grass can be seen. The fairways are bald and the greens are oiled sand!
66. Over 13 storeys high, Hunedorea Castle is not just an intimidating construction, it’s also a place were some very disturbing events took place. When entering the castle yard you will immediately notice a well that is over 30 meter deep. According to the legend, this fountain was dug by twelve Turkish prisoners to whom liberty was promised if they reached water. After 15 years they completed the well, but their captors did not keep their promise and chopped of their heads instead. It is said that the inscription on a wall of the well means “you have water, but no soul”. It is also the place were the legendary warlord Vladimir the Impaler learned his sadistic hobby. Thousands of people were impaled in the castle and after being imprisoned by János Hunyadi, the crazed warlord couldn’t stop his sadistic urge, as he started impaling the rats in his prison cell instead. Yes Vladimir was pure evil incarnated and by drinking the blood of his victims he sought to harness the power of the devil itself. Did that work out for him? Some believe so.
67. It’s not just the dense shrubbery that makes this place so creepy. It’s all the dead bodies. Located at the base of Mt Fuji, ever since the 1950s the Japanese have been committing suicide here in droves. In fact, its so bad that there are now signs scattered throughout the woods with sayings such as “life is precious” and “think of your family.”
68. Normally 1 overcrowded cemetery is enough to be considered creepy. The Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague, however, takes things to a whole new level considering that it is actually 11 cemeteries stacked on top of each other! That’s right, the cemetery got so full that not once, not twice, but 11 times they actually decided to just build another cemetery right on top of the old one.
69. Atlantis may be a legend, but the mysterious Nazca lines are real. These enormous geoglyphs in arid coastal Peru depict spiders, monkeys, plants and other figures. They date back to about 500 B.C. but are best appreciated by air (though all can be seen from the ground). No one knows why the prehistoric Nazca culture went through the effort of making the geoglyphs, though they may have had a ritual role or linked up to constellations in the sky.
70. A collection of unsettling images and a rough outline of exposed foundations are all that remain of this demolished theme park. Built in the shadow of Mount Fuji in 1997, this failed venture closed only four years later. Doomed from the start, the site bordered on the infamous “Suicide Forest” and nearby headquarters of Aum Shinrikyo, a cult responsible for the deadly Sarin gas attack on Tokyo’s subway just two years before the park opened.
71. This 2,000 year old ghost town is something like hell on earth, at least the Chinese version. Believed by locals to be the spot where spirits “crossover” after death, the place is chock full of burial sites and mock torture devices.
72. Ever since soil from the Holy Land was sprinkled over this small town in the Czech Republic people from all over the world have claimed Sedlec as their final resting place. After hundreds of years though, the number of bones on this relatively small property began to get a bit out of control and the priests realized they had to do something. Their chosen course of action? Redecorate…using bones. If you go today you’ll be greeted by an entire church built from seemingly nothing but human bones.
73. Found near the village of Milton in Scotland, this bridge is the location of numerous suicides – over 600 to be exact. Every year since its construction roughly 12 to 15 dogs launch themselves to their deaths…that’s right…dogs. Why? Well although there are numerous theories but no one really knows. One thing is for sure though – the dogs are hell bent on leaving this planet behind as some people have even witnessed dogs jump off, survive, climb back up, and jump off again.
74. Often referred to as the “Bamboo Forest,” this tree-lined path is popular for walks and bicycle rides on a nice day.
75. Perfect for snorkeling and diving, these beaches also fascinate with their black sand.
76. The castle was originally built by French aristocrats fleeing the revolution. During and after World War II, Miranda Castle was used as an orphanage. It was abandoned in 1980, with the family refusing to allow authorities to care for the structure. Because of its past, this haunting castle remains a favourite amongst ghost hunters.
