We all love a good scary, let alone a good horror movie from time to time. Humans’ fascination with everything that is frightening, with mysteries, dark places and corners of the world that have an intricate, creepy history, often associated with violence and death is well exploited by the modern arts, be them books, movies or even music. Mythology and urban legends together feed on our inclination towards paranormal happenings, Gothic atmosphere, weird and bizarre facts and virtually anything that goes beyond our understanding. And the muse seems to be always inspired, as this planet has indeed some scary places that stood the test of time and still give us the creeps only when they’re mentioned. So let’s see ten of these frightening hot spots in the world, either natural, or man-made, which make people’s skin shiver from the oldest of times.
1. Prypiat
Check any list and ask any search engine, when it comes to scary places on Earth, Prypiat is the favorite in the run. One of the most famous ghost cities in the world, this tragedy scene is still a place not many dare to visit or live in. After the Chernobyl disaster, the city of Prypiat was deserted. However, some population of around 2000 people try to rebuild some parts of it and make a living there, but as horror atmosphere goes, the desolated images of empty houses, children’s toys, uncleaned garbage, cars and shops, they all look like time stood still here, frozen. The lack of any life is probably what is the most frightening element here.
2. Aokigahara Forest
Nature was generous with people, offering them patches of green of infinite beauty and joy. But this is not the case. Aokigahara Forest, situated at the base of Mount Fiji in Japan is not only one of the darkest, full of sorrow places on earth, but a spot the famous X Files FBI Agents would have had to investigate. This forest is a place where people come to commit suicide and more than 500 bodies were counted since the 50’s. At night, locals say that they can hear the ghosts cries of pain and authorities have a real problem with people still coming there to kill themselves. The paranormal issue is that in the middle of the forest, the compass doesn’t show North anymore. Science has an answer but still, Aokigahara is not just a walk in the park, is a horror scene.
3. Mütter Medical History Museum
Built in 1858 by doctor Thomas Dent Mütter, this was a place of education. The scientist wanted to show his students the mysteries and anomalies the human body can develop. Now, this place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is nothing more than a freak show and a shop of horrors. Human skulls, conserved human organs, genetic mutations of frightening proportions (the child with two heads, just to mention one), body parts and unspeakable human defects, they are all displayed here, for anyone who has a stomach for this.
4. Catacombes de Paris
Parisian Catacombs, another horror show, lie underneath this gorgeous, romantic, full of life city, reminding it of its terrible history, painted in violence, torture and death. The walls and floors of this underground mausoleum of terror are paved with skulls and bones. 187 kilometers of death and decay, a network that is in its major part secluded from public visitation, this cemetery is in and out of itself a symbol of Paris, depicted in books and movies and a subject for still further research.
5. The Winchester House
Does the name sound familiar? Maybe because the Supernatural TV show? Well, this house is famous because of her owner, Sarah Winchester, a young heiress that was threatened by a fortune teller that she will be haunted by ghosts for the rest of her life. So Sarah moved from Connecticut to San Jose, California, where she started to build this huge compound that is still called a house, even if its structure is enormous. The construction lasted for 38 years and it bears the clear signs of Sarah’s paranoia and insanity: inside, you can find stairs leading to ceilings, doors coming out of the walls, hooks, creepy chandeliers and almost every detail you find familiar in any good classic haunted house movie. They say strange things happened in that house and even if nothing was proved, the idea of a poltergeist lurking around the rooms is not a new one.
6. Sedlec Cemetery
There was once a small cemetery in the Czech Republic (which was definitely not called like that in the 13th century when our story begins). One day, a person of unknown identity arrives here from the The Holy Land and releases a small pile of dirt, brought from the Holy Land above the small cemetery’s ground. A whole hysteria out-broke then, people insisting of being buried in that cemetery. Until the late 1800, corpses were literally sticking out from the ground, as there was not room for any skeletons anymore. So the priests decided to take out the remains from the bone pit and decorate the Sedlec Chapel. Now, everything has a skull or a bone on it, from pillars to chandeliers, and this is an actual human bone display.
7. San Zhi
Another ghost city, this time in Taiwan, very close to Taipei. Initially it was built on the idea of offering reach people a resort, a residential neighborhood, futuristic in style and very modern in comfort and facilities. From reasons remained yet unknown, although rumors of unexplained phenomena and mysterious accidents have spread, the project was put on hold and remained like that ever since. There are no concrete statistics about the number or the types of deaths recurring that period, but know San Zhi looks like an abandoned Sci-Fi movie set, surrounded by a breath of death and a secrecy atmosphere that are bound to frighten any visitor.
8. Truk Lagoon
Set in the Pacific, nearby the Hawaiian Archipelago, this is the tomb of the Japanese air fleet that found its end on the bottom of the ocean at the end of World War II. Many sea explorers, among which Jean Yves Cousteau, developed extensive research of the lagoon, finding Japanese air crafts and sunk war vessels covering the major part of the lagoon’s bottom. The scene is frightening, as see weeds, corals and ocean life began to wrap around the vessels, the crafts, the human remains, offering a mind blowing view. Not many dare to sink so deep into the waters to further research the remains and the story says that the spirits didn’t find their peace, as many of the courageous divers over the years never came back to surface.
9. Screaming Forest, UK
This is a place even the Book of World Records knows about, as the Screaming Forest in Kent, UK, is known to be the loudest haunted forest on Earth. he ghosts show up quite rarely, but at night the excruciating screams of terror and pain made the locals consider that this forest is not only inhabited by ghosts, but they take great pleasure in scaring everybody in the vicinity. It may be a wind problem, drafts intersecting, trees changing the sound wave direction, sudden and odd atmospheric conditions occurring. But at this point, Screaming Forest is one of the creepiest places to visit, especially at night, as the restless souls come out and shout their sorrow from the tops of their lungs. Who dares entering?
10. Overtoun Bridge
It’s an arched stone bridge in Milton, Scotland. It actually doesn’t present any danger to the local population, nor to the mankind as a whole. So why should it be here on this list? Because it’s a place where dogs commit suicide. No, it’s not a joke. Starting with the 60′, dogs in the city started coming here and jumping off the bridge, thus killing themselves. A rate similar to that of Aokigahara Forest, the phenomenon started to worry the townsmen and the authorities, leading them to build a safety net, so the city dogs won’t find their death in jumping. So if you think to go on holiday in Milton, leave Rex at home, you may never know what that bridge can do to it!
