The 23 Most Terrifying Places on Earth
Visiting the scariest places on earth might not sound like a great use of your PTO at first but hear us out many things that are terrifying at first glance often lead to some of the most fascinating downright beautiful corners of the planet we’re talking Limestone caves as tall as cathedrals
Eternally burning pits in the middle of the desert and marine lakes filled with millions of golden jellyfish and if you’re looking for straight up creepiness don’t worry there are places just for you too hello church is made entirely out of human bones our planet certainly has its fair share of terrifying
And mysterious places just waiting for the next morbidly inclined traveller to come visit from Italy to Antarctica these are some of the scariest places on earth have you started packing your bags yet 1 North youngest Road Bolivia the path from Lapaz to Coroico Bolivia is a treacherous one
The north youngest road weaves precariously through the Amazon rainforest at a height of more than 15,000 feet when you consider that frightening elevation not to mention the 12 foot wide single lane lack of guard rails and limited visibility due to rain and fog
It’s easy to see why this 50 mile stretch of highway has earned the nickname the death Road while the north youngest road used to see some 200 to 300 annual deaths it has now become more of a destination for adventurous mountain bikers than a vehicular thoroughfare No.2 Nagoro is a tiny Japanese
A life sized doll population that outnumbers the human population nearly 10 1 the toy residents are the work of local Tsukimi Ayano who began making doll replicas of her neighbours after they died or moved away the eerie doppelgangers can be seen in various positions across the town fishermen sitting on the Riverbank
Students filling entire classrooms elderly couples resting on benches outside of buildings there are now around 350 dolls and 27 breathing humans the youngest is over the age of 50 in Negoro making it a quirky and somewhat terrifying toyland three people have been placing crosses on this hill in northern Lithuania
Since the 14th century throughout the medieval period the crosses originally expressed a desire for Lithuanian independence then after a peasant uprising in 1831 people began adding to the site in remembrance of dead rebels the hill became a place of Defiance once again during Soviet occupation from 1944 to 1991
The hill and crosses were bulldozed by the Soviets three times but locals kept rebuilding it there are now more than 100,000 crosses crowded there clashing together in the breeze like eerie wind chimes 4 island of the Dolls Mexico despite its history and status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site Xochimilco is primarily
Known for its Isla de las Munecas or island of the dolls hidden among the burrows many canals the tiny island is famous for the hundreds of dolls and doll parts hanging from trees and scattered among the grass although it looks more like a horror movie set than anything else the Chinampa
Akin to an artificial island used to be the actual residence of a now deceased man named Julian Santa Barrera after finding a dead girl’s body in a nearby canal Barrera collected and displayed the toys in the hopes of warding off evil spirits daring souls can hire their own boat
Try to convince the driver to pay the island a visit and view the dolls safely from the water 5 Centralia from the late 1800s to the 1960s Centralia was a quaint but bustling town in Pennsylvania thanks to its prosperous coal mines however when a mine mysteriously caught fire in 1962
The flames began to spread underground via the interconnecting tunnels although the citizens were aware of the situation they weren’t truly troubled until two isolated incidents some years later a gas station owner reporting abnormally high gasoline temperatures in his underground tanks in 1979 and a young boy nearly falling
Into a 150 foot deep sinkhole in his backyard in 1981 since those disturbing occurrences the town’s population decreased sharply as of 2021 only four residents remain although Centralia seems like a complete ghost town upon visiting if you ever find yourself in the deserted city you’ll find many torn down buildings crumbled sidewalks
And the cracked graffiti filled Route 61 and just in case you forgot why the town is deserted you can occasionally see smoke billowing out from the subterranean fires which scientists estimate will continue to burn for another 250 years 6 baylets Heilstadten Hospital Germany if this old German hospital looks disturbing well it is
Between 1898 and 1930 the Baylets Heilstedten complex a 50 minute drive south of Berlin served as a tuberculosis sanatorium it also housed mustard gas and machine gun victims during World War 1 including a young soldier named Adolf Hitler who had been wounded in the leg
The hospital later went on to be a major treatment center for Nazi soldiers during World War 2 and it was used as a Soviet military hospital from 1945 until the fall of the Berlin Wall today a few hospital wards are used as neurological rehabilitation centers although the majority of the complex is abandoned
The surgery and psychiatric wards have both been left to decay and give way to nature and vandals and the result looks like something straight out of American Horror Story not exactly an enjoyable day trip for the easily spooked 7 The Gomantong Caves in Malaysia are pure geographical wonders with Limestone walls
Reaching up to 300 feet in some spots but visitors often leave the site describing it is one of the most disgusting wildlife experiences they’ve ever had first things first Gomontong is home to more than 2 million bats which leads to impossibly thick layers of guano otherwise known as bat poop covering the ground
And don’t even think about slipping because the handrails are just as filthy as the floor if you can make it through the river of backdroppings you’ll then encounter several million Malaysian cockroaches scurrying around wherever the guano is that’s where the cockroaches will be red everywhere finally if you get past the bat
Smells and cockroaches crawling up your legs there are several other wonderful creatures you just might happen upon including snakes scorpions freshwater crabs and the infamous giant scutigarra centipedes poisonous critters that are at least 3 inches long although there are several versions of the same Jesus statue scattered around the ocean floor
Including Key Largo pictured the original version is located in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of San Frutuoso Italy the 8 foot tall likeness was commissioned by Italian diver Duilio Marcante in 1954 he wanted to play some sort of memorial at the exact spot where his friend Dario Gonzati
Died while diving a few years prior and thus Christ of the abyss was born the result is vaguely spooky especially with the deities outreached arms and upward gaze the algae and corrosion only add to the effect although the statue was removed from its watery home in 2003 for some much needed restoration
Including replacing a hand that a rogue anchor had broken off regardless of whether you find the Monument eerie or beautiful or both it’s certainly worth taking a 55 foot dive down to snap an underwater selfie with Jesus 9 if you want to visit the dead in Segata don’t look six feet under
Look up instead the people of this region of the Philippines are known for burying their dead in coffins attached to the sides of cliffs like an aerial cross section of your average cemetery the tradition goes back thousands of years carve out your own coffin die and get hoisted up next to your ancestors
Many of the cliffside coffins are hundreds of years old and all look completely different as they were specially made by the person who now rests inside of them he was 10 while Joss Whedon could be found in Sunnydale California he was actually some 7,500 miles off
Located in the middle of the Caracoum Desert in Turkmenistan is the door to hell a name locals gave to a 230 foot wide crater that simply won’t stop burning when Soviet scientists began searching for oil back in 1971 they accidentally hit a methane reserve and the drilling platform collapsed thus forming the crater
And releasing dangerous gas into the air the scientist decided to light the crater on fire to burn off the methane creating a Dante esque anomaly that has remained lit for the past 50+ years 11 of all the catacombs in the world from Salzburg to Paris none are quite as creepy as Sicily’s catacombe
Dei Cappuccini Cappuccine catacombs the macabre space was created back in the late 16th century when the cemetery at the Cappuccine Monastery became overrun religious men were originally intended to be the exclusive residence but once word got out about the natural mummification processes occurring in the space it soon became a status
Symbol for local citizens to earn a final resting spot there in their best clothing of course as a result the underground tombs now contain around 8,000 bodies divided into separate corridors including one for religious figures one for professional men one for children and even one for virgins the corpses are displayed like a
Museum exhibit dressed to the nines and arranged in grotesquely life like posts sounds like fun right 12 located about 90 miles off the coast of So Paulo it had to came out a Grande also known as Snake Island is one of the most dangerous islands in the entire world the site earned
Its moniker due to its insanely high density of golden lance head vipers some studies report an average of one to five snakes per square meter when sea levels rose some 11,000 years ago and separated Snake Island from mainland Brazil the newly isolated snakes became hyper evolved and hyper terrifying
To adapt to their changing environment without any ground level prey on the island the snakes Learned to hunt in the tree tops and strike at birds from the air and because they couldn’t track down the birds and wait for the poison to kick in their venom
Adapted to become five times stronger than that of their mainland counterparts capable of killing their prey instantly as well as melting human flesh because of their potency the Brazilian government bans the public from ever setting foot on the island as if you would want to 13 the incredible Sedlec Ossuary
Is a small chapel located beneath the cemetery church of All Saints known worldwide for its macabre decor back in the early 1300s an abbot of the Sedlech monastery brought back holy soil from Jerusalem and scattered it across the church’s cemetery and suddenly everyone wanted to be buried in that sacred ground but over
Population kicked in and the old bodies had to be dug up to make room for fresh corpses in true waste not want not fashion the abbots decided to put the exumed bones to good use a local Czech woodcarver named Frantisek Rint was given the daunting task of arranging the collection of 40 0
0 0+ human remains in a visually impressive way and he clearly delivered the bony structures include four candelabras a family crest and several streamers of bones cascading down from the ceiling the most stunning display is probably the church’s massive chandelier which contains almost every bone found in the human body
Plus some creepy cherubs for good measure 14 the Kawa Engine volcano in Indonesia is equal parts terrifying and spectacular the Java peak has abnormal amounts of sulfuric gases that reach temperatures of more than 11,000 degrees Fahrenheit and combust as they seep through the cracks and come in contact with the air terrifying
The gas is sometimes condensed into liquid sulfur which then takes on an other worldly shade of blue and flows down the volcano like lava spectacular while the beautiful lights can only be seen in the dark kawaii gen sulfur burns at all hours as a result the surrounding air is filled with sulfur dioxide
And the adjacent crater lake has turned green from hydrochloric acid saturation 15 Harper Villa is a 86 year old theme park located in Singapore and it’s pretty much the polar opposite of Disneyland its colourful entrance of Chinese arches seems innocuous enough but then you actually step inside and see that Haw Par
Villa is covered with more than 1,000 statues each stranger than the last yes it gets stranger than a human head on a giant crab the underworld themed Ten Courts of hell is the main feature of Haw Par Villa intended as a way to teach young children about morality
The dioramas portray severe modes of punishment accompanied by a plaque card explaining the sin that warranted such lashings you’ll find people getting cut in half by a giant saw crime misuse of books dismembered crime cheating on examinations or thrown onto a hill of knives crime lending money with exorbitant interest rates
16 this seemingly serene forest at the bottom of Mount Fuji has an extremely tormented history coloquially known as suicide Forest Aoki Gahara is the world’s second most common site for suicides after the Golden Gate Bridge in 2010 alone 247 people attempted to take their own lives here
Some blame this tragic phenomenon on the forests association with demons in Japanese mythology others point towards the density of the trees which muffles sound and makes it extremely easy to get lost many hikers even Mark their paths with tape or string to make it easier to find their way back out again this
Combined with the sprinkling of clothing and letters throughout the labyrinthine woods gives Aoki Gahara a terrifying Blair which meets Palace of Nosso’s vibe that will chill you to your bones 17 they whole Ronk Conan was one of the most famous contemporary folk artists in Finland during his lifetime
But he was also a recluse refusing to showcase his pieces in public spaces instead he built his collection of nearly 500 concrete figures in his backyard forming his own personal sculpture garden in the process the biggest display on the grounds is a group of around 200 statues
Arranged in a variety of yoga poses while there’s something obviously unsettling about the sculptures supposedly all self portraits they are nowhere close to being the most sinister items in the garden Ron Conan’s collection features an array of creepy individual statues from a nun lurking behind bushes to a cloaked man with long
Outstretched arms the malevolent grins accessorized with real human teeth and black sunken eyes of these figures are exactly what the doctor ordered provided you have a desire to never sleep peacefully again I am eighteen located in the small Czech village of Lukova Saint George’s Church hasn’t had the easiest life
The 14th century church burnt down an unusual number of times throughout the centuries most recently in the late 1960s that blaze brought down part of the roof during a funeral and the congregations finally decided the place was haunted and left it abandoned for more than 40 years that all changed in 2012
When an art student named Jacob Hadrava decided to breathe new life into the church in the creepiest way imaginable that is Hadrava built a set of eerie figures made from applying plaster to live models draped in sheets and placed them around the sanctuary giving the appearance of ghosts gathered for midnight mass
The installation ended up being quite a hit with locals and the site is still open on Sunday afternoons for people wanting to sneak a peek at the ghost church 19 it’s hard to find any article or video of Mount Washan without seeing headlines touting the most dangerous hike in the world
Indeed this attraction in central China is most popular among travelers for its Plank Walk a rickety 12 inch wide wooden path attached to the side of the mountain thousands of feet off the ground intrepid visitors are invited to sidestep across the pathway while holding onto loose metal chains
All while looking out for broken or missing planks some claim the perilous hike is worth the bragging rights as well as the beautiful temples and views at the summit while others are perfectly happy reaching the spoils via a 10 minute cable car ride you can decide for yourself
20 often considered the oldest surviving doll hospital aka a place where dolls can get repaired and restored in the world Hospital Debonecas is something of a hidden treasure tucked between storefronts on one of Lisbon’s busiest shopping streets the hospital has been operating in the same spot since 1830
And people can put their name on a four month waiting list to have their dolls taken care of by the loving staff that said there’s something inherently unnerving about the mere concept of a doll hospital chalk it up to cabinets filled with plastic heads drawers filled with glass eyes and beds filled with
Patience that we only hope don’t come alive at night Hospital Debenecas is certainly worth checking out during your next trip to Lisbon but maybe save that rewatch of Annabelle until after your visit 21 it might look mildly terrifying at first glance unless your lifelong dream
Is to jump into a pile of stinging invertebrates but on Geimel to Katau Jellyfish Lake is actually one of the most delightful places in Palau located on Isle Malc Island this marine lake is home to millions of jellyfish that slowly migrate across the water each day following the path of the sun
Tourists can obtain a pass to visit the island and snorkel among the golden jellies and moon jellies all of which are totally harmless 22 while there are plenty of reportedly haunted hotels around the world the award for creepiest accommodations has to go to the Clown Motel in Tonopa Nevada
The brainchild of Las Vegas chef VJ Mayhar the appropriately named motel is hard to miss complete with a polka dot facade brightly coloured doors and two 19 foot clown cutouts book ending the property which we must mention sits adjacent to a cemetery but that’s nothing compared to what you’ll find inside
Namely a collection of more than 3,000 clown figurines guests can browse the collection and pose with life size clown dolls in the main building then retreat back to one of many rooms decorated with clown paintings and murals depicting famous horror movie villains yes including Pennywise Sweet Dreams
23 climbing up Nicaragua’s active Cheryl Negro volcano but what if you want to bump the excitement level up a notch welcome to volcano boarding an activity where you sit or stand on a piece of plywood and slide your way down the slopes it’s essentially like wintertime sledding
Only you run the risk of being burned by lava or breathing in toxins you’ll definitely want to find some way to obtain protective goggles and clothing as Cheryl Negro has erupted more than 20 times since 1850 Bigfoot Hostel is one of many companies offering guided group tours for $29 you get
Transportation to the volcano boards safety equipment snacks and your speed clocked by a radar gun village with one very notable feature Pennsylvania let us to believe that the entrance to hell is thrilling enough
Visiting the scariest places on earth might not sound like a great use of your PTO at first, but hear us out: Many things that are terrifying at first glance often lead to some of the most fascinating, downright beautiful corners of the planet. We’re talking limestone caves as tall as cathedrals, eternally burning pits in the middle of the desert, and marine lakes filled with millions of golden jellyfish.
And if you’re looking for straight-up creepiness, don’t worry—there are places just for you, too. (Hello, churches made entirely out of human bones.)
Our planet certainly has its fair share of terrifying and mysterious places just waiting for the next morbidly inclined traveler to come visit. From Italy to Antarctica, these are some of the scariest places on earth. Have you started packing your bags yet?