Sometimes, when you travel, you look for an adrenaline rush, which can be satisfied by bungee jumping, rock climbing or ghost-hunting. Whether it is solo, or with friends, looking into haunted, spooky places for spirits and unusual occurrences that may or may not exist can be one memorable adventure! It’s quite a thrill, and some of these places have a deep, saddening history of human error and ignorance, which can serve to humble us, and provide for quite the spooky, sombre trip. Following are the picks for the top 5 haunted places to visit around the world.
- Aokigahara Forest, Japan: Japanese have many mythical urban legends. Sadako, the girl from The Ring, and Kuchisake – Onna or slit-faced woman, are two common ones. However, they pale in comparison to the infamous Aokigahara forest, also known as the Sea of Trees or the Suicide Forest.
Japan has a grueling work culture, due to which, many salarymen choose to commit suicide. A fair amount of them attempt it in this forest. The forest, historically, has been associated with the yurei, or the ghosts of those who have been left to die. Folklore and legends suggest that the practice of Obasate, literally ‘Abandoning a parent’, might have been practiced here. The practice involves carrying an old man or woman to a mountain or a forest, and leaving them there to die.
The place has been a popular suicide spot for ages, and it is very, very scary to imagine that a forest you are standing next to might be haunted by someone who committed suicide there some time ago.
- Chernobyl, Ukraine: Chernobyl is the home to one of the largest nuclear disasters in the world. In 1986, a combination of a flawed design and human incompetence led to a reactor meltdown. The whole town was contaminated, and had to be abandoned. There had been an estimated 4000 deaths because of the contamination, and the area is not safe for human habitation for at least 20,000 years.
Going into the area requires you to wear protective garments, and it is not recommended to stay there for extended periods of time. The place is desolated, and things are left as they probably were when the alarms sounded. No cleaning up has been done, as no one is courageous enough to enter the premises. Children’s toys are scattered around outside houses, with paint peeling off, but perfectly set tables, made beds, almost as if it was lifted out of time, and someone was living there, but left a second before you arrived. It is a truly chilling experience, and would be a memorable experience.
- Bhangarh Fort, Alwar, India: This fort, located in the town of Alwar, Rajasthan, has a mythology that has attracted thrill seekers from around the world for many years. According to the legend, a wizard fell in love with a princess and tried to give her a love potion. The princess threw it onto a rock, and the rock fell in love with the wizard and crushed him to death. In his dying breaths, he cursed this town to ruin and claimed that everyone living there would die an unnatural death. Locals believe that if the princess is reborn and comes back to visit the fort, the wizard’s curse will be lifted.
- Corvin Castle (Hunyadi Castle or Hunedoara Castle) in Hunedoara, Romania: Vlad III Dracula, better known as Vlad the Impaler, is the originator of the vampire mythos. He was an important and cruel ruler, but nowhere has been the reports of his cruelty scarier than during his imprisonment in Corvin castle. During this period, there had been numerous proofs of him being a vampire. He earned the nickname of ‘The Impaler’ when he invited the leaders of some people, who opposed his rule, to a banquet, stabbed them on arrival and impale their twitching bodies on spears. His castle has been haunted, according to the locals, ever since his death in an ambush, and there have been numerous sightings of Vlad in the castle.
- The Paris Catacombs, France: The underground of Paris is filled with long tunnels and caves, known as catacombs, and has been this way for decades. It used to be the burial ground for those affected with diseases in the dark ages, and when the Black Plague and the Spanish Flu hit, there wasn’t enough space to bury these bodies in regular graves. The bodies were dumped in these catacombs, and when you go in there, you will see a long, intricate designs and patterns made of human skeletons. The creator of these is still unknown, and all of the catacombs haven’t even been explored yet.
Aforementioned are the picks for the spookiest places around the world. Think twice before visiting these places, because it can get really messy in there!
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