Sedlec Ossuary
I recently came across a list that claimed to be the 10
scariest places on Earth. The list isn't
a reference to most haunted places
(that would have made it a Halloween blog), although a couple of the places on
this list are said to be haunted. Some
of these places have been abandoned due primarily to man's misdeeds. This list is in no particular order.
1) Sedlec Ossuary, Czech Republic (pictured
above)
When you have the remains of over 40,000 people, what do you
do with all those bones? The Abbot of Sedlec went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem
in 1278 and brought back some dirt he claimed came from Jesus' burial site.
Immediately thereafter Catholics from all over Europe started demanding burial
in the Sedlec Ossuary cemetery. The cemetery obviously didn't have the space to
accommodate all the continual requests. In the 16th century, the
church staff dug up everyone buried there and used those bones for decoration:
there's a chandelier made from one of every bone in the human body, garlands of
skulls, and a replica of the Schwarzenberg coat of arms made from bones.
2) Centralia,
Pennsylvania
Our incredible natural resources is one thing that has made
America such a prosperous country. Unfortunately, those natural resources can
occasionally turn on us and that's what happened when a coal mine near
Centralia, Pennsylvania, caught fire in 1962. The veins of coal ran under the
town which ultimately turned Centralia into a literal hellhole. Temperatures
over 1000 degree Fahrenheit accompanied by belching clouds of poisonous gas.
Once the initial conflagration settled down, people began to move back but soon
discovered that the veins of coal were still burning resulting in blazing hot
sinkholes that swallowed people without warning. Most of the residents have
moved away.
3) Pripyat, Ukraine
A colossal example of man's ability to really screw up the
planet is on display in Pripyat in the Ukraine. The town's former population of
49,000 was evacuated following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. Now
referred to as the zone of exclusion,
it looks like a freaky ghost town. The few people who have ventured back into
the town report an atmosphere of desolation and terror. Dolls on school house
floors, vehicles in disrepair on the roadsides, and the skeleton of an
abandoned amusement park that's hauntingly scary.
4) Aokigahara Suicide Forest
The Aokigahara Forest at the base on Mt. Fuji in Japan is
associated with multiple demons in Japanese folklore. There's something about
the supernatural forest that drives
people to suicide. An average of 100 people travel to Aokigahara every year to
kill themselves, mostly by hanging or drug overdose. Legend says that in the 19th
century families would abandon their elderly relatives there to die when they
couldn't take care of themselves.
5) Lome Bazaar, Togo
If you've ever been to a street market in a third world
country, then you know how crazy things can be. So, take all that energy and
put it in a bazaar that sells only materials for voodoo and you have the Lome
Bazaar in Togo. The bazaar is a one stop shop for a wide variety of terrifying
things used to do terrifying things. The absolute volume of grisly death that
stares at you is enough to make the strongest person weak in the knees.
6) Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Cambodia
The Khmer Rouge period of Cambodian history is one of the
scariest genocides in history. Millions of innocents were slaughtered and the
museum is located where it all happened. In Khmer, "Tuol Sleng"
translates as "Strychnine Hill." The museum is housed in a former
death camp and notoriously haunted by ghosts of the thousands who died there.
Of the 17,000 people who were admitted to the prison, only seven survived.
7) Body Farm in Knoxville, Tennessee
Sometimes science has to do some pretty disgusting things to
make advancements, but we don't make them vacation spots. Studying the
decomposition of the human body can give researchers lots of knowledge useful
to medicine, forensics, and others. To monitor a body decomposing in real time,
you go to the body farm on the campus of the University of Tennessee in
Knoxville. It's 2.5 acres of land and at any time has multiple bodies laid out
in various positions. Over 100 corpses are donated to the Body Farm every year.
8) Helltown, Ohio
The village of Boston was founded in Ohio's Summit County in
1806 and succeeded until 1974 when something weird happened. President Ford
signed a bill authorizing the area to be turned into a national park, the
houses were purchased and boarded up, but no park was ever built, resulting in
a deserted town in the middle of nowhere. The newly named Helltown spawned some
terrifying legends including Satanist sacrifices, mysterious toxic waste
spills, and an escaped mental patient who wanders the woods.
9) Fengdu, China
With China's population, there isn't much room left for a
ghost town—except for Fengdu, located on the north bank of the Yangtze River.
Fengdu is completely abandoned. It's rumored to be a junction point between
Earth and the underworld where rampaging demons grab unaware souls.
10) La Isla De La Munecas, Mexico
Dozens of small, uninhabited islands dot the canals south of
Mexico City. It's not just the polluted runoff from Mexico City that makes the
area less than desirable. Fifty years ago, a man named Don Julian Santana lived
the life of a hermit on one of the islands. One day he fished the corpse of a
young girl out of the water. As a form of protection, he started hanging dolls
from the tree limbs and branches on his island. He continued to do this over
the next few decades until the entire island was cluttered with broken,
weathered dolls giving it the appearance of a terrifying place.
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