Money cannot buy happiness, but a ticket to wherever your heart desires is easy. True, trips to the moon are still impossible, but is it worth flying to the moon if there are truly amazing places on the planet where people are very rare. And all because getting into these beautiful and mysterious nooks is incredibly difficult, and often just dangerous.
Vatican Secret Archives
In the very heart of Rome is a huge treasury that reflects the culture and history of dozens of nations and states. The archives contain important government papers, correspondence, papal accounts and other documents containing information that the church does not intend to share yet. Since 1881, only highly qualified specialists have been allowed access to a limited portion of the priceless collection of ancient and medieval manuscripts.
North Sentinel
North Sentinel Island is only 72 sq. km - the only place where the land truly belongs to the people who live there. This is a kind of reservation, a security zone, where the Indian authorities have banned access to both the local population and tourists, since even long-tamed civilized diseases can be deadly for the islanders. And the locals themselves do not favor newcomers, and any attempts to approach the island are met with a welcoming shower of arrows.
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Lasko caves
The system of caves in the south of France, which is also called the "Sistine Chapel of primitive painting", because their walls are dotted with images of animals, people and various abstract images.
It was found that even the mere presence of a person in the cave destructively affects the rock art, so the Minister of Culture of France in 1963 decided to stop the pilgrimage of tourists, and the caves were closed to the public.
Now, only the guards can afford to admire the original drawings of the ancestors for several minutes only once a week.
Surtsey Island
Modern scientists have long believed and declared publicly that the formation of a diverse and mature relief should take a huge amount of time - millions of years: the old Earth owes its age to this hypothesis.
However, a volcanic island off the coast of Iceland, raised from the depths by a volcanic eruption from 1963 to 1967, surprised geologists with the formation of canyons, ravines and other landscape delights in just a few years.
The road here is closed to people, animals and plants, so as not to interfere with the natural development of life on the youngest island in the world.
Snake island
It turns out in Brazil, where there are many, many wild monkeys, there is an island in the Atlantic Ocean 35 km south of Sao Paulo, where there are many, many poisonous snakes.
This is the only place on the planet where the island botrops, or golden spear-headed snake, lives, the poison of which has the fastest action and practically melts the flesh and internal organs of a person.
Thrill-seekers can leave their childish amusements such as Russian roulette or skydiving from space and visit an island where the density of the snake population is approximately equal to the density of passengers at rush hour in the Moscow metro.
An exclusive club for gentlemen
White's Club, founded in 1693 by an Italian and located at 37 St. James's Street, London is an elite club in England and only the poorest of all white males can be members.
As a rule, it consists of the rich, politicians, athletes and artists, and you can join it on the recommendation of three of its active participants.
So you have a much better chance of getting an appointment with the Queen of England than this not the most expensive, but definitely the most fashionable club for gentlemen.
Poveglia Island
In the Venetian lagoon, there is a small uninhabited island - Poveglia, which is guarded around the clock by a naval patrol, and any outsiders are restricted from entering it.
During the plague epidemic, the island became a kind of death isolator, where not only corpses were brought, but also still living people, leaving there alone with the disease or burning alive.
More than 160 thousand people were buried on a plot of land approximately equal to seven football fields, so rumors that 50 percent of the soil on the island consists of dust does not make sense.
In 1922, a hospital for the mentally ill was opened here, with whom they did not stand on ceremony at that time and conducted experiments using the latest methods of treatment, more reminiscent of medieval torture. After the hospital closed in 1968, the island was abandoned.
True, lately there has been talk about the desire of the local authorities to sell the haunted island or lease it out, but no buyer has yet been found.
Tomb of the first emperor of China
The tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, who died in 210 BC, consists of an intricate network of underground caves that represent an entire underground city.
In its center is the mausoleum of the emperor, whose remains are not allowed to be rummaged by the Chinese government, stating that the ancient burial should be respected.
Scientists' thirst is still being satisfied by more than 500 mausoleums, filled with all the things an emperor would need in the afterlife, including clay reproductions of his army, servants, horses and chariots, now known as the "Terracotta Army".
Everyone knows that the rulers prefer to have living people buried with them for the company, and it is still unknown why an exception was made in this case, despite the obsession of the deceased with the dream of immortality.
Nadezhda Vasilenko