If you have a lot of stamina, most of these places can be easily visited.
1. Parisian Catacombs - Paris, France
At the very beginning of the history of Paris, when Christianity flourished, the practice of burying the dead, not on the outskirts, but within the city became applicable. As the city grew, its cemeteries became overcrowded and unsanitary.
The areas surrounding the most popular cemeteries were so heavily contaminated with decaying debris that a new large-scale burial ground was needed. In the late 1700s, six million Parisian "dead" were exhumed and transported to the underground tunnels of the Parisian catacombs. It is said that the hostile spirits whose bodies were disturbed are now visiting the tunnels.
Visitors say that not only human remains crawl out in the tunnels, neatly buried row after row, but also supernatural phenomena: cold spots, the feeling that you are being watched, dark figures, and there have even been several cases of suffocation by ghosts.
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2. Island of the Dolls - Xochimilco, Mexico
Imagine floating lazily down a maze of rather small canals in Xochimilco, south of Mexico City. You see the other trachinera gondolas - colorful boats carrying visitors, live traditional music playing next to you while you enjoy your breakfast, looking out at the wildlife and tastefully manicured gardens on the islands sailing nearby.
Then you look up and realize that instead of the wilderness, you are actually surrounded by dolls. Your boat has sailed away, the music has died down and there are only dolls around - mutilated, dirty, disgusting dolls. Thanks to Don Julian Santana Barrera. The story goes that Barrera found the body of a little girl near his island in the canals. He believed that he was being haunted by her ghost, and decided that these creepy dolls would help protect him from the spirit of the girl.
Predictably, he spent the next quarter of a century hiding in his home until he died … or rather he drowned in the very place on the river where the girl's body is said to have been found. Visitors to the island are convinced that the dolls have adopted the spirit of a girl or are spawning evil spirits on their own, and are often seen whispering to each other.
3. Castle in Roscrea, Offaly, Ireland
If there is a room in the old castle called "Bloody Chapel" - this is enough for me that my feet are not in this building. The chapel got its name and ghost story sometime in the mid-1500s when the chapel priest was stabbed to death in the middle of a service by his crazy brother, who left him to bleed on the altar.
The Underground Dungeon - a long, spiked shaft at the back of the chapel where the castle's enemies were dumped to die - is another likely source for the 20 or so spirits rumored to appear in the building today. The most feared of these is the Elemental, a hunched-over creature with a decaying face that smells of rotting body and sulfur.
4. Larundel Psychiatric Hospital - Bandura, Australia
In 1953, Larundel Psychiatric Hospital opened its doors to hundreds of patients with varying degrees of mental illness and psychosis, as well as one famous patient who, after his time in the institution, became one of Australia's most notorious serial killers. Today, the building is covered in graffiti such as pictures of monsters, straitjackets and bizarre eyes.
Parts of the building were badly damaged by the fire, which is believed to have triggered restless spirits. People, exploring the territory, often talk about loud sounds, strong, unpleasant smells, and sometimes they hear children's crying or - which is somehow even creepy - laughter.
The most common audible sound is that of a young girl's music box on the third floor. The girl is said to have died there, and sometimes appears to visitors in a nightgown with a box in her hands.
5. Tower of London - London, England
Since the 1070s, the Tower of London has been used as a royal residence, menagerie, mint and treasury, arsenal, but is most often remembered as a torture chamber and a prison used by English monarchs to quench their thirst for violent punishment. The spirit of Anne Boleyn, executed here in 1536, wanders through several parts of the tower, especially in the place where she was executed.
Her ghost was seen headless wandering around the Royal Chapel. Another victim of Henry VIII, the Countess of Salisbury, escaped before she was beheaded, but the executioners caught up with her throwing an ax that killed her - a terrible scene that is played out repeatedly by the spirits and which can be seen by visiting the Green Tower.
6. Linda Vista Hospital - Los Angeles, California, USA
Linda Vista Hospital in Los Angeles previously flourished. But as the eastern Los Angeles neighborhoods change, so have customers and employees alike. In the 1970s and 80s, the quality of care was affected by the decision of doctors to move to hospitals in wealthier neighborhoods, leading to unusually high mortality rates in Linda Vista.
By 1991, the hospital had ceased to exist and was quickly emptied. In the following years, the building quickly fell into disrepair, and rumors spread of screams in the night, inexplicable voices, the appearance of ghosts and the sounds of a disembodied, insanely eerie hum. Urban explorers swear that the little girl still hangs in one of the old operating theaters, and sometimes tries to grab a living person's hand for comfort.
The hospital is going to be converted into an apartment for the elderly, if there are any grandparents whom you do not particularly like.
7. Aokigahara Suicide Forest - at the foot of Mount Fuji, Japan
The dense forest of Aokigahara was a popular destination for suicides even before Wataru Tsurumi's 1993 bestseller The Complete Guide to Suicide, which called it the perfect place to die. Suicide was so common here that in the 1970s, the government instituted annual sweeps to remove bodies - most of which were found in various stages of decay, hanging from trees in loops.
Approximately 70-100 bodies are found here every year, so it is terrifyingly likely that the sounds of weeping through the trees may be from real living people committing suicide, but many believe that the forest is cursed to torture the souls of the dead here. In any case, I would not like to find out the details.
8. Edinburgh Castle - Edinburgh, Scotland
The castle's dungeons, especially those with 900 years of history, have seen different hard times. The dungeons of Edinburgh Castle are inhabited by the spirits of such strange personalities as Lady Janet Douglas, who was accused of being a witch and was later burned at the stake (along with 300 other women who were burned throughout the history of the castle), Prince Alexander Stuart Albany, who fled by killing the guards and burning their bodies.
When visiting, we expect to see their ghosts and the spirits of a headless drummer, phantom bagpiper, stray dog from the dog graveyard, and many other deceased prisoners roaming the halls. Visitors also report eerie feelings of being watched, unnatural fluctuations in temperature, breath sounds from out of nowhere, and worst of all, invisibility touching their faces.
9. Igorotov's Burial Caves - Echo Valley, Sagada, Philippines
For centuries, coffins containing the remains of famous citizens of the small mountain town of Sagada in the Philippines have been hung along the cliffs of the Echo Valley. The tradition is associated with the belief of the Igorot tribe that the hanging bodies of the dead bring them closer to heaven, and in addition save their bodies from scavengers.
The tradition goes back centuries, some decaying coffins fall from the rocks, and the area around is a little terrifying because of this. Along with the coffins suspended from the rocks, many coffins fill the caves below.
According to local residents, not only coffins and remains are in the Echo Valley. Sometimes you can hear whispering voices, and here and there shadows appear. It was also rumored that the ghosts of the caves were mischievous, but the people of Igorot usually say that if you just show some respect and don't bother the coffins, you will come out of the valley unharmed.
10. Hotel Cecile - Los Angeles, California, USA
The Cecile Hotel in downtown Los Angeles has a reputation for being where you might not want to stay due to drug addicts, serial killers, and genuinely cheated tourists. It was first heard about in 1947, in connection with the still unsolved case of the murder of the Black Orchid girl, in the following years the hotel was associated with several more mysterious deaths.
After a series of suicides and several murders in the rooms, the hotel became known as the residence of serial killers Richard Ramirez (Night Stalker) in 1985 and Jack Anterweger (Vienna Strangler) in 1991. And then there was Eliza Lam, who disappeared from the hotel earlier this year. Shortly after her disappearance, a video was released in which Eliza is in the hotel elevator (in her last known location) desperately pressing buttons, hiding, peeking out into the hallway, and waving her arms down the hallway.
A few weeks later, after residents of the hotel complained about the stinking and strange-tasting water, her body was found at the bottom of one of the rooftop water tanks, although the area was closed by an emergency door. In the absence of visible signs of injury and the absence of prohibited substances in her body, her death was recognized as an accident.
If you believe that she accidentally stripped naked and climbed without a ladder into one of the 2.5 meter high water tanks, fell inside and closed the tank lid behind her, then yes - there is nothing wrong with the Cecile Hotel.
11. Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum - Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Worst Resting Place - An estimated 14,000 men, women and children were imprisoned by the Khmer Rouge, the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh has seen much horror over the past few decades. There is nothing unexpected about rumors of restless spirits, in a place where thousands of horror stories have taken place.
Museum workers are known to leave food during their lunch break for spirits - they say that otherwise they cannot eat peacefully due to poltergeist activity and loud crackling. The guards say they saw dark figures wandering at night and regularly hear screams and knocks inside buildings.
Other workers also say that the spirits of the dead come to them in their dreams at night. As terrifying as the thought of thousands of tortured souls roaming the scene of their brutal murders may be, the reality of what actually happened in those cells sounds a hell of a lot worse.
12. Lemp Mansion - St. Louis, Missouri, USA
The Lemp family's history in St. Louis began in 1838, when Johann Adam Lemp built his own small shop to sell his own produce, household items and lager beer. The light beer was so popular that Lemp started a brewing business, which made his family and himself very wealthy.
Despite the success, the Lemp family survived 4 suicides (and the murder of an unfortunate dog). And all this happened in their mansion. After the last member of this family died, the mansion was turned into a boarding house, and the building began to collapse. After the sounds of walking, knocking and other strange sounds, people began to say that the building was inhabited by ghosts.
Today you can rent rooms in the mansion and check the existence of visions, other moving objects, as well as leave a toy in the attic for the ghost of the illegitimate son of William Jr. He was everyone's favorite.
13. Chernobyl - Pripyat, Ukraine
300,000 people were evacuated from areas adjacent to Chernobyl on April 26, 1986. Hundreds of residents and members of clean-up teams have died from radioactive poisoning, and people living in neighboring cities have been suffering from exposure to radiation for years.
Although the area has been empty for nearly 30 years, this site and the abandoned villages surrounding it have become the site of strange phenomena. Eyewitnesses reported seeing ghostly figures moving through the streets and buildings, especially near the Pripyat hospital. But the saddest reports actually came BEFORE the disaster.
Reports of winged, giant dark figures - human-like but with glowing red eyes - began to surface in the vicinity of Chernobyl a few weeks before the accident. People also reported nightmares and threatening phone calls, with everyone around them watching what became known as the Black Bird of Chernobyl. The inexplicable continued until the morning of April 26th. After the accident, I have never seen the Black Bird of Chernobyl.
14. Shanghai Tunnels - Portland, Oregon, USA
Portland's underground tunnel network was heavily used from the 1850s to 1940 for human trafficking and other seedy purposes. Many of those who ended up in Shanghai - having fallen into tunnels through hatches hidden in bars and other questionable establishments, were sold as labor on long sea voyages - did not survive.
The dark and dusty passageways are now home to the souls of former tunnel workers and those who were trapped and imprisoned here, such as Strawberry, a little girl who lived in a basement with Nina, a long-dead prostitute.
15. Cannibal Village - Nabutautau, Fiji
In 1867, the Reverend Thomas Baker, a Christian missionary, visited a small village in the Fiji Mountains. Soon after his arrival in Nabutautau, the monk and his companions through Fiji were executed, cooked, and eaten. More than a hundred years later, cannibalism ended in Fiji, but the spirits of the missionaries have not yet quieted down.
The villagers of present-day Nabutautau believe that they are still haunted by the spirits of those who were eaten that day, and that the forests around where Reverend Baker was beheaded are cursed as punishment for past wrongs. Reports of strange sounds, crying, screaming and footsteps in the forest have become commonplace for generations, along with rumors of moving phenomena between trees at night.
To put an end to the curse, in 2003, the villagers of Naubautau held a ceremony of reconciliation with the descendants of the slain missionary to try to make amends for what their ancestors did to the Reverend Baker and his group. It didn't seem to help.