These five islands simply beckon with their splendor, but behind the seeming friendliness are terrifying curses.
Palmyra atoll
Palmyra Atoll is located 1,600 kilometers south of Hawaii and is owned by the United States. The place is said to be "possessed by demons."
The atoll was formed from corals that have grown in a ring around an ancient submerged volcano. Over the past few centuries, more than one ship has ended its existence in the Palmyra region. One of these unfortunate incidents served as the source of rumors about a treasure hidden on the island, cursed by the souls of dead soldiers.
Palmyra is also notorious for disappearing ships without a trace, which no one has seen since entering the waters of Palmyra.
In 1855, one ship reported a collision with a reef, but the rescuers who arrived at the scene did not find either the ship or people.
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During World War II, Palmyra was used as a staging ground for US military aircraft. It could also refuel submarines. It is said that the soldiers working on the island were often subject to panic attacks of unknown origin, possibly resulting in several suicides.
In 1974, Palmyra served as the backdrop for the double assassination of a San Diego couple. Eleanor and Malcolm Graham disappeared during their sea voyage from Hawaii to Palmyra Atoll.
Former criminal Book Walker and his girlfriend were accused of their murder, after broken and bleached bones of Eleanor were found on the banks of Palmyra. Her husband's body was never found; presumably the killers threw him into the sea.
Dax Island
Daxa Island in Croatia was the site of a massacre. Neither the stunning unspoiled forests nor the inviting beaches will attract even one tourist here.
Despite its alluring appearance, this island, which has been on sale for five years now, has not found its buyer, even with the price reduced by half. The gloomy glory of the uninhabited island scared away all buyers.
After World War II, 48 people were killed in Dax without trial or investigation, who were suspected of collaborating with the Nazis. Their bodies were not even buried. It is believed that after this, ghosts appeared - the unsettled souls of those very unfortunates.
Several years ago, the bodies of the executed citizens were exhumed and reburied, and a memorial plaque was erected on the island at the place of their death.
Lazaretto Nuovo
The Venetian island of Lazaretto, or Lazaretto Vecchio or Lazaretto Nuovo, once served as a quarantine against the plague and other terrible diseases of the Middle Ages. It was founded in 1348, when the Black Death came to Europe, mowing down from a quarter to two-thirds of the population of different countries.
In the 17th century, the hospital was closed and a military garrison was placed on the island, later there was a shelter for homeless animals, but no one has lived on Lazaretto for more than 50 years. Archaeologists work here.
In the 2000s, archaeologists discovered about one and a half thousand skeletons of people who died from the plague in the 15th - 17th centuries. Among other remains on Lazaretto Nuovo, an interesting find was made - a skull with a brick in its mouth.
After careful examination, the archaeologist Matteo Borrini revealed that the brick was placed in a skull (belonging to a European woman who died at the age of about 60) already posthumously.
What for? There is a version that at some point (for example, a common grave was excavated for the burial of the next dead) one of the corpses clearly showed signs of vampirism - a bloated body, traces of blood in the mouth and nostrils, "growth" of hair and nails - in short, then, which often accompanies the processes of decomposition and decay.
The shroud, soaked in liquid oozing from the mouth, soon decomposed, forming holes, so that it looked as if the deceased had “gnawed” it. Putting a foreign object in the mouth in this case had a magical effect: it prevented the deceased from gnawing his way out and gaining strength (echoes of the treatise "Historical and Philosophical Discourse on the Chewing Dead" in 1679 by Leipzig theologian Philip Rohr).
Snake island
This Brazilian island is definitely not threatened with deforestation by all-inhabiting people, because it is literally possessed by snakes, belonging to one of the most venomous species in the world. Their venom is five times stronger than any other snake venom and is even capable of dissolving human flesh.
The most popular theory is that 11 thousand years ago, when the sea level rose, the island was separated from Brazil, leaving the snakes with a rather limited food source, including almost only birds, sometimes flying from the mainland.
Dozens of people fell prey to snakes before the island became a no-go zone.
One of the fishermen, who did not know about all the charms of the Snake Island, decided to investigate it after a forced landing due to a motor that stopped working. When he was finally discovered, he was lying in a pool of blood covered in snake bites.
Another story shows us a family who decided to turn this uninhabited island into an inhabited one by means of their resettlement. Be that as it may, their company was not crowned with success. They were rumored to run out of the house when snakes filled their entire house, crawling through the windows. And in fact they were found all over the island in pieces.
Clipperton
The last residents of Clipperton died of loneliness.
Clipperton was discovered by Fernand Magellan in 1521, but it was named after John Clipperton, an English pirate who led a revolt against William Dampier in 1704.
According to legend, Clipperton hid a treasure somewhere on the island, which, however that may be, has not yet been discovered.
More than 100 years later, an American company for the extraction of guano (phosphate-rich excrement of seabirds and bats) settled on the island.
In 1857, the French took the island away from the Americans, declaring it part of Tahiti. In 1897, the island was again delivered from loneliness by the Mexicans who set up a military base on it.
In 1906, a British company annexed Clipperton and, in cooperation with the Mexican government, organized a guano mining settlement. In the same year, a lighthouse was erected. In 1914, about 100 men and women lived on the island. Every 2 months a ship from Acapulco arrived on the island, bringing food. Be that as it may, after the outbreak of the civil war in Mexico, the island became inaccessible to ships and the inhabitants of the island were left without outside support.
Not many survived on the island until 1915. Its last inhabitants wanted to leave the island on the American warship Lexington, which docked on the shores of the atoll in 1915, but the Mexican government did not consider the evacuation necessary.
Until 1917, only the lighthouse keeper and 15 women survived. By June of this year, only three women survived, who were finally taken away from this island on the American ship Yorktown.
Later, France and Mexico tried to acquire ownership of Clipperton. For a solution to this issue, France turned to the Vatican. In 1930, the rights were awarded to the King of Italy, Victor Emanuel II, who declared Clipperton part of France a year later. As soon as this happened, the French established a military base on the island and rebuilt the lighthouse.
As a result, seven years later, the base was abandoned, and the island still remains uninhabited.