From the possible site of the legendary Garden of Eden to an island that may be covering
an Alien Base -- Today we look at the 9 Most Mysterious Islands On Earth
Number 9.
"Island of Socotra" Off the coast of Somalia in the Indian ocean
is an island that seems as though it belongs on another planet.
Socotra Island has long been theorized as a location for the biblical Garden of Eden,
and just by looking at pictures of it you can see why.
The island is home to several species of plants that are can’t be found anywhere else on
Earth.
There are the Dr. Seuss looking Adenium socotranum which have big bulbous trunks and tiny gnarly
branches that sprout from their tops and bear flowers that are a marvelous shade of pink.
There odd appearance makes them kind of look like giant root vegetables.
Then there are the Dragon’s Blood Trees which look like perfect natural umbrellas.
The have trunks that resemble that of an average tree but their thick tightly bunched branches
shoot upwards and form a mushroom like crown.
Socotra is also home to three geographically unique species of bird: the socotra sunbird,
socotra grosbeak and socotra starling.
There aren’t many other creatures that inhabit the island other than that of bats and insects
and the last time it was home to man was around the year 100 A.D.
Adding to the mystery, the island has been the site of dozens of shipwrecks over the
years.
Number 8.
"Palmyra Atoll" Though technically not an island but an atoll
that formed from coral the mysterious nature of Palmyra Atoll cannot be ignored.
Also known as Palmyra Island, the breathtakingly beautiful ringlet sits between American Samoa
and Hawaii.
Though it is full of lush vegetation and appears unblemished by man the island has long be
the subject of superstition and folktales.
There have been several cases of violent shipwrecks and mysterious disappearances of ships on
and around the island.
Those who have observed the island and survived to tell their tale have claimed having seen
some extremely bizarre sights like that of floating lights, ghosts and sea monsters.
It is also reported to be the home of an incredible amount of sharks who may have developed a
distinct taste for humans.
There is also the story of lost Incan treasure that may still be on the island.
These tales and others which cannot be discussed do to their graphic nature have made Palmyra
the stuff of legend amongst sailors and Pacific Islanders for centuries.
Number 7.
"Vulcan Island" Vulcan Island in the Philippines isn’t necessarily
an island that is shrouded in mystery but it definitely is a mindblowing locale.
On the northern Philippine island of Luzon there sits a lake named Taal and in that lake
there is an island called Taal Volcano, inside this island is the world’s largest crater
lake and inside of this lake there sits yet another island, known as Vulcan Island.
Not only is Vulcan Island one of the most fascinating of natural recursion it happens
to be located on one of the most active volcanoes in the entire Pacific Ocean.
Because of this fact it is incredibly dangerous to visit Vulcan Island as it has been quaking
and bubbling since 1991.
Number 6.
"Easter Island" The world renowned Easter Island still attracts
tourists, anthropologists and archaeologists to this day who are both perplexed and in
awe of the statues left behind by the ancestors of the native Rapa Nui peoples.
Though the mysteries behind these statues, called Moai are now mostly solved, they aren’t
the only puzzle that is confounded visitors to the small island off of Chile.
Scientists recently answered one of the biggest questions surrounding the Moai which was ‘how
did the Rapa Nui move these massive stone idols?’
They found out that these statues were specifically designed to have pot bellies so that they
could be rocked back and forth until they were eventually wiggled to where they wanted
them.
But the mystery that still remains unsolved doesn’t have to do with the Moai but rather
the people that built them.
The Rapa Nui have been found to have a completely separate genetic heritage to that of nearby
native South American peoples.
In fact their closest genetic relatives actually came from Pacific Islanders that live near
Southeast Asia.
So what is the mystery?
Well despite being located in the Pacific, Easter Island is still thousands of miles
away from the Rapa Nui’s nearest relatives.
So how did they get there?
And how did they build such advanced structures and invent their own agricultural system at
such an early period in history despite being geographically isolated from civilizations
with similar advancements?
Number 5.
"The Island of The Dolls"-The Mexico City borough of Xochimilco is steeped in Mexican
history.
Because it has long been the hub that connects the various canals and lakes of Mexico it
has been the cultural melting pot of the country.
One particular ‘floating garden’ on the canals of Xochimilco may be eerie to outsiders
but it’s origins come from a caring place, in line with Mexico’s tradition of honoring
those who have passed from this life to the next.
The legend goes like this, one day a man found the body of a young girl who had met with
a tragic fate in the waters of one of the canals.
When he later returned to the spot he found her he spotted a doll floating in the water
and believed it to have belonged to the girl.
In order to pay tribute to the girl he tied the doll to a nearby tree.
As the days passed he still felt like the girl’s spirit wasn’t at rest so he started
to bring more dolls and hang them on the trees.
Though no one knows if this story is more than myth, it has become a tradition to hang
dolls on the trees of the floating garden which is now known as ‘La Isla de las Munecas’
or ‘The Island of the Dolls’.
Although this tradition comes from the heart, it is still quite a frightening sight as the
dolls are in various states of decay and some have even told tales of them coming to life.
Number 4.
"Poveglia Island"-Just off the coast of Venice, Italy lies Poveglia Island which may have
one of the most twisted and horrifying histories of any island on Earth.
During the devastating Bubonic Plague outbreak of the 14th century the government of Venice
decided to try and quarantine the infected by sending them to Poveglia Island where they
would live out the rest of their days.
Because of this, even after the plague subsided the site became basically a national lazaretto
and used anytime an outbreak of disease occurred.
Poveglia would being to serve a new purpose in the 1920s when a mental hospital was built
on it and the terrors that the patients were subject to at the hands of their caretakers
only added to the haunting history of the island.
The island has since fallen into dangerous level of disrepair and the Italian tourism
bureau technically has forbidden people from visiting unless they go through an extensive
application and interview process.
But that hasn’t stopped ghosthunters and thrill-seekers alike from finding alternative
ways to sneak onto the spooky island.
Number 3.
"Isla Bermeja" From the 1500s up until the late 1900s there
existed an island off the Yucatan Peninsula in the Gulf of Mexico, at least according
to maps there was.
The islet of Bermeja was long used as the geographical boundary for Mexico’s section
of the Gulf but several mapping expeditions in the 20th century that went looking for
the island frankly couldn’t find it.
There are several theories as to how an island could appear on maps for the better part of
four hundred years but then suddenly disappear.
Most modern day experts believe that the island never existed at all and may have been the
result of a cartographic mistake that went uncorrected.
Some say that the island, which was described as being the color of strawberry blonde hair,
did exist but sank into the ocean.
This theory is backed up by British maps dating back to the 1840s which describe the island
being slowly swallowed by the sea.
However, there are those who believe that the island’s disappearance and the fact
that it had political significance are not mere coincidence.
Because the Gulf of Mexico is one of the most oil-rich regions on Earth some have theorized
that the island’s existence was only perpetuated by the Mexican government in order to strategically
extend their claim.
On the flipside, there are also conspiracy theorists who believe the island did exist
but was destroyed by the United States government for the same reason.
Other conspiracies claim that the island still exists but that the evidence has been wiped
from maps due to it being the site of top-secret activities.
Number 2.
"Floating Eye Island" While surveying the Parana Delta of northern
Argentina in 2016 with the hopes of finding the perfect setting for his upcoming film,
Argentinian filmmaker Sergio Neuspillerm found one of the most peculiar places in the world.
Deep in the misty marshlands Sergio came upon a lake that appeared to be shaped like a perfect
circle.
Not only that, but there was an island in the lake that was exactly the same shape and
it filled up the majority of the lake, leaving only a thin ring of water around it.
Sergio was fascinated with the island that would come to be called ‘The Eye’ and
quickly returned with a small research party.
His team reported some strange findings.
They found that the island was actually floating in the water and appeared to rotate around
the lake on its own axis.
They also say that the water was astonishingly cold and clear and the bottom of the lake
was significantly harder than the rest of the ground in the area.
Because of these mysterious observations Sergio decided to scrap the initial film project
he was working on in favor of shooting a documentary on ‘The Eye’.
Since the word got out on Floating Eye Island several conspiracy theories with it at the
center have arisen.
The most popular of these is that the island is covering a secret alien base.
Number 1.
"Diego Garcia" In the middle of the Indian Ocean is Diego
Garcia Island which has been shrouded in conspiracy.
The island, which is part of the Chagos Archipelago, was uninhabited when it was settled by French
colonists in 1793 who brought hundreds of slaves to the islands to work their plantations.
The island would eventually fall under British control as a result of the Napoleonic Wars.
After slavery was abolished, the freed slaves (who had established their own cultural identity)
stayed at the island and continued to till the land.
But the Chagossians, as they had come to be called, were forced out of their home in 1971,
in order to make way for a United States Naval Base.
The US and UK had come to an agreement allowing the US Navy to take control of the island,
but the base that the Navy wanted to build required the Chagossians to be unwillingly
relocated.
The arguably unethical methods the United States used to get the islanders to comply,
such as slowly cutting off their supplies or euthanizing their pets would only add depth
to the conspiracy theories that would subsequently arise about the island.