Far removed from the bright lights of normal human civilisation, in some of the darkest
recesses of Earth’s great expanse, are spine tingling and hellishly creepy places that
even the most intrepid of adventurer’s daren’t wander.
Here’s the seven creepiest places on Earth.
First up is Hoia Baciu forest in Romania.
This place is like the Bermuda Triangle of forests.
The forest is renowned in Romania for its spooky and paranormal happenings.
Situated in north Romania this spooky wilderness has been home to ghost sightings, UFO sightings,
disappearances and faces appearing in photographs that weren't there when the photo was being
taken.
People who visit the forest often report an overwhelming feeling that they are being watched.
People who enter the forest get unexplainable rashes and sometimes fall ill.
Electronic devices often refuse to work inside the forest.
The locals tell stories of the first ever, reported paranormal case in the forest.
They claim a shepherd mysteriously disappeared near the forest, along with his entire flock
of 200 sheep.
But that was only the start.
In the 1960s a biologist named Alexandru Sift, who was studying the forest, took a series
of unbelievable photos of a disc-shaped object hovering in the sky above the forest.
Again, in 1968, military technician, Emil Barnea captured another infamous photo of
a flying saucer over Hoia-Baciu Forest.
The have been numerous reports of people going missing in the forest and many people who
visit the forest report seeing otherworldly apparitions.
This has led many to believe that the forest is a portal to another dimension.
Next up we go to Japan for another horrifically bizarre forest, but this one has a bit more
of a macabre legacy.
Aokigahara forest sits silently at the base of Mt.
Fuji.
It may look harmless, but this one's a biter!
Aokigahara Forest is known locally as "Suicide Forest".
That's because every year people travel here in their droves just to commit suicide.
Every year over 100 people commit suicide in Aokigahara Forest.
Most victims of the Forest's disturbing allure hang themselves from the tree branches.
The worst bit is that the problem's not getting any better.
Every year the number of suicides in the forest increases.
Annual body searches have to be conducted by police and volunteers to seek out and remove
the hundreds of corpses of the unfortunate souls that the forest has claimed.
Nowhere else in the world do people so habitually commit suicide by hanging in a single location,
at least not in these disturbingly high numbers.
This irregularity has led locals to erect signs in the forest urging people not to kill
themselves.
The signs contain words of optimism, such as "Your life is a precious gift from your
parents" and "Think of your family".
No one quite knows for sure why this particular expanse of trees is chosen as the final resting
place for hundreds of people each year.
What on earth compels them to choose Aokigahara forest?
Some say it's because of a 1960 novel called Kuroi Jukai, which is about a young lover
who commits suicide in Aokigahara forest.
Poveglia Island in the Venetian Lagoon, Italy, is said to be one of the most haunted places
on Earth.
Located only a stone's throw away from the romantic utopia that is Venice, sits an island
that is a stark contrast to the captivating eyes of water-bound lovers.
Poveglia Island is known as "Plauge Island", because it was used as a quarantine station
for people who had The Plague.
Over 160,000 plague sufferers were sent to this island to be isolated from society.
About 95% of those people never left the island, because when they died from the plague on
the island, which was most of them, they were burned or buried right there on the island.
Mass graves were made on the island and thousands upon thousands of corpses were dumped on top
of one another and either burned or left to rot.
So many human remains were disposed of on this island, that the soil is said to consist
of 50% human ashes.
Perfect for growing turnips.
So, yeah, that's disturbing, but there's more.
As if this island hadn't seen enough tragedy.
Between 1922 and 1968 there was a mental asylum on the island.
The doctor at the asylum tortured and killed his own patients.
He would also conduct horrific experiments on them.
Until he eventually went crazy and killed himself by jumping out of the bell tower of
the asylum.
Chapels are meant to be places for contemplation and redemption, but not this one.
Unless you prefer to say your prayers amongst the dead.
Because this chapel in Portugal is lined from head to toe in human skeletal remains.
The chapel, aptly named the Chapel of Bones, contains the bones of 5,000 monks and to top
it off there are two bodies hanging from ropes inside the chapel and one is the body of a
child.
If you happen to have a twisted fetish for human bones you might also be interested in
The Sedlec Ossuary.
Similar to the Chapel of bones, this small chapel in the Czech Republic is covered in
human bones.
Seriously, why do people keep making things out of bones?
I’ll tell you why.
Because so many people were being buried there that the priests ran out of space, so they
decided to decorate the chapel's interior with their bodies.
Lovely.
Oh, they even made furnishings with human bones too.
Wood and nails are so overrated.
Next, to Scotland.
This creepy bridge called Overtoun Bridge is haunted by a mysterious, unknown force,
that wills dogs to their death.
For unknown reasons hundreds of dogs have spontaneously committed suicide on this bridge
by jumping off it.
Hundreds of dog owners have reported walking their beloved pet along this 15 metre tall
bridge, when suddenly the dog goes crazy and leaps off the side of the bridge without warning.
The cases always happen around the same point along the bridge.
Over 50 dogs in the past 50 years have taken their own life in the exact same way on Overtoun
Bridge.
So what is causing these animals to kill themselves?
After all, dogs are usually rather happy little fellas; it’s largely unheard of for a dog
to take their own life.
Is it an evil spirit haunting the bridge?
Or does the sight of the bridge just freak them out?
In Celtic mythology, Overtoun is known as "The Thin Place", an area where heaven and
earth are said to be very close.
Some believe dogs are more sensitive to paranormal forces and if Celtic mythology is correct,
this bridge is flooded with both good and evil spirits.
However scientists who have studied the bridge have a more rational explanation.
They found a colony of mink that reside underneath the bridge.
The mink's powerful anal glands leave scent marks wherever they go and this smell has
proven to be irresistible to dogs during trials.
So the most likely explanation is that the dogs are uncontrollably drawn to the enticing
scent of musty mink anus below the bridge and, unwise to the dangers of high places,
they throw themselves off the bridge in pursuit of the smell.
Sadly betrayed by their own noses.
In Columbia County, Pennsylvania is a borough called Centralia that is a real-life ghost
town.
In 1981 Centralia had a population of over 1,000.
Today it has a population of just 10.
So what happened?
Where did everyone go?
Centralia used to be a thriving coal mining community.
In 1962 a fire started in a mine beneath the town.
Which is not good considering the entire town sits on top of a huge vein of coal.
The townsfolk tried everything they could to put the fire out including smothering it
with water and even covering it in clay, but it continued to burn, regardless.
The fire quickly spread to numerous other mines underneath the town.
Then the ground, all over the town, started to collapse due to the immense heat coming
from the fire raging away below ground.
Pavements started to crack and crumble.
Houses collapsed without warning and sinkholes appeared in random locations.
Engulfing buildings and people.
The people of Centralia decided the town was no longer safe to live in and with no hope
of ever extinguishing the fire, everyone left.
Apart from 10 stubborn people who refused to leave.
Most of the building have either collapsed due to the fire, or been left abandoned for
nature to take over.
Today Centralia is a near ghost town; the main road which passed through the town, has
been blocked off because it's too dangerous.
Signs have also been erected throughout the town, warning people of the severe dangers
posed by the never-ending, underground fire.
It is estimated that at its current rate the fire will continue to burn for another 250
years.
Just south of Mexico City in the middle of a swamp-like canal sits the creepiest island
in the world.
Named Isla de las Munecas, which translates as Island of the Dolls.
This terrifying place is covered in child's dolls, and not the pretty kind either.
Nope, this island is decorated with hundreds of horrific, possessed dolls that totally
wouldn't hesitate to murder you in your sleep.
So, the obvious question has to be asked.
Why the hell would anyone do this?
Well the story goes like this.
The island's caretaker and its only inhabitant, Don Julian Santana Barrera, found a little
girl in the waters of the island who had drowned under mysterious circumstances.
She was found with a doll floating nearby.
Julian picked up the doll and hung it from a nearby tree as a mark of respect for the
deceased girl.
But one creepy doll wasn't enough for Julian.
Apparently the spirit of the little girl haunted him and to appease the spirit he started to
hang more dolls from trees.
Before long he had covered the island with hundreds of dolls.
Julian started to believe that all the dolls were possessed by the spirits of dead girls
and this slowly drove him to insanity.
After 50 years of collecting and hanging up dolls, Julian was found dead in the water.
He had mysteriously drowned in the exact same spot where the little girl's body was supposedly
found, all those years ago.
Some say that the little girl never actually existed and Julian made up the story as a
way of coping with his isolation on the island.
But no one really knows the truth.