Number 15: Lake Natron Nicknamed “Satanic Lake,” Lake Natron
lives up to its reputation, and then some- trapping and suffocating animals and birds
within its inhospitable waves. The horrible truth lies within the lake’s composition
itself; Natron. This sodium compound is a cruel mixture of chloride, sulfates bicarbonate,
and sodium carbonate, making the water’s alkaline levels off the charts. Lake Natron
is an efficient killer, drowning the creatures and calcifying their remains so no hide nor
hair remains. Savage! Number 14: Lake Hiller
Australia’s Lake Hiller stretches over three football fields long, but that’s the least
intriguing thing about this body of water. The most interesting, by far, is its bright
salmon-colored hue. Lake Hiller is perennially Millennial Pink, and the water retains its
vibrancy whether it’s in the lake itself or taken away from it. Lake Hiller gets its
special pizazz from Dunaliella Salina, and this saline-rich inland lake is an insta-worthy
must-see if you ever make it to the Land Down Under.
Number 13: Taal Lake This Filipino lake is shrouded in mystery
and a full-fledged cautionary tale of what happens when you give in to your greed. According
to legend, Tagaytay townsfolk disobeyed their wise leader and ventured to a mountain outside
their village, where they plundered it for the good stuff; rubies, diamonds, and pearls.
For their disloyalty and greed, the townsfolk were slaughtered in a spectacular rain of
fire and water, resulting in Taal Lake. Was this lake really the site of a righteous massacre?
Or is it merely one of the coolest looking lakes in the world? It’s anyone’s guess.
Number 12: Blue Lake It’s one of the deepest lakes in the world,
and scientists speculate that it hides an intricate system of underwater caves beneath
its surface. How deep is this lake? It’s hella deep, a full 846 feet deep and growing
thanks to the erosion at its silty bottom. For context, that’s deep enough to fully
submerge the iconic St. Louis Arch or Seattle’s Space Needle with plenty of space to spare.
It’s totally unlikely that we will ever fully uncover all of the Blue Lake’s secrets,
which is what makes it one of the most mysterious lakes on the planet.
Number 11: Lake Nyos What happens when a lake snaps? We all got
the answer in 1986 when pleasant, unassuming Lake Nyos erupted in a poisonous gush of gas
that quickly suffocated anyone and anything unlucky enough to live near her noxious shoes.
A whopping 1746 people perished, along with scores of animal and marine life. What caused
the calamity? Apparently, this Cameroonian lake had a nasty little secret; a volcanic
crater that was quietly belching up carbon dioxide, filling Lake Nyos to the bursting
point and eventually erupting in a deadly blanket of poison air. Perhaps even more chilling
is the fact that scientists fully expect Lake Nyos to go for round two, spewing poison gas
into the atmosphere sometime in the future. The only real question is when...
Number 10: Plitvice Lakes This magical interlocking maze of 16 lakes
and 90 waterfalls will make you feel like you just stepped through the looking glass.
With crystal-clear blue waters and some of the craziest land features of the planet,
Plitvice Lakes is an otherworldly Croatian treasure that will blow your mind. To add
a touch of mystery to the mysticism, according to legend, this lake system was conjured up
by an ancient Queen who used it to fertilize the landscape. While we can’t verify that
particular fact, it was almost certainly home to plenty of Pleistocene Era cave bears.
Number 9: Spotted Lake Spotted Lake is British Colombia’s most
bizzaro water feature ever, and if you ever visit the Okanagan Valley, you can check it
out for yourself. Summertime is when this lake really lets its funky side show, with
bright yellow, green, and blue polka dots cropping up all over the surface of the lake.
Although it looks like it’s been ripped out of the pages of a Dr. Suess book, this
lake gets its weird appearance from a very common cause; excess mineral deposits in the
water. Still, its otherworldly surface makes it a hotspot for local legends, and the Okanagan
Nation believes that the colorful spots have healing powers.
Number 8: Roopkund Lake Sky-high Roopkund Lake in India is a sunken
graveyard, and although it remains frozen for the majority of the year, when it thaws
it reveals a horrific secret; the skeletal remains of hundreds of people. The skeletons
drift to the top of the lake every year and then sink back into their frigid resting place
when the lake freezes once more. The creepiest thing about it is that nobody knows why, or
how, these skeletons are there. The bones date back to 850 C.E., and all of the lake’’s
unfortunate souls were slaughtered in the same way; with a gristly blow to the head.
Is Roopkund Lake the site of an ancient human sacrifice? Are the preserved skeletons remnants
of a token offering to the Mountain Goddess? We may never know.
Number 7: Lago Morto You know a lake means business when it’s
literally named “Lake of Death.” Lago Morto is Italy’s 24/7 one-stop-shop for
body disposal, and it definitely gets used on the regular. Lago Morto contains a massive
dose of sulfuric acid, so nothing swims in its toxic waters. Instead, the Italian Mafia
supposedly uses Lago Morto as a dumping ground for snitches, letting them swim with the non-existent
fishes in the noxious lake. The sulfuric acid eats away at the bodies, leaving not a single
trace. Number 6: The Katwe Craters
These volcanic craters pack a powerful punch and makes Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National
Park look like it’s from another solar system. The Katwe Craters, also known as the Katwe-Kikorongo
explosion craters, covers 81 square miles of the park, a sprawling distance almost as
large as Vatican City! Although not all of them are filled with water, a good portion
are unique saltwater lakes. The Katwe Craters themselves are massive, with the larger ones
spanning nearly two miles and 330 feet deep. To give you an idea of just how far these
craters pierce the ground, 330 feet deep is enough to cover Big Ben and still have 20
feet to spare. The craters were created by volcanic explosions that shot gas and steam
high into the atmosphere, carving out the craters.
Number 5: Lake Karachay If you fancy a little radiation poisoning
with your afternoon swim, you need to haul ass to Lake Karachay, the most polluted lake
in the world, and one that is absolutely guaranteed to kill you. This Russian lake has been used
as a nuclear dumping ground for ages, and as a result, it’s hot! Even the shores of
Lake Karachay are deadly, with most estimates suggesting that simply spending a few hours
on the shore is enough to zap your body with enough radiation waves to do permanent damage.
Anyone who’s seen Chernobyl knows that radiation poisoning is a slow and excruciating death,
so you’re best off staying far away from this toxic dump.
Number 4: Jellyfish Lake Palau’s Jellyfish Lake is exactly as advertised;
a marine lake full of gracefully gliding golden jellyfish that couldn’t hurt a fly. These
beautiful jellies don’t have stingers, so you can dive in and snorkel with them to your
heart’s content. Jellyfish Lake is a huge tourist destination on Eil Malk island, an
insta-aspirational site, and perhaps the only place in the world where you can chill out
with tons of jellyfish and swim away unharmed.
Number 3: Loch Ness This Scottish loch, or lake, isn’t notable
for its features, but for what supposedly lurks in its deep waters. Nessie, the serpentine
monster of the lake, is a legend and modern-day tourist attraction. People flock to the shores
of Loch Ness to try to catch a glimpse of the elusive Nessie, and there are even some
grainy photos taken of her. Whatever Nessie is, and wherever she came from, she’s been
in the lake for a long time. Ancient people started recording Nessie sightings as far
back as 565 C.E. Eerily, all of the sighings are the same; a huge leviathan monster cutting
through the mist wreathed surface of the lake. Creeeppppy!
Number 2: Groom Lake Nevada’s Groom Lake is as mysterious as
they come for one key reason; it sits squarely in the middle of Area 51. If you love aliens,
or even have a passing interest in extraterrestrial beings, you know that Area 51 is ground zero
for all of our speculative contact with green men from Mars. Groom Lake is actually a salt
flat that’s part of the Nellis Bombing Range Test Site airport. It’s highly hush-hush
and totally off limits, which just mkaes us want to check it out more. The truth is out
there! Number 1: Boiling Lake
Dominica’s Boiling Lake is a perpetually bubbling hot spot in Morne Trois Pitons National
Park. Don’t get it twisted, though; this lake is no leisurely hot spring. The water
in Boiling Lake is a fiery 197 degrees Fahrenheit, hot enough to shred off your skin if you had
the bad sense to hop in. Swimming is strictly off-limits, and if you do throw caution to
the wind and bellyflop into this toasty caldron of hot water, you will be in for a world of
hurt.
Thanks for watching! Would you rather take a spine-chilling dip with Roopkund Lake’s
resident skeletons or spend the night in a haunted graveyard all alone? Let us know in
the comments section below.