Monday 17 November 2014

Secrets and shadows: The world’s most mysterious places

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1. Republic of Yemen, Socotra – Indian Ocean 

Four islands in the Indian Ocean. Considered one of the strangest, most alien-looking places on earth, a third of its plant life can’t be found anywhere else on the planet and it is famous for its umbrella-shaped “dragon blood” tree.

2. Nazca Lines – Peru
The Nazca Lines are a series of ancient geoglyphs in the Nazca Desert of southern Peru. Designated as a world heritage site in 1994, the figures range from simple lines to stylized hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys, fish, sharks, orcas, llamas, and lizards. Some claim they are connected to rituals for summoning water, some believe they were once irrigation channels, while others suggest a cosmic visitor connection.

3. Richat Structure (Eye of the Sahara) – Mauritania
An amazing natural formation in the western Sahara Desert. Spotted by astronauts on early space missions, the formation has a diameter of about 48km. Scientists initially thought it was the result of a meteorite impact, but it’s now believed to be a deeply eroded geologic dome.. We’re yet to discover why it’s circular in shape though…………..

4. Fly Geyser – Nevada, US.
This three-metre high geyser in Nevada is located on private land and owned by a millionaire who won’t let anybody else enjoy it. So cautious about the mysterious Fly Geyser is owner Todd Jaksick that he only allows a few researchers and photographers up close every year.

5. Racetrack Player – California, US
No one knows how, but the stones in California’s Racetrack Playa have managed to move from their original position in the ground, leaving a mysterious track behind. It’s been said that the strong valley winds are responsible for this shift, although we prefer the idea that aliens landed and moved them for kicks.

6. Easter Island – Chile
Easter Island off the coast of Chile couldn’t be more mysterious. 50-foot high warrior statues loom large and tall and beg the question why the island’s Polynesian people built such structures – or did they?

7. Lake Vostok – Antarctica
Could it be possible that under the icy thaw of Antarctica’s Lake Vostok are some species that have managed to survive 15 million years of isolation? Some scientists believe so, although the mystery is what these species would be like, as they’ve evolved in total darkness. Any confirmation of life in Lake Vostok could potentially strengthen the prospects of life on the icy moons of Saturn and Jupiter

8. Spotted Lake – Osoyoos, British Columbia
Spotted Lake is a remarkable natural wonder located northwest of Osoyoos in British Columbia. Containing high quantities of magnesium sulphate, calcium and sodium sulphates, much of the lake water evaporates over the summer leaving behind all the minerals. The minerals harden to form natural walkways between the soft spots.

9. Akodessewa Fetish Market – Lome, Togo.
If you think the idea of Voodoo is a thing of the past, you need to visit to the world’s largest fetish market in Lome, Togo. Selling a vast array of creepy talismans, bones and animal parts, Voodoo merchants gather from all over West Africa claiming their products offer solutions to any problem.

10. Capela Dos Ossos – Portugal.
Skull wallpaper and two skeletons hanging from chains welcome visitors to the Capela dos Ossos “Chapel of Bones” in Evora, Portugal. Built in the 16th century by a Franciscan monk, visitors must first pass the warning at the entrance that translates as “We, the bones that are here, await yours”.

11. La Isla De la Munecas – Mexico City.
If creepy dolls make you think of “Chucky” from the movie “Child’s Play”, you ain’t seen nothing until you visit La Isla de la Munecas – The Island of Dolls. Not one tree on the island, located south of Mexico City, is spared from decorative, mutilated dolls, and legend has it that the hermit Don Julian Santana collected them to enshrine for the spirit of a little girl who had died in the city’s canal – he claimed he was haunted by her ghost. Sadly, Don Julian was discovered dead by his nephew in the same canal the girl had perished in.

12. Beelitz Military Hospital – Berlin
The Beelitz Military Hospital is where Adolf Hitler spent time recovering from a leg wound following the Battle of the Somme in 1916. It was occupied by Soviet Forces in 1945, and although some sections of the hospital remained functional, wings holding the surgery, psychiatric ward, and a rifle range were abandoned in 2000, and remain unsecured. This creepy site was the set for films “The Pianist” and “Valkyrie”.

13. Pripyat – Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
The left-over scenes of what was once the home town for workers of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant are chilling. Now a ghost town within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in northern Ukraine, Pripyat once housed 49,400 residents before the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster in 1986. The area is considered relatively safe these days and guided tours of the town are in operation.

14. Hill of Crosses – Lithuania
Individuals who take place in a pilgrimage in Lithuania place a religious cross atop the hill at the end of their journey. Known as the Hill of Crosses, estimates suggests there are more than 100,000 crosses at the site.

15. Paris Catacombs
Known as the “municipal Ossuary”, the Paris Catacombs have been around since the end of the 18th century. With the remains of about 6 million people sleeping snugly amongst caverns and tunnels of Paris’s stone mines, the Catacombs are the ultimate “underground” creepy experience.

16. Aokigahara – Japan
Aokigahara, also known as the “Sea of Trees”, is an eerily quiet natural forest associated with demons in Japanese mythology, and is the destination of choice for suicide. Japanese say the forest is haunted by “Yuri” – angry spirits of those left to die. Each year police, volunteers and journalists set off to search for new bodies.

17. Mary King’s Close – Edinburgh, Scotland
Tales of ghosts, murders, and plague victims locked up and left to die put Mary King’s Close in Edinburgh, Scotland, on our list of creepy visits. An old Edinburgh Close under buildings in the Old Town, it is believed that victims of the 1644 plague were quarantined here until their death. Now Mary King’s Close is a popular tourist attraction.

18. Sedlec Ossuary – Czech Republic.
Housing the skeletons of between 40,000 and 70,000 people, it’s not so much the feeling of death that will make your blood curl at Czech Republic’s Sedlec Ossuary than the artistic arrangement of the bones. . There’s a chandelier made from bones and skulls, a cherub angel sporting a skull on his lap, and even the Schwarzenberg coat-of-arms made entirely of bones.

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