5 creepy places to visit for their dark history
Do you just want to go on a good, stressful vacation, one that you will have nightmares about the rest of your life? Take your partner out to a nice, unromantic, terror inducing, gut wrenching, and bowel clenching site so they’ll possibly have you reported? Fret not then dear reader, we have your back with this list of creepy places to visit for their dark history;
Aokigahara, Japan
Aokigahara sits at the northwest base of Mount Fuji in Japan. The forest is also lovingly called ‘Suicide forest’. How many suicides does it take to earn that nickname you ask? Apparently over 500, starting since before 1960s. It’s true, it’s on Wikipedia. Wikipedia does not lie.
For some strange reason this forest, even though it is one of the most creepy places to visit for their dark history, draws hundreds of Japanese people looking to end their lives, most of which are reportedly male. In the 1970s, this problem got nationally recognised and the Japanese government, along with the police, volunteers and journalists started doing annual searches for dead bodies in Aokigahara forest.
Aokigahara is so dense that it is notoriously devoid of sound and it is said that conveniently dark and silent corners are easy to find even when the sun’s up high. So why don’t you go down there and take a leisurely stroll and bump into a corpse or two, it will be an experience to remember.
Winchester Mystery House, California
The Winchester Mystery house is a giant sprawling house with dead ends, secret passages, staircases that go nowhere and doors that open to a wall. It was once the residence of Sarah Winchester, who became the heiress of Winchester Repeating Arms Company after her husband’s death, basically making her filthy rich.
But losing her husband and infant daughter had deeply saddened her and she visited a Boston medium who told her if she didn’t want to die by the ghostly hands of the victims of her company’s rifles, she needed to move west and continuously build a house to appease the spirits. She started construction of her new mansion in San Jose in 1884, which went on until she died 38 years later. The house grew bigger and bigger, with increasingly confusing twist, turns and frustrating dead ends. The idea, apparently, was to confuse the ghosts trying to haunt her.
Similarly, the interior décor revolved around a spider web design and the lucky number 13. She might have accidentally switched manuals between “How to appease angry ghosts” and “How to summon Satan”.
San Zhi Resort, Taiwan
San Zhi Resort or more appropriately called San Pod City was supposed to be a futuristic resort mostly marketed towards rich military blokes. What it ended up becoming was the love child of 90s sci-fi and a typical post-apocalyptic game.
The project of UFO shaped luxury houses started in 1978, but then it came to a gradual halt in 1980 as the number of mysterious deaths and suicides persistently increased over the span of two years. Some say that destroying the Chinese dragon sculpture that stood at the site’s entrance was the cause of the deaths, while others say that the construction site was on top of a burial ground for Dutch soldiers. Obviously the perfect place to build a resort for even more soldiers.
Poveglia Island, Italy
Poveglia Island is a small island located in north Italy in the Venetian lagoons. The beautiful island is rich in history, the kind that makes you be grateful for belonging to the 21st century. The known origin of this Island and its instigation as one of the creepy places to visit for their dark history begins on a sunny day when the famously compassionate Romans decided that they were better off dumping all plague victims on a far off island.
Several thousand people were left to slowly succumb to death. Poveglia Island was revisited again when the Bubonic plague took over Europe, and they decided to follow in the footsteps of the Romans. It doesn’t stop there though, once over one hundred thousand people were dumped in piles and efficiently burned, the Europeans saw how convenient the place was and built a hospital there, complete with a bell tower. The hospital was where the supposed ‘mentally ill’ people were sent, according to the standards of that time mind you. So basically, anyone with an irregular itch could be sent to the island. And it still doesn’t end. The hospital came as a complete set with its own psychotic doctor. A doctor who according to legend had a hobby of torturing the hospitals patients in the bell tower. If you didn’t see that coming from a mile away you need to familiarise yourself with more horror movies. According to the same legend, the doctor was pushed off the tower by plague victim’s ghosts. Now the creepy place is abandoned and haunted. There’s no official source which says it’s haunted, but seriously.
Fiji
Yup, that very Fiji. The famous paradise island, the honeymoon destination, the very island where so many people go for a relaxing vacation. That beautiful island most likely has the darkest history out of all in this list, probably made worst by how unassuming it seems now. Fiji islands have history that’s drenched in blood, guts, gore and bit and pieces of flesh, mostly consisting of children.
The natives of Fiji were all cannibals. Sources say that the trend was caused by the lack of animals that could be eaten. They weren’t your average run of the mill cannibals either; they were a whole new level of cannibals. Some missionaries went to visit the Fiji islands and have written account of what they were subjected to. One Methodist missionary, Jaggar, wrote that one servant of a king ran away. The king called a hunt and she was brought back. The queen then had her arm cut off and cooked for the king, who proceeded to eat it in front of her. The servant girl was later burned in different part of her body. She lived through all of it.
Enjoy thinking about that next time you’re sipping on champagne by the bright blue sea or taking a leisurely stroll along the shore on the lovely Fiji islands.
About the Author
Natasha Adam Hi there, I'm Natasha. A mostly sarcastic, usually caffeinated, eternal travel fanatic. My favourite activity is combining my love of travel with telling people things they never wanted to know. Which you'll find effectively applied here http://www.letstravelfirst.com
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