29 of the Creepiest Places on Earth

There are certain places on this planet that man considered the creepiest. Places that will certainly make your skin crawl. Places that instigate heavy breathing and strange hair-raising sensations.

Below you’ll find a list of the creepiest places from across the globe that we’d like to introduce to you. But we warn you: this is not for the faint of heart. But if you’re brave enough, though, we dare you to visit any of these!

#29. Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague

Old and overcrowded cemeteries are creepy enough, but this one takes the cake. Dating back to 1478, it has gotten full so many times and they just kept adding layers. Now there are 12 layers of graves stacked on top of each other. There are about 12,000 visible tombstones but over 100,000 people buried there.

#28. Hanging Coffins of Sagada, Philippines

Members of the Igorot tribe have been burying their dead in hanging coffins, attached to the sides of cliffs, for many years. It is thought that this brings them closer to their ancestral spirits and would also keep their bodies safe.

#27. Abandoned city of Pripyat, Ukraine

Completely abandoned now, this city had a population of almost 50,000 before being evacuated shortly after the Chernobyl nuclear accident.

#26. Island of the Dolls in Mexico

Don Julian Santana was the caretaker of this island and it was said that he found a girl drowned in the surrounding waters. Shortly after, he noticed a doll was floating in the water. So he hung it in the trees to show respect for the poor girl’s spirit. For 50 years, he continued hanging dolls until he drowned in the same waters. Now it is a popular tourist attraction that visitors keep adding to.

#25. Hashima Island in Japan

This small island was set up as a mining facility and was home to thousands until the coal ran out in 1974 and it was quickly abandoned. You can take a virtual tour of the island at the Hashima Island website.

#24. Chapel of Bones in Portugal

This chapel contains the bones of 5000 monks and to top it off, there are 2 bodies hanging from ropes and one is a child.

#23. Cambridge Military Hospital in England

This hospital was in use from 1878 until 1996 when it was closed due to high costs and asbestos in the walls.

#22. Suicide Forest in Japan

Aokigahara is a forest at the base of Mt. Fuji where over 500 people have gone to commit suicide since the 1950s. Officials put up signs with messages like, “Your life is a precious gift from your parents,” and “Please consult with the police before you decide to die,” to dissuade people from killing themselves.

#21. Abandoned House of the Communist Party in Bulgaria

The flying saucer shaped building is perched high on one of the most inhospitable peaks of the Balkan Mountains. The inscription at the entrance reads, “On your feet, despised comrades! On your feet you slaves of labor! Downtrodden and humiliated, stand up against the enemy!”

#20. Abandoned psychiatric hospital in Parma, Italy

The shadow paintings have been added by artist Herbert Baglione and definitely ramp of the creepiness factor of an already scary place. They bring to life the tortured souls that may roam the hallways here.

#19. Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic

If you thought there was only one super creepy church made of bones, think again. Also known as the Church of Bones, this chapel is decorated with the remains of 40,000 people who wished to be buried in a holy place.

#18. Beelitz-Heilstätten Red Army Military Hospital in Germany

This large complex of over 60 buildings is mostly abandoned, but a few buildings are still in use. The hospital has been in use since WWI and even Adolph Hitler was a patient here.

#17. St. George’s Church in the Czech Republic

This church was abandoned after part of the roof collapsed during a funeral service in 1968. The ghost sculptures added by artist Jakub Hadrava may keep the church running by bringing in tourist dollars, but also make it just a bit more terrifying.

#16. The Catacombs in Paris

The 200-mile-long network of underground pathways beneath the streets of Paris contain the remains of over 6 million bodies.

#15. Centralia, Pennsylvania

The town sits on a coal vein and there has been an underground fire burning in the mine since 1962. The town has been abandoned and has no zip code, but around 10 residents refuse to leave and still live there.

#14. West Virginia State Penitentiary

This gothic style jail was retired in 1995, but you can still take a nighttime tour if you don’t mind possibly seeing the ghosts rumored to be there. Around 100 executions did take place at the facility during its use.

#13. Akodessewa Fetish Market in Togo

A marketplace with all the animal parts you would ever need for voodoo. Healers will grind them up with herbs and hold them to a fire to produce a black powder. Then they will make three cuts on your chest or back and rub the powder in. Sounds fun.

#12. Cincinnati’s Abandoned Subways

The subway system was partially built in the 1920s, but was never finished due to cost. You can go on guided tours twice a year, but many people sneak in and roam around the miles of deserted tunnels alone.

#11. Hill of Crosses in Lithuania

With around 100,000 crosses, the Pope declared it a place for hope, peace, love, and sacrifice in 1993. I still wouldn’t want to be there at night.

#10. Fire Mummies of the Philippines

Also known as Kabayan, this refers to a collection of man made caves in The Philippines. Each cave is filled with mummies. Kabayan mummies are some of the best preserved on earth, and Kabayan is overflowing with them. There are so many caves that it’s easy to get lost.

What makes these mummies unique and somewhat creepy is the process by which they were made. Believed to be a thousand year old, the mummification began shortly before a person died, where they would ingest a very salty drink. After death, the body was washed and set over a fire in a seated position, thus drying the fluids. Tobacco smoke was blown into the mouth to dry the inside of the body and internal organs. Finally, herbs were rubbed on the body. It’s estimated that the entire process could take weeks, sometimes months, to finish. They were then buried in the caves. The practice died out in the 1500s when Spain colonized the Philippines.

#9. Overtoun Bridge in Scotland

Don’t bring your dog with you when you visit the Overtoun House in Scotland because of the nearby “dog suicide” bridge. An estimate 600 dogs have leapt off the bridge to their death since the 1960s.

#8. Actun Tunichil Muknal cave in Belize

There are 14 skeletal remains in these caves all with blunt trauma to the head. About half are children and they are all thought to be victims of Mayan sacrifices. The most famous is an 18-year-old girl named the “crystal maiden” because her full skeleton has been calcified over the years.

#7. Leap’s Castle in Ireland

This is said to be one of the most haunted castles in the world and has a long history of gruesome deaths. A priest was killed by his own brother during a mass in the chapel pictured above and it is now named the “bloody chapel.”

#6. Chauchilla Cemetery in Peru

The dry climate in Peru has kept many of the bodies in this ancient burial ground very well preserved. Grave robbers scattered the remains over the surrounding area, but it has been restored as much as possible to its original condition.

#5. Sanctuary of Tophet in Tunisia

Here you will find thousands of children’s graves dating back to the Punic period of Carthage. They are all thought to be victims of sacrifice during hard times.

#4. Snake Island in Brazil

There is about 1 snake per square meter on this island and they are all golden lancehead vipers, one of the most venomous snakes in the world. The final people on the island were the lighthouse keeper and his family who were killed by the snakes. The island is now uninhabited.

#3. Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo, Italy

There are around 8000 mummified bodies scattered here with many creepily hanging on the walls. In 1920, one of the most recent additions was a 2-year-old girl named Rosalia Lombardo. She is still amazingly well preserved and lies there with a bow in her hair.

#2. City of the Dead in Russia

Dargavs looks like a nice village of 100 little stone houses on a hillside, but they are actually all crypts filled with bones. Many of the people here were also buried along with their clothes and other belongings.

#1. Plague Island in Italy

Poveglia is a small island near Venice that was used as a quarantine for possibly 160,000 people with the plague from 1793 to 1814. Mass graves of the plagues victims have been found. Napoleon also used it to store weapons. To top it off, from 1922 to 1968 there was a mental hospital with a doctor rumoured to have tortured and killed many patients.

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