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Living Nightmare: World's Spookiest Spots Look Like Horror Movie Set

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It’s hard to believe that these pictures actually show existing houses and landscapes from different parts of the world, and are not from some twisted horror movie set.

© AFP 2023 / MICHAL CIZEKOld Jewish Cemetery in Prague, Czech Republic.
Over almost four centuries (1439 – 1787) more than 100,000 of the dead have been buried in this narrow cemetery; there are about 12,000 headstones. Grave-diggers covered older burials with soil to make room for newer ones. There are places where as many as twelve layers now exist. As the time passed and earth sank, old gravestones began to uncover and push away new graves. Now the cemetery looks spooky, as if headstones are densely growing up from the soil there.
Living Nightmare: World's Spookiest Spots Look Like Horror Movie Set - Sputnik International
1/16
Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague, Czech Republic.
Over almost four centuries (1439 – 1787) more than 100,000 of the dead have been buried in this narrow cemetery; there are about 12,000 headstones. Grave-diggers covered older burials with soil to make room for newer ones. There are places where as many as twelve layers now exist. As the time passed and earth sank, old gravestones began to uncover and push away new graves. Now the cemetery looks spooky, as if headstones are densely growing up from the soil there.
© AP Photo / Dario Lopez-MillsIsland of Dolls in Mexico.
Hundreds of photographers and thrill-seekers travel to the haunted Island of the Dolls every year, but it was never meant to be a tourist attraction. They were put there by a reclusive Mexican man, Julian Santana Barrera, who believed they would appease the troubled ghost of a small girl who died there over 50 years ago - and still haunts the woods today.
Living Nightmare: World's Spookiest Spots Look Like Horror Movie Set - Sputnik International
2/16
Island of Dolls in Mexico.
Hundreds of photographers and thrill-seekers travel to the haunted Island of the Dolls every year, but it was never meant to be a tourist attraction. They were put there by a reclusive Mexican man, Julian Santana Barrera, who believed they would appease the troubled ghost of a small girl who died there over 50 years ago - and still haunts the woods today.
© AP Photo / Eugene HoshikoThe Hashima Island, Japan.
Hashima is an abandoned miners’ city that was settled in 1887 when the Japanese discovered coal deposits beneath the island. Manufacturing company Mitsubishi bought the island three years later, erecting towering concrete apartments in 1916. By 1959, with 5,259 residents squeezed onto the island’s meager 16 acres, it represented one of the most densely populated places in the world. As coal levels dropped, Mitsubishi was forced to shut down the mines in 1974.
The island's most notable features are its abandoned concrete buildings undisturbed except by nature, and the surrounding sea wall. While the island is a symbol of the rapid industrialization of Japan, it is also a reminder of its dark history as a site of forced labor prior to and during the Second World War.
Living Nightmare: World's Spookiest Spots Look Like Horror Movie Set - Sputnik International
3/16
The Hashima Island, Japan.
Hashima is an abandoned miners’ city that was settled in 1887 when the Japanese discovered coal deposits beneath the island. Manufacturing company Mitsubishi bought the island three years later, erecting towering concrete apartments in 1916. By 1959, with 5,259 residents squeezed onto the island’s meager 16 acres, it represented one of the most densely populated places in the world. As coal levels dropped, Mitsubishi was forced to shut down the mines in 1974.
The island's most notable features are its abandoned concrete buildings undisturbed except by nature, and the surrounding sea wall. While the island is a symbol of the rapid industrialization of Japan, it is also a reminder of its dark history as a site of forced labor prior to and during the Second World War.
© AFP 2023 / NICOLAS ASFOURIChapel of Bones in Évora, Portugal.
The Capela dos Ossos (or Chapel of Bones) is a small interior chapel of the Church of St. Francis in Évora. It got its name because the interior walls are covered and decorated with human skulls and bones. The Chapel was built in the 16th century by a Franciscan monk who, transmit the message of life being transitory. This is clearly shown in the famous warning at the entrance: “We bones that here are, for yours await.”
Living Nightmare: World's Spookiest Spots Look Like Horror Movie Set - Sputnik International
4/16
Chapel of Bones in Évora, Portugal.
The Capela dos Ossos (or Chapel of Bones) is a small interior chapel of the Church of St. Francis in Évora. It got its name because the interior walls are covered and decorated with human skulls and bones. The Chapel was built in the 16th century by a Franciscan monk who, transmit the message of life being transitory. This is clearly shown in the famous warning at the entrance: “We bones that here are, for yours await.”
CC BY 2.0 / elminium / Sea of forestSuicide Forest in Japan.
Aokigahara is also known as the Sea of Trees (translated from Japanese), of Suicide Forest. It is a 35-square-kilometer (14 sq mi) forest that is located at the northwest base of Mount Fuji on Hoshu mail island of Japan. Aokigahara forest is very dense, shutting out all but the natural sounds of the forest itself. The forest has a historic association with "yūrei" or ghosts of the dead in Japanese mythology, and it is a notoriously common suicide site. In 2003, 105 bodies were found in the forest, exceeding the previous record of 78 in 2002.[6] In 2010, it was estimated that more than 200 people had attempted suicide in the forest, of whom 54 completed the act.
Living Nightmare: World's Spookiest Spots Look Like Horror Movie Set - Sputnik International
5/16
Suicide Forest in Japan.
Aokigahara is also known as the Sea of Trees (translated from Japanese), of Suicide Forest. It is a 35-square-kilometer (14 sq mi) forest that is located at the northwest base of Mount Fuji on Hoshu mail island of Japan. Aokigahara forest is very dense, shutting out all but the natural sounds of the forest itself. The forest has a historic association with "yūrei" or ghosts of the dead in Japanese mythology, and it is a notoriously common suicide site. In 2003, 105 bodies were found in the forest, exceeding the previous record of 78 in 2002.[6] In 2010, it was estimated that more than 200 people had attempted suicide in the forest, of whom 54 completed the act.
© Flickr / Timm SuessAbandoned mental hospital in Parma, Italy.
Abandoned psychiatric hospitals don't need much help to be creepy, but Italian street artist Herbert Baglione managed to create a fantastically atmospheric intervention in shuttered facility in Parma. In the hospital’s darkened rooms he painted loathsome shadow-creatures of its tortured ex-patients sprouting from old wheelchairs.
Living Nightmare: World's Spookiest Spots Look Like Horror Movie Set - Sputnik International
6/16
Abandoned mental hospital in Parma, Italy.
Abandoned psychiatric hospitals don't need much help to be creepy, but Italian street artist Herbert Baglione managed to create a fantastically atmospheric intervention in shuttered facility in Parma. In the hospital’s darkened rooms he painted loathsome shadow-creatures of its tortured ex-patients sprouting from old wheelchairs.
© AFP 2023 / EMILE KOUTONVoodoo Market in Akodessewa, Togo.
The Akodessawa Fetish Market, located in the Lomé, the capital of Togo in West Africa, is the world’s largest voodoo market featuring secret herb, monkey heads, skulls, dead birds, crocodiles, skins and other products of dead animals. There voodoo practitioners and tourists alike can, with the help of a fetish priest, consult the gods directly to discuss whatever is ailing them. Voodoo is an animist religion indigenous to West Africa that spread across the Atlantic to Haiti and Brazil with the slave trade.
Living Nightmare: World's Spookiest Spots Look Like Horror Movie Set - Sputnik International
7/16
Voodoo Market in Akodessewa, Togo.
The Akodessawa Fetish Market, located in the Lomé, the capital of Togo in West Africa, is the world’s largest voodoo market featuring secret herb, monkey heads, skulls, dead birds, crocodiles, skins and other products of dead animals. There voodoo practitioners and tourists alike can, with the help of a fetish priest, consult the gods directly to discuss whatever is ailing them. Voodoo is an animist religion indigenous to West Africa that spread across the Atlantic to Haiti and Brazil with the slave trade.
© AFP 2023 / PETRAS MALUKASThe Hill of Crosses in Lithuania.
Despite its looks, the Hill of Crosses is not a cemetery. It is an historical and architectural monument. It has about 100,000 crosses today. It is said that the first crosses were erected here by the next-of-kin of the rebels that fell in the 1831 uprising. Over the generations, not only crosses and crucifixes, but statues of the Virgin Mary, carvings of Lithuanian patriots and thousands of tiny effigies and rosaries have been brought here by Catholic pilgrims. The Hill of Crosses became a place of vows in Lithuania. In the beginning of the 20th century, the hill was already quite well known. It was being visited by a lot of people, and services and feasts were taking place here.
Living Nightmare: World's Spookiest Spots Look Like Horror Movie Set - Sputnik International
8/16
The Hill of Crosses in Lithuania.
Despite its looks, the Hill of Crosses is not a cemetery. It is an historical and architectural monument. It has about 100,000 crosses today. It is said that the first crosses were erected here by the next-of-kin of the rebels that fell in the 1831 uprising. Over the generations, not only crosses and crucifixes, but statues of the Virgin Mary, carvings of Lithuanian patriots and thousands of tiny effigies and rosaries have been brought here by Catholic pilgrims. The Hill of Crosses became a place of vows in Lithuania. In the beginning of the 20th century, the hill was already quite well known. It was being visited by a lot of people, and services and feasts were taking place here.
© Flickr / Bernard DUPONTThe Cave of the Crystal Sepulchre in Belize.
The Cave of the Crystal Sepulchre, or Actun Tunichil Muknal, is a cave in Belize, near San Ignacio, Cayo District, notable as a Maya archaeological site that includes skeletons, ceramics, and stoneware. There are several areas of skeletal remains in the main chamber. The best-known is "The Crystal Maiden", the skeleton of an adolescent (now thought to be a teenage boy), possibly a sacrifice whose bones have been calcified to a sparkling, crystallized appearance.
Living Nightmare: World's Spookiest Spots Look Like Horror Movie Set - Sputnik International
9/16
The Cave of the Crystal Sepulchre in Belize.
The Cave of the Crystal Sepulchre, or Actun Tunichil Muknal, is a cave in Belize, near San Ignacio, Cayo District, notable as a Maya archaeological site that includes skeletons, ceramics, and stoneware. There are several areas of skeletal remains in the main chamber. The best-known is "The Crystal Maiden", the skeleton of an adolescent (now thought to be a teenage boy), possibly a sacrifice whose bones have been calcified to a sparkling, crystallized appearance.
© Flickr / MichelleLeap Castle in Ireland.
Leap Castle in Ireland is believed to be the world’s most haunted Castle. It had a turbulent and bloody history, was used as a fortress, home, and tomb and has been the center of much bloodshed and brutal atrocities. In 1922 workmen at Leap Castle found an oubliette in a secret dungeon where they discovered enough human skeletons amassed on top of wooden spikes that it would take 3 cart loads to remove them.
Living Nightmare: World's Spookiest Spots Look Like Horror Movie Set - Sputnik International
10/16
Leap Castle in Ireland.
Leap Castle in Ireland is believed to be the world’s most haunted Castle. It had a turbulent and bloody history, was used as a fortress, home, and tomb and has been the center of much bloodshed and brutal atrocities. In 1922 workmen at Leap Castle found an oubliette in a secret dungeon where they discovered enough human skeletons amassed on top of wooden spikes that it would take 3 cart loads to remove them.
© EPA / Abel Pardo LópezChauchilla Cemetery in Peru.
Haunting Chauchilla Cemetery is 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of the city of Nazca in Peru contains prehispanic mummified human remains and archeological arti is a prehistoric burial ground where mummified corpses were laid to rest until the ninth century. Prior to 1997, it was ravaged mercilessly by Peruvian grave robbers. For many of these ancient corpses, it was the second time they lost their heads.
Living Nightmare: World's Spookiest Spots Look Like Horror Movie Set - Sputnik International
11/16
Chauchilla Cemetery in Peru.
Haunting Chauchilla Cemetery is 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of the city of Nazca in Peru contains prehispanic mummified human remains and archeological arti is a prehistoric burial ground where mummified corpses were laid to rest until the ninth century. Prior to 1997, it was ravaged mercilessly by Peruvian grave robbers. For many of these ancient corpses, it was the second time they lost their heads.
© Wikipedia / GIRAUD PatrickSanctuary of Tophet in Tunis.
The chilling Sanctuary of Tophet in Carthage was first excavated in 1921. French archaeologists uncovered a sacrificial site and burial ground, where it's believed Carthaginian children were sacrificed to the deities Baal Hammon and Tanit. The very parents themselves were in the habit of offering their children and keeping the little ones pleased on the occasion, because they might not die in tears. It's an extraordinary, haunting place, with a mass of stubby stele engraved with simple geometric shapes and symbols under shady trees.
Living Nightmare: World's Spookiest Spots Look Like Horror Movie Set - Sputnik International
12/16
Sanctuary of Tophet in Tunis.
The chilling Sanctuary of Tophet in Carthage was first excavated in 1921. French archaeologists uncovered a sacrificial site and burial ground, where it's believed Carthaginian children were sacrificed to the deities Baal Hammon and Tanit. The very parents themselves were in the habit of offering their children and keeping the little ones pleased on the occasion, because they might not die in tears. It's an extraordinary, haunting place, with a mass of stubby stele engraved with simple geometric shapes and symbols under shady trees.
© AFP 2023 / DIMITAR DILKOFFBuzludzha Monument in Bulgaria.
Buzludzha Monument (or the House-Monument of the Bulgarian Communist Party) was built on the peak of Buzludzha in the Central Balkan Mountains in 1981 and looks like an abandoned UFO. The construction took 5 years and $35 million by today's rates. After the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, the building fell into a state disrepair and the Bulgarian government has neither the funds to renovate or destroy the structure.
Living Nightmare: World's Spookiest Spots Look Like Horror Movie Set - Sputnik International
13/16
Buzludzha Monument in Bulgaria.
Buzludzha Monument (or the House-Monument of the Bulgarian Communist Party) was built on the peak of Buzludzha in the Central Balkan Mountains in 1981 and looks like an abandoned UFO. The construction took 5 years and $35 million by today's rates. After the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, the building fell into a state disrepair and the Bulgarian government has neither the funds to renovate or destroy the structure.
© Sputnik / Ruslan Vahaev / Go to the mediabankCity of the dead in the Caucasus, Russia.
Dargavs in the Republic of North Ossetia – Alania in Russia look like a neat village, but actually it is a big necropolis called the City of the dead. There people were buried by Alanian traditions with all their clothes and personal g. It comprises 99 different tombs and crypts. Some sources say the oldest of the crypts dates back to the 12th century.
Living Nightmare: World's Spookiest Spots Look Like Horror Movie Set - Sputnik International
14/16
City of the dead in the Caucasus, Russia.
Dargavs in the Republic of North Ossetia – Alania in Russia look like a neat village, but actually it is a big necropolis called the City of the dead. There people were buried by Alanian traditions with all their clothes and personal g. It comprises 99 different tombs and crypts. Some sources say the oldest of the crypts dates back to the 12th century.
© Flickr / Jan BommesBeelitz-Heilstätten Hospital in Germany.
Beelitz-Heilstätten, known as Hitler's hospital, is a 60-building treatment complex southwest of the German capital, was built in the late 19th century. During the Great War, Beelitz-Heilstätten - or Beelitz Sanatorium - was turned into a military hospital and was where a young Adolf Hitler was treated for a thigh injury acquired during the Battle of the Somme. Hitler was not the only dictator to recuperate at Beelitz-Heilstätten. In 1990 GDR leader Erich Honecker received treatment for liver cancer. When the Soviet Army withdrew in 1995 several attempts were made to privatize Beelitz- Heilstätten, without success. Finally, in 2000, the last operations in Beelitz- Heilstätten were closed and the complex was completely abandoned.
Living Nightmare: World's Spookiest Spots Look Like Horror Movie Set - Sputnik International
15/16
Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital in Germany.
Beelitz-Heilstätten, known as Hitler's hospital, is a 60-building treatment complex southwest of the German capital, was built in the late 19th century. During the Great War, Beelitz-Heilstätten - or Beelitz Sanatorium - was turned into a military hospital and was where a young Adolf Hitler was treated for a thigh injury acquired during the Battle of the Somme. Hitler was not the only dictator to recuperate at Beelitz-Heilstätten. In 1990 GDR leader Erich Honecker received treatment for liver cancer. When the Soviet Army withdrew in 1995 several attempts were made to privatize Beelitz- Heilstätten, without success. Finally, in 2000, the last operations in Beelitz- Heilstätten were closed and the complex was completely abandoned.
© Flickr / Dylan WaltersThe hanging coffins of Sagada, Philippines.
Members of the Igorot tribe of Mountain Province in northern Philippines have long practiced the tradition of burying their dead in hanging coffins, nailed to the sides of cliff faces high above the ground. The tradition which can probably be traced back more than two millennia continues to be performed to this day.
Living Nightmare: World's Spookiest Spots Look Like Horror Movie Set - Sputnik International
16/16
The hanging coffins of Sagada, Philippines.
Members of the Igorot tribe of Mountain Province in northern Philippines have long practiced the tradition of burying their dead in hanging coffins, nailed to the sides of cliff faces high above the ground. The tradition which can probably be traced back more than two millennia continues to be performed to this day.
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