Ever visited a museum about torture? Or a trick house supposedly designed to confuse ghosts? Or how about catacombs beneath a city claimed to be the final resting place of several million people? These are just some of the world’s creepiest tourist attractions that you can visit for yourself, if you’re brave enough. Read on to find out more…
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The Museum of Death, Hollywood
A rather museum that houses a collection of grisly artefacts to do with death and murders; not only are there artworks by serial killers, there are also things like autopsy instruments, crime scene and morgue photos, a collection of body bags and coffins and even the guillotined head of a Parisian serial killer responsible for nearly a dozen murders.
2. The Catacombs Paris
Paris may be known as the romance capital of the world, but underneath the city’s streets lies a very creepy tourist attraction. The Catacombs of Paris are said to hold the remains of over 6 million people, with quite a large number of skulls and bones arranged in rather disturbing displays.
3. Pripyat, Ukraine
Visiting Pripyat isn’t recommended because of the high levels of radiation in the area caused by the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. All of the town’s 50,000 residents were evacuated after the disaster, with Pripyat becoming a ghost town. Because of the radiation levels, it’s thought no one will ever be able to safely live long-term in the town again. Even just taking a photo tour of the abandoned town is creepy enough, with buildings decaying and once valued possessions left behind to decay and rot.
4. Karosta Prison, Latvia
This former Nazi and Soviet prison is now a hotel with a difference: you can pay to be treated like inmates during your stay, with guards verbally abusing you and making you do physically challenging exercises. All hotels are authentic former prison cells complete with iron bars and you even get served meals that the prisoners would have had.
5. The Killing Caves of Phnom Sampeau, Cambodia
The so-called ‘killing caves’ are located midway up Phnom Sampeau, a small mountain near the city of Battambang. These caves got their name because during the Cambodian genocide, countless people were killed and their bodies were tossed through the skylights into the caves. Nowadays there’s a glass memorial where the bones of many of those killed in the caves are on display. The caves are home to thousands of macaques and bats and they’re also believed to be haunted.
6. The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
This grand mansion with around 160 rooms took well over 30 years to built and was designed by Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester rifle empire. Sarah had designers and builders constantly work on the house, adding peculiar features such as stairs that dind’t lead anywhere, false doors and hidden passages. The rather intricately and confusingly designed mansion is open for tours and legend has it that Sarah made the mansion’s layout so confusing so that ghosts of people killed by the Winchester rifles would get lost and wouldn’t be able to trouble her.
7. The Torture Museum, Amsterdam
A rather grim and macabre museum where can learn all about the history of torture and see various devices and instruments of punishment that were used to inflict horrifying amounts of pain on people.