Imagine going on a nice family vacation. You have excitement in your eyes and butterflies in your stomach because you’re so excited. You didn’t sleep last night because your mind was engulfed with the thoughts of what you’re going to see during this vacation. When you get to your destination, it is everything you have dreamed of, except one thing- that one extremely creepy tourist attraction that is staring at you. Multiple places around the world are full of beauty and wonder but deep within its beauty there may be a hidden tourist attraction that people flock to in order to bask in its creepiness.
Creepy Tourist Attractions To Creep You Around World
1. The Big Giving, London
An image of these statues spewing water out of various parts of the molds. (top)
A closer look to see what these statues actually look like up close and personal.
Images via: Fountain Explorer, Flavor Wire
These giant rock-looking creations in London have left people turning their heads and questioning why someone would put them there. These sculptors have human faces sticking out of them with hands or arms at various parts of the statues, making it seem like they are doing some awkward pose for the people of London. They can be seen with water coming out of their mouths and other various parts of their structures. It was created by Klaus Weber and is placed on the Southbank where people claim it is a fun installation. It refers to the Native North American “Potlach” ceremony of competitive giving. There is also an indication that the more the man gives, the bigger the statue will grow.
2. Mano Del Desierto, Atacama Desert, Chile
This tall hand sitting high in the sand with some graffiti on it.
Image via: Trip Advisor
This creepy hand sits in the Chilean Atacama Desert, standing 36 feet into the air. Mario Irarrazabal had an image to create this sculptor and has left people wondering why he would build such a thing in the desert. It is located near the legendary Pan-American Highway and some say it has an extremely haunting meaning to it. Rumors are that this particular statue is supposed to make people feel loneliness, torture, and helplessness.
3. Children Are the Victims of Adult Vices, Moscow
The two children innocently playing while the adult vices are surrounding them. You can see how eerie the adult vices are.
Images via: Rusmania, Atlas Obscura
These interesting set of statues that people flock to were designed by a Russian artist by the name of Mihail Chemiakin. They are bronze statues and consist of 13 individual statues that are depicting “adult vices”. This means alcoholism, drug addiction, and prostitution; and, these statues are there to represent how these types of vices affect the children. The strangely articulated statues are closing in on a boy and girl with the main center piece representing “Indifference”. Many people in this town were in fear that this set of statues would scare the children away, but the Mayor persisted on leaving it as a message to everyone. Even though these statues are somewhat creepy, they depict a deeper message for everyone to obtain.
4. Capela dos Ossos, Évora, Portugal
An image of some of the skeletons on the walls, including the hanging man and young child skeleton.
Image via: Wikipedia
Also called The Chapel of Bones, this eerie chapel has people doing a double take the moment they step inside of it. This eerie chapel is actually inside The Royal Church of St. Frances and to the average person just walking past it, it looks absolutely beautiful and a nice shrine for the piety. The Chapel of bones received its name because in the 16th century, there was a short of space on burying people, making monks move over 5,000 corpses to a chapel and decorate their space with these boney remains. The one particular part about this tourist attraction, though, is that two rotted corpses that represent an unnamed man and young child dangle from the ceiling with a noose around their necks.
5. Torture Museum, Amsterdam
One of the devices that is featured in the Torture Museum.
Image via: Gothic
No, you read that correctly. There is an actual museum in Amsterdam called the Torture Museum. This unique museum displays torture devices throughout history and has been deemed as a museum that is not for the squeamish. Some of their most infamous devices within this museum are pieces from the Middle Ages, including: the skull cracker, the limb-dislocating rack, and the guillotine. Some people report that this museum is so hauntingly disturbing and that fans of this type of torture enjoy themselves at this museum. One of the most haunting things included in this museum, though, is an image of a nude man hanging by his ankles and being sawed in half lengthwise.
6. The Museum of Death, Hollywood
One of the rooms inside of the Museum of Death.
Image via: Atlas Obscura
If you thought that the Torture Museum in Amsterdam was bad and bone chilling, then why not check out The Museum of Death in Hollywood? This museum is an ode to the murder, dismemberment, and other various acts of killing all throughout history. It holds inside of its walls serial killer artwork as well as photos of horrible, tragic accidents and actual crime scenes that have happened, and one of the most prized pieces within this museum is the severed head from the guillotine of the Bluebeard of Paris. Not only do the haunting images of serial killers and their artwork or the dismemberment of people hide within this museum, but there are even creepier things amongst this place. The tour lasts about an hour or so, but people can still hang around and gush over videos of autopsies and actual death footage of real life deaths.
7. Museo de las Momias, Mexico
One of the hallways in this eerie mummy museum.
Image via: Momias de Guana Juato
This museum is a particular kind of creepy. No, it doesn’t have photos of people being dismembered or has torture devices on display for people to see. Instead, there are 111 remarkably preserved mummies sitting perfectly on display for people to look at. They were brought to this museum from the Santa Paula Pantheon between 1865 and 1989. What sends chills down people’s spines is the fact that some of these mummies appear to be screaming, almost like they are saying “no” to whomever is doing this to them and some have very tight clenched fists. What saddens the people, though, is that there are in fact some babies that have been mummified and well preserved.
8. Winchester Mystery House, San Jose, California
This image contains a staircase that leads to nowhere (left), part of the house itself (middle), and what a window looks like (right). What this house actually looks like (bottom).
Images via: Recollections, Twitter
This infamous house has been on paranormal investigating shows, investigated by many paranormal groups, and still leaves people wondering why this house was built the way it was. Sarah Winchester took 32 years to build this 160 room Victorian style mansion. She did séances within her home and wanted to talk to the people who were killed by one of the Winchester bullets. In this house, it contains: over 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows, 47 fireplaces, and 47 staircases. There have been paranormal reports that at least three ghosts roam around this home throughout the day and night. It is rumored that the confusing hallways that are extremely twisted and the dead-end staircases that lead to nowhere were put there by Sarah to ward off any negative and unwanted spirits and to sort of confuse them in a way. People who have stayed over night at this house have heard organ music play, have seen moving lights as well as turning doorknobs, and some have even been lucky enough to see some ghostly figures roaming around the hallways.
9. Actun Tunichill Muknal Cave, Belize
The remains of the Crystal Maiden.
Image via: Wikipedia
With this tourist attraction, people are warned that if they do not feel brave enough that they should in fact stay back at the hotel. The brave souls that do want to explore this cave start their exploration by diving into ice cold, pitch black water and traveling through this water to reach a disturbing sight. One of the most iconic figures that are seen in this cave is the remains of a teenage girl from when Mayans used to practice human sacrifices within this cave. This skeleton of the teenage girl is nicknamed The Crystal Maiden because people claim that her bones seem to sparkle when light touches them. Ancient ceramic bowls can also be found in this cave and have “kill holes” in them. This means that these specific types of bowls are were used during bloodletting rituals.
10. Sedlec Ossuary, Czech Republic
The chandelier of this bone filled chapel.
Image via: Atlas Obscura
Located in Kutna Hora, this 15th century gothic church contains a haunting inside. 19th century woodcarver Frantisek Rint created this glorious chapel into something that is imprinted in its tourists minds forever. This basement-level chapels contains over 40,000 skeletons that are displayed in a beautiful way. Tourists can see these skeletons portrayed in skull candelabras, a towering coat of arms, and a chandelier. Tourists can really see how 40,000 skeletons are used to create this eerie display by looking at the gap-eyed skeletons that hang silently from the ceiling as well as looking at the bone pyramids that are spread around this chapel.
11. Manchac Swamp, Louisiana
An eerie image of a tree-line in this haunting and creepy Louisiana swamp.
Image via: Louisiana Swamp
Featured in the hit HBO show True Blood, this eerie swamp holds more than alligators within its territory. People who have visited this swamp have claimed that there are all sorts of mishaps that happen in the swamp that leave some people with straight shivers down their spines. Here in this swamp, though, is the ghost of the voodoo princess Julie White as well as the Rougarou werewolf of Cajun mythology. There are also eerie and creepy landmarks that people point out are key areas that tourists must see while they are in this swamp. These landmarks include The Hanging Tree and the Frenier Cemetery.
12. Isla de las Muñecas, Mexico
Some of the dolls that are on the Island of the Dolls, hanging silently in the trees and on wires.
Image via: Daily Mail
Some people have a strong fear of spiders, others have a strong fear of snakes, while others have a strong fear of clowns. But, there is another fear that most people have, and that is dolls. This island in Mexico is a persons worse nightmare if they have a deep, strong fear of dolls because a farmer created this island of dolls because he was haunted by his memories of a little girl’s body being washed up on the shore of his island. This island is located on Lake Xochimilco, which is near Mexico City. To please this little girls spirit and to represent the spirit of her and the other dead children that there may be, this farmer set out and collected over 100 dolls. Some of these dolls, though, had either missing eyes, limbs, or heads. This farmer then hung these dolls from trees and wires all over the island, making it one of the most ominous and eerie looking islands ever in this world.
13. Aokigahara Forest, Japan
These are remains that were found in the forest.
Image via: Atlas Obscura
This forest is the most famous forest in Japan and perhaps the whole world. It is also nicknamed “suicide forest” because each year, people go into this forest and sadly end their lives. Over the past 50 years, this forest, sitting at the bottom of Mt. Fuji, has witness over 1,000 suicides. This forest contains such thick and dense trees that people have claimed that it is easy to get extremely lost within this forest and that the silence it contains is eerie and haunting. It was also a famous place of ubasute, which means that this was a Japanese custom for leaving elderly people in the wilderness to die. This forest has been deemed one of the most haunted forests in this world by the anger spirits were either abandoned in this thick forest or of those who had taken their lives within these trees.
As you can see, some of these places are true masterpieces that have been put together by some creative artists throughout the years. Every year, tourists visit these locations to either experience what others have or to witness the glory of these haunting places. Whether the people who created some of these places intended them to be such high, popular tourist attractions or not, these places are some of the most populated areas to go whenever someone goes on vacation. Would you dare to go to any of these locations? Remember these places the next time your family plans to go on vacation and maybe even look up to see if there are any creepy tourist attractions where you are going. You never know if you’ll be able to experience the feelings others had when they stepped foot inside of these hauntingly eerie and creepy places.