5 of the creepiest places you can visit

Chris Butler October 10th, 2019 4,473 views

With Halloween approaching, we've decided to have a look at five of the most unsettling places you can visit across the world...

Pripyat, Ukraine

The Ukranian city of Pripyat was tragically devastated by the infamous 1986 nuclear explosion at the Chernobyl power plant. Radiation from the blast is said to have killed thousands, leaving the city uninhabitable to this day. It is, however, possible to visit Pripyat for short spells of time before radiation begins to cause harm to the body. The city is eerily frozen in time with the signs of lives once lived, including an old swimming bath and fairground. Tourism numbers grow each year, and the city is particularly on the radar of travellers at the moment after the disaster's depiction in the HBO series Chernobyl.

Island of the Dolls, Xochimilco, Mexico

An hour south of Mexico City on the canals of Xochimilco, you'll find a small man-made island where its trees are covered in hanging dolls. It is said a man named Don Julian Santana Barrera left his wife and children to live alone on the island for solitude; it was here he discovered the washed-up body of a girl who had drowned, along with a doll. After the horror, he hung the doll upon the tree to appease the girls' spirt, and he would continue to hang more and more dolls for the next 50 years.

Beelitz-Heilstätten, Beelitz, Germany

A short journey outside of Berlin is Beelitz-Heilstätten military hospital, which was built during World War One. It was famous for being the place Adolf Hitler was once treated after an injury fighting in the war. From 1945 until 1995 the hospital was occupied by the soviet union but has since largely been abandoned. Its creepy aura has been captured in various on-screen moments, including a scene in the oscar-winning film The Pianist.

Alcatraz Island, San Francisco Bay, California

Set on Alcatraz island off the coast of San Francisco, Alcatraz prison was one of the most famous of its kind, housing some of the most deadly criminals in American history. Many tried to escape the island, and in 1962, three prisoners managed to. They fled on a make-shift raft, but they were never found afterwards and were assumed dead; the escape became the subject of the 1979 film starring Clint Eastwood. The prison was shut down in 1963 due to high operating costs, but the building still stands and has become a hugely popular tourist spot.

The Catacombs of Paris, Paris, France

Since the eighteenth century, buried beneath the streets of Paris are the corpses of around six million people. The corpses were moved to these underground catacombs after cemeteries in the city became a health risk. The tombs were opened to the public in 1809 and have since hosted a number of historical events. During World War Two, the French resistance used the tombs' underground tunnels to plan and attack Nazi forces, and it is believed the Nazi's had a presence in the tombs too.