Some of them are so popular that they even have Biblical resonances. Some we know from books or movies that took advantage of their morbid name to attract attention of the viewers. All of them are associate with death or the most excruciating pain a man can ever imagine. And if we made you curious, below you will be able to read a Top 10 of the most scariest places on Earth and the origin of their names…
10. The Beach of Skeletons – Namibia
Imagine a huge beach, most of it covered by the remains of hundreds of ships that stranded along time, and almost covered by sand. Some were completely covered in their beach tombs, and over them we can notice the skeletons of the wales, all form a picture that we can only call morbid. Countless sailors lost their lives here. And we are referring to the ones that escaped to the beach. The survivors have encountered a dessert that spreads on hundreds of kilometers, without a single source of drinkable water. The castaways suffered a slow death caused by sun exposure and thirst. Today, the beach is much more accessible than in the past, but it still remains a scary and isolated place. The Beach of Skeletons in Namibia.
9. Tombstone, Arizona
A local legand says that a local silver digger who’s name got lost in time, asked some cowboys what can he find in these parts of the United States. The answer of the cowboys were : you’re own Tombstone. The man however found the silver he was searching for and the people that followed created the town that kept the name of Tombstone. Adventurists, gun men, people searching for luck, gamblers, all found in Tombstone the opportunity to get rich fast. New York Times said, for example, that the Bird Cage Cafe was one of the most wildest, violent and creepiest place in the United States. Shooting on the street,duels and fights between criminals and law men were daily events. Maybe the most popular one is the fight between Sheriff Wyatt Earp and his helpers against a gang of villains. The fight took place near the place that became famous, OK Corral. Maybe not a coincidence, Tombstone is the city from the Wild West with the most cemeteries, they becoming, in time, a touristic attraction.
8. The Dead Sea – Israel
As morbid as the name is, as many nicknames this creepy place has: The Devil Sea, The Bad Smelling lake, The Salted Sea, etc. The Dead Sea has a salinity 10 times higher than the Oceans, enough not to allow any living organism to live in it’s waters. Exception are only a few bacterias. Named since the ancient times The Dead Sea, it was considered a place with unique therapeutic properties. Today, many heath resorts were built near the sea, which host, annually, dozens of thousands of tourists from all over the world.
Researchers warned us that, The Dead Sea is..dieing. In the last 30 years the sea got smaller with more than 25 meters and estimates show that the volume of it reduced with almost one third. Today, because of the global warming process, almost 7 tons of water evaporates each day. The drama is, according to the same researchers that the process is irreversible and that their efforts will only delay the inevitable: the disappearance of the Dead Sea.
7. Murder Island – Canada
Located in the South West of Canada, Nova Scotia province, the Murder Island is a nice place, where you can feel great and where you can look at the beauties of nature. Nothing to remember us about it’s morbid name. However, local legends say that the island was always associated with death. The most ancient legend says that everything started in 1735, when the ship “Baltimore” was discovered drifting by the locals. The entire ship bay was covered in blood and no body was discovered. There is, however, a surviver, a woman that managed to say a few words about a riot of some convicts and a massacre planned by the red skins. The woman disappeared without a trace and without providing additional information about the bizarre disappearance of the crew.
Another happening, that also took place in the 18th century, is rendered into a horrible story. It is said that en entire french fleet was hit by chicken pocks, hundreds of bodies of the crew being tossed into the sea, and many of them ended up on the shore. The locals quickly buried them, even on the shore of the island, and stories about human bones that often surface from the sand continued to appear until the 20th century. However none of the stories above were confirmed by the historians, which means that the secret of he name, it was probably not reveled.
6. Galgbacken – Sweden
This was a place used for public executions. Actually, the biggest and also the last execution place in Stockholm. The last execution occurred in 1862, obviously by hanging. Even so, decapitation was also a popular execution method in Galgbacken. Criminals, rapists, traitors were brought here. And yet, among the people executed here we cam also mention some illustrious names of Sweden. The surprise happened in 1930, when a group of workers were working on the foundation of a home that was about to be built there. The workers discovered hundreds of skeletons belonging to people executed there. Most of them are now up for display in a museum. Historians claim that, the number of people executed and buried there is huge.
5. Hell’s Kitchen – New York – USA
When americans refer to Hell’s Kitchen, the famous New York neighborhood, they are referring to the place in which killings, sex, poverty and violence was represented a day to day phenomenon for more than one century. Nobody knows when it got the famous name, but it’s certain that it’s origins come from the period of the great migrations of irish and germans on the eastern coast of the New World. Most immigrants were working on docks and slaughter houses and factories and lived in a very extreme poverty. It was only a step until the appearance of the first organized gangs of villains. The situation got worse after the Civil War, when the gangs evolved in Mafia Organizations, everything culminating with the Prohibition. Even since then, the US newspapers wrote about Hell’s Kitchen as the most dangerous place in all America.
In the 50s, a new wave of immigrants, this time from Puerto Rico have fought real street wars. Also then the first Mafia groups made by these immigrants also appeared, which were rivals to the most popular irish-american groups. Today, the situation tends to come back to normal. Hell’s Kitchen developed a lot. However, striptease bars, stores and cinema theaters with pornographic content are a reminder of the black past of Hell’s Kitchen.
4. Area of Death
As you probably noticed already, Area of Death is not one that identifies with a specific country. In general, rock climbers often name like this any area that is more than 8000 higher. Most of these places are to be found in Himalaya and they are known for the extreme conditions. Because of the high altitude, the air is so rare that a man can’t live without an oxygen tank. Climbers can’t eat, and the body’s functions rapidly deteriorate leading to loss of conscientiousness, hallucinations and eventually death.
3. Golgota – Jerusalem, Israel
Who hasn’t heard of Golgota ? The Biblical place in which Jesus was crucified ? What is not known is the reason for which this place received this name. A theory claims that people named Golgota after the number of skulls and human remains discovered in this place. Another theory says that the hill looks like a skull, enough reason to get this morbid name. A final theory suggests that Gogota grew on top of an ancient cemetery, people naming the place like this in tribute to those buried there.
What is sure is that Golgota was, in ancient times, a place for public executions, a Jewish law saying that these practices should happen outside the walls of Jerusalem. What’s interesting is the fact that nobody knows, fur sure, where exactly Golgota is located! The walls of Jerusalem were destroyed and rebuilt many times in history, and the multiple hills around the city aren’t helpful in locating Golgota. As a final note, we have to say that in the Jewish religion, Golgota is the place where the first man on Earth, Adam, was buried.
2. Devil’s Island
Those who have read the famous novel “Papillon” written by the former inmate Henri Charriere, have already learned about the existence of the toughest natural prison in history. Because, yes, this was the Devil’s Island.
Initially a colony of lepers, The Devil’s Island was transformed by the French Government between 1884 0 1952 into a prison. The conditions were very hard. A statistic shows that only in the Kourou camp on this island, more than 4000 inmates died in the first three years of detention. They were only allowed to have on a pair of shoes, a pair of pants and a hat. Let’s not talk about the killings that happened between inmates. Also, they were obligated to work in swamps and the continue exposure to that infested water made the skin of the inmates to rot even if they were alive. During the night, the legs of the prisoners were tired up to an iron pole.
1. Valley of Death – Nevada / California
The famous Valley of Death from California, United States of America, represents one of the places in which the life seamed impossible. Feared by the natives until the arrival of the european colonists, this place was named in 1849. It seams that, at that time, a group of gold diggers, in their attempt to reach the gold mines in Sacramento, adventured in crossing the feared Valley. Although it’s apparently easier to cross than mountains, the road proved to be a real nightmare. Losing themselves in the desert, the gold diggers were lost for 26 days until the moment they were saved. It is said that in the moment the travelers left the Valley, one of them faced the desert saying the following words ” Goodbye, Valley of Death!” This is how it got it’s name.
The number of people that lost their lives in this desert can’t be estimated. Maybe not by accident, many places inside the Valley of Death got morbid names: Mountain of the Funerals, Hell’s Gate, Black Mountain, etc. To understand what made those who adventured here be so scared, we must say that the Valley of Death is one of the most hottest places on Earth, with extreme temperatures .
Currently, Valley of Death was transformed into a National Park, one of the reasons that attractions thousands of tourists being also the mystery of the rocks that move by themselves through this desert
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