Few of the Strangest Places in the World
1. Snake Island
This is also called Ilha da Queimada Grande. It’s an island off the coast of Brazil in the Atlantic Ocean. It’s small in size of only about 43 hectares with a temperate climate. It is the only natural home of the critically endangered venomous Golden Lancehead Pit Viper. The island has about 2000 – 4000 golden Lanceheads in it. The venom of these snakes are able to kill a human in one hour.
The snakes became trapped on the island several years ago due to the end of the last ice age when rising tidal currents disconnected the island from the mainland. The trapped snakes eventually became accustomed to their environment and have only reproduced and increased in population.
2. Aokigahara forest
This is found in Minamitsuru district, Yamanashi in Japan. It is also called the Suicide forest and has been termed the world’s most used suicide site.
Record shows that in 2003, 103 dead bodies were found exceeding the 78 bodies found in 2002. Also, in 2010, the local police gave a record of 200 suicide attempts with 54 of them being actualized.
Suicidal rates increase drastically in March in this area with occurrences of people hanging themselves in this forest. The local police later on constructed a sign at the entry of the forest advising suicidal visitors to seek for help and not to take their lives.
3. Island of Dolls
This is also called Isla de Las Muñecas. It is found in the channels of Xochimilco in Mexico city. Just as the name sounds, it is full of dolls with severed limbs, decapitated heads or dismembered parts hanging from trees and usually covered in cobwebs. The locals strongly believe that the Island which is actually a floating garden is haunted by the spirit of a young girl who died under mysterious circumstances there.
It is said that the original owner of the Island, Don Julian Santana Barrera tried to appease the spirit of the dead girl by hanging up her doll on one of the trees after which he kept hanging up dolls over and over to stop the said spirit of the dead girl from haunting the place. Don Julian died later on at the exact same spot as the young girl.
The dolls are still on the Island up to this day.
4. Hanging coffins of Sagada
Hanging coffins is a funeral practice of the Kankanaey people of Sagada, Island Luzon of the Philippines. This practice is also done by the Chinese and the Indonesians.
The coffins found in Sagada are recorded to be centuries old. They’re small in size due to the fact that the bodies in it are put in a fetal position, the people believe that one must leave this world as one came into it. Also, the occupants of these coffins carve their coffins before their death.
This practice of hanging coffins is usually only done for the distinguished or noble members/leaders of the community who lived lives of honor or performed acts of merit. The height at which the coffins are placed sometimes reflects the social status of the occupants.
5. Darvaza Gas Crater
This has been nicknamed the Door to Hell but in actual sense, it is a burning natural gas field. There are no accurate records of how the crater started to burn but one of the most popular theories says that the site was discovered by Soviet Engineers in the year 1971. The site was believed to be an oil site and the Engineers set up a drilling rig to access the oil. However, the ground underneath the rig collapsed into a crater after a natural gas pocket was found. The Engineers knew that due to this that dangerous poisonous gases were bound to be released into the atmosphere and nearby towns so they considered it wise to burn the gas off. Their estimation showed that the gas was to burn only for a few weeks but instead it has only continued to burn ever since for about 50 years.
Source : Wikipedia
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