Manchac Swamp, Louisiana
As your boat pushes out into the swamp by torchlight, ancient cypress trees and Spanish moss drape across the water. That far-off howl you hear might just be the rou-ga-rou, the Cajun version of the Wolfman.
The Manchac Swamp, a.k.a. the “haunted swamp,” near New Orleans is a Southern Gothic fan’s dream.
An imprisoned voodoo queen is said to have cast a curse on these watery surroundings around the turn of the last century, resulting in the disappearance of three hamlets in a hurricane in 1915.
The Manchac Swamp, a.k.a. the “haunted swamp,” near New Orleans is a Southern Gothic fan’s dream.
An imprisoned voodoo queen is said to have cast a curse on these watery surroundings around the turn of the last century, resulting in the disappearance of three hamlets in a hurricane in 1915.
Bran Castle, Bran, Romania
A vertiginous hilltop climb leads to a storybook castle that seems to have no horizontal surfaces: Endless stairways and towers are all that is visible. Inside, underground passageways connect dozens of rooms
containing rococo antiques and suits of armor.
All that’s missing from Dracula’s Castle, as Bran Castle is known, is a stormy night and a lightning bolt to illuminate the scene.
A cloud of legend, local folklore, and literary pedigree hang over the dramatic fortress, perched 200 feet above the Romanian town of Bran.
The castle has certainly reaped a PR bonanza as the setting for Bram Stoker’s Dracula, with a reported 450,000 visitors a year—not bad for an isolated spot in Eastern Europe.
The name comes from the notoriously sadistic tyrant Vlad the Impaler, known as Vlad Dracula, who is said to have used the castle as an occasional base of operations.
Vlad earned his nickname by hoisting tens of thousands of enemies on stakes.
Paris Catacombs, Paris, France
Bones and skulls are stacked on either side of a narrow corridor like merchandise at a warehouse—a lot of merchandise.
The air is close and cool, with just a hint of decomposition, and there’s rude graffiti dating from the French Revolution, mainly about the king and the feeble nobility. Once inside, you can easily see why Victor Hugo and Anne Rice have set stories in Paris’s famous Catacombs.
Snaking some 187 miles through underground passages around the city, only a tiny portion is open to the public—it’s said that the rest is patroled by the legendary cataflics, a special underground police force.
Though guided tours are available, it’s more creepy and effective to go on your own, when it’s just you and millions of bones lit by the occasional low-wattage bulb.
The air is close and cool, with just a hint of decomposition, and there’s rude graffiti dating from the French Revolution, mainly about the king and the feeble nobility. Once inside, you can easily see why Victor Hugo and Anne Rice have set stories in Paris’s famous Catacombs.
Snaking some 187 miles through underground passages around the city, only a tiny portion is open to the public—it’s said that the rest is patroled by the legendary cataflics, a special underground police force.
Though guided tours are available, it’s more creepy and effective to go on your own, when it’s just you and millions of bones lit by the occasional low-wattage bulb.
Mary King’s Close, Edinburgh, Scotland
Hidden below Edinburgh’s medieval Old Town is a series of subterranean streets with an unsavory past.
Mary King’s Close is where plague victims were quarantined and left to die in the 17th century, and paranormal activity abounds down there.
You might, for instance, feel some gentle tugging at your hands and legs by an unseen force. The cause is believed to be the ghost of Annie, a young girl abandoned by her parents in 1645.
More than a hundred years later, in classic horror-tale fashion, a grand new building was constructed over Mary King’s Close, leaving the streets, including the plague ghosts, intact underground.
Chernobyl, Pripyat, Ukraine
Walk through the abandoned town of Pripyat in the Ukraine, and you’ll find a large-scale crime scene abandoned in a hurry: A nursery full of children’s shoes, and apartment complexes with the morning newspaper, dated April 28, 1986, open on the breakfast table.
Two days before, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, minutes away, melted down, but it took 48 hours for the authorities to alert locals and clear them out of the world’s biggest nuclear disaster site.
Now that radiation levels are safe for short-term exposure, Chernobyl’s nuclear complex has become an unlikely tourist attraction since opening to visitors in 2002.
The power complex is at the center of the 20-mile-radius “Exclusion Zone,” a regrown area of forests now populated by wolves and bears. Reactor #4 is the star of this sad show, today sheathed in a concrete and lead sarcophagus 200 feet high.
Two days before, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, minutes away, melted down, but it took 48 hours for the authorities to alert locals and clear them out of the world’s biggest nuclear disaster site.
Now that radiation levels are safe for short-term exposure, Chernobyl’s nuclear complex has become an unlikely tourist attraction since opening to visitors in 2002.
The power complex is at the center of the 20-mile-radius “Exclusion Zone,” a regrown area of forests now populated by wolves and bears. Reactor #4 is the star of this sad show, today sheathed in a concrete and lead sarcophagus 200 feet high.
Winchester House, San Jose, California
The Winchester “Mystery” House is a colossal construction built on a foundation of superstition. It’s said that Sarah Winchester, heiress to the arms company, was told by a soothsayer that the ghosts of those killed by Winchester rifles would haunt her unless she moved from Connecticut to the West and built a house that could never be finished in her lifetime.
Construction started in 1884 in San Jose, California, and kept going nonstop for 38 years until her death.
Now the house’s 160 rooms are haunted by her madness and packed with bizarre details: Staircases go straight into the ceiling, doors open onto blank walls, spider motifs abound, and candelabras, coat hooks, and steps are arranged in multiples of 13.
Reports of banging doors, footsteps in the night, moving lights, and doorknobs turning of their own accord have been occurring since the house was opened to the public.
Construction started in 1884 in San Jose, California, and kept going nonstop for 38 years until her death.
Now the house’s 160 rooms are haunted by her madness and packed with bizarre details: Staircases go straight into the ceiling, doors open onto blank walls, spider motifs abound, and candelabras, coat hooks, and steps are arranged in multiples of 13.
Reports of banging doors, footsteps in the night, moving lights, and doorknobs turning of their own accord have been occurring since the house was opened to the public.
Easter Island, Chile
One of the most unnerving things about the 30-foot carved heads that dot Easter island is that they’re not looking out at you as you arrive; the famous unsmiling moai sculptures look inward from the sea, as if guilty of some crime.
Perhaps it has something to do with the virtual disappearance of the people who made them. At only 63 square miles, tiny Easter Island is home to more mystery for its size than just about anyplace else on earth.
The Rapa Nui people, nearly extinct a century ago but flourishing now, kept no written records of how they moved the enormous moai around the island, sometimes as far as 14 miles, from the volcanic quarry where they were carved.
We like the theory that UFOs were behind it all.
Perhaps it has something to do with the virtual disappearance of the people who made them. At only 63 square miles, tiny Easter Island is home to more mystery for its size than just about anyplace else on earth.
The Rapa Nui people, nearly extinct a century ago but flourishing now, kept no written records of how they moved the enormous moai around the island, sometimes as far as 14 miles, from the volcanic quarry where they were carved.
We like the theory that UFOs were behind it all.
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