No. 1: Auschwitz-Birkenau
Concentration Camp, Oswiecim, Poland.
Auschwitz death camp was in operation from May 1940 until its liberation
by Soviet forces in January 1945. It is estimated that 2.1 to 2.5
million people were killed in the gas chambers during that time, of whom
2 million were Jews and the remainder were Poles, Gypsies and Soviet
POWs. But this estimate is considered by historians to be strictly a
minimum, because the total number of deaths at Auschwitz and its sister
camp Birkenau can never really be known.
It is clear that Auschwitz-Birkenau was considered by the Germans to be
one of their most efficient extermination centers as early as 1941 when
the mortuary crematorium at the Auschwitz main camp was adapted as a gas
chamber. Additional huts, called “bunkers,” were added around
January 1942 and were especially active in the autumn of 1944 when extra
capacity was needed for the systematic murder of Hungarian Jews and the
liquidation of the ghettos. Between January 1942 and March 1943 over
175,000 Jews were gassed to death here, their bodies burned in open pits
nearby.
By early 1943 it was clear that Hitler’s SS were using Auschwitz as a
mass-murder factory. Twin pairs of state of the art gas chambers using
Zyklon-B gas were opened in March and April 1943. The capacity of these
crematoria was 4,420 persons. Once inside the chambers it took about 20
minutes for the gas to kill this number of people. The killings took
place in the underground chambers and the bodies were carried to five
crematoria ovens on an electrically operated lift. Before cremation,
gold teeth, jewelry, and other valuables were removed from the corpses.
Captured Jews, known as “sonderkommandos” were forced to work the
crematoria under SS supervision.
Anyone who has visited Auschwitz-Birkenau is struck by the overwhelming
sense of melancholy and foreboding; visitors have been known to break
down in tears for no apparent reason and many have to abandon their tour
groups without ever completing the tour. Visitors are struck not only by
the horrific memory of the place, but also by the effect it has on the
present day: birds still refuse to sing in the trees surrounding the
death camps and there is little evidence of a thriving natural
environment anywhere nearby. The silence, as they saw, is deafening,
even after all these years.
People have reported cold spots and areas of intense emotional
concentration. Recent reports have come in that while touring the camp
some have been touched or even grabbed by unseen hands. One visitor
report that someone or something tugged on her clothes and she heard a
voice whispering to her but could not make out anything but one or two
words. " Please and leave"!
As of date no paranormal group or investigator has released their
findings of the most haunted place on earth to the public. But often
tales of this the Most Haunted Hot Spot in the world has many haunted
secrets yet to reveal.
Photographs over the years have revealed the presence of spirit
manifestations in the form of misty apparitions, shadows, light
anomalies and orbs. Given its history and the imprint of horror it
leaves on the modern mind, Auschwitz-Birkenau is the most haunted place
on earth.
No. 2: Whitechapel/Spittalfields, London
East End, London, England.
The Whitechapel / Spittalfields area of East London has been actively
settled since Roman times. Many of the historic buildings are built on
the remains of old Roman settlements. Throughout the Dark and Middle
Ages, the East End was a burgeoning commerce area, mostly inhabited by
Anglos and Jewish moneylenders. In Elizabethan times the East End looked
and smelled like something right out of one of Shakespeare’s history
plays, and, in fact, the character of Falstaff (Henry V) is said to have
been based on an innkeeper from the notorious East End. It was a place
of soldiers and prostitutes, brawls and bawdy houses.
The coming of high Victorian morals did nothing to dull this seedy
reputation and the Whitechapel / Spittalfields area, while known to
humanitarians for its extreme poverty, was also known to all as the home
of thieves, prostitutes, and the most derelict of English society.
In 1888 the Whitechapel area of London was the scene of some of the most
brutal murders ever recorded: the famous Jack the Ripper crimes. Yet the
murders – and the identity of Jack – remain unsolved, even today.
Many assert that the killer was a doctor or was somehow connected to the
medical profession; others believe the killer to have been Queen
Victoria’s grandson, Prince Albert Victor, though nothing substantial
has ever arisen to support the theory.
Five women, all of them poor prostitutes, were slaughtered by the
mysterious Jack in the span of just four months, known collectively as
“The Autumn of Terror.” Four of the women – Mary Nicholls, Annie
Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes – were found in various
streets and alleys throughout Whitechapel horribly disfigured and
mutilated. The fifth – Mary Kelly – was the only victim murdered in
an interior location; as such she was the most horribly mutilated, the
death scene like something from a slaughterhouse.
Jack the Ripper enjoyed a brief career as London’s most infamous
serial murder and the fact that he was never caught still adds to the
mystery surrounding him. Nevertheless, it is thought that his horrible
mutilation of Mary Kelly was his last act of violence and there is no
evidence that Jack, whoever he may have been, killed again after
November 1888.
Today visitors to London’s East End can walk the streets that Jack
prowled and visit pubs and other locations he may have haunted in life
– and death. Walking tours of the area are very popular and although
Jack’s legacy is certainly the most enduring, other ghosts that haunt
the East End are those of Jack’s victims, in various stages of
mutilation; a ghostly band of Roman soldiers; a murderous sea
captain’s ghost that haunts a local pub; and a mysterious black
carriage drawn by ghastly white horses that approaches without a sound
and disappears right before your eyes. These and other haunts, combined
with the long haunted history of the East End make it one of the must
visit ghostly locations in the world.
No. 3: Underground Vaults, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Far below the busy streets of modern Edinburgh lies a dark, forgotten
corner of history. Discovered in the mid-1980’s, the Edinburgh Vaults
had been abandoned for nearly two hundred years. Lying beneath the South
Bridge, a major Edinburgh passage, the rooms were used as cellars,
workshops and even as residences by the businesses that plied their
trade on the busy bridge above. Abandoned soon after they were built due
to excessive water and moisture, the vaults remain, unaltered, never
illuminated by the light of day.
The South Bridge has stood since 1785 and it was around this time that
the huge supporting arches were first divided for use by nearby
businesses. The vaults were once bustling with life, the vast overflow
of an ever-growing city.
When the vaults became mostly abandoned because of the unwholesome
atmosphere they were still used sporadically by the poor and homeless of
Edinburgh society. As with any great concentration of unhealthy people,
there were outbreaks of plague and other devastating illnesses; many of
the people who took refuge in the vaults ultimately died there. There is
evidence that at least some of these people may have met untimely ends
because it was here in the Edinburgh Vaults that the nefarious pair,
Burke and Hare, plied their trade of providing cadavers to the nearby
teaching hospitals of Infirmary Street.
Paranormal investigations have been conducted in the vaults practically
since their discovery and to date the location has not failed to provide
a wealth of disturbing and unexplainable activity. Recently visited by
the crew from England’s “Most Haunted,” the vaults maintained
their reputation as the spookiest place in Edinburgh – no member of
the team would voluntarily return there.
No. 4: Greyfriar’s Kirk Cemetery /
Covenanter’s Prison, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Greyfriar’s Cemetery has been considered haunted for generations. Its
history is filled with the horrific, from deliberate headstone removal
and desecration, bodysnatching and live burial, to witch burnings and
use as a mass prison. Around 1998, however, a new and inexplicable
phenomenon began occurring in the graveyard where visitors claimed to
have encountered cold spots, nauseating smells, loud noises coming from
empty tombs, and even physical injury. Many visitors and tour guides
have been the victim of attack by unseen entities who leave bruises,
cuts, and scratches on the unwary. People were routinely knocked
unconscious and overcome by debilitating nausea and vomiting. Homes near
the graveyard became plagued by poltergeist activities such as smashed
china and glassware, moving objects, shadowy figures, and menacing,
guttural laughter.
There are two areas of the cemetery where activity is extremely dense,
one being the area around the MacKenzie Mausoleum (also called the Black
Tomb) and the other in the gated area known as the Covenanter’s
Prison.
It is said that George MacKenzie is the shadowy entity haunting the area
near his family tomb. In the 17th century, MacKenzie, a loyal subject to
Charles II of England, is said to have ruthlessly persecuted and
imprisoned “unrepentant” Scottish Presbyterians who formally entered
into what they called a “Covenant Between God and Country.” This act
of Scottish loyalty excluded the authority of Charles II and it is said
that MacKenzie soundly punished all those Covenanters he could round up.
Many were imprisoned in harsh and unforgiving conditions in a small area
inside Greyfriar’s and most of the Covenanters died there rather than
revoke their oath. Since that horrible event, the Covenanter’s Prison
as well as the MacKenzie Mausoleum have both been fearsomely active,
although it was not until recently that the spirits said to inhabit the
area have begun to strike out against visitors and nearby residents.
Currently, the Covenanter’s Prison area is only accessible to visitors
accompanied by a tour guide; the MacKenzie Mausoleum is nearby and can
be visited and photographed – at one’s own peril, evidently.
No. 5: Coliseum, Rome, Italy.
At the height of Rome’s power the Coliseum represented everything that
was Imperial to the citizens of Rome. Gladiators would fight to the
death here for the amusement of Caesar and the mobs; thousands of
prisoners of war and victims of religious persecution met their end in
the jaws of lions and tigers in the sandy arena of the Coliseum; and
even those animals were decimated, for in its time the Coliseum consumed
tens of thousands of animals, some reportedly driven into extinction by
the Roman lust for blood and gore.
The workings of the Coliseum, the place where the real grit of life took
place, were in the vaults beneath the sandy floor. Now long ago exposed
by the ravages of time, there is still a pervasive feeling of awe
associated with the lingering presence of a power so mighty it once
encompassed the entire known world.
In the pits beneath the Coliseum, gladiators waited to fight, prisoners
waited to die, and average Romans placed bets on the outcomes of myriad
competitions. Such a fabric of life can’t help but wrap itself around
the pillars and posts that make up the foundation of this ancient
charnel house, and it is no surprise that many reports of ghostly
activity have been associated with the Coliseum over the years.
Tour guides and visitors alike have reported cold spots, being touched
or pushed, hearing indiscernible words whispered into their ears;
security guards with the unenviable task of securing the ancient edifice
have reported hearing the sounds of swords clashing, of weeping in the
more remote areas, and, oddly enough most disconcerting, the sound of
ghostly animal noises such as the roars of lions and elephants. Ghostly
citizens have been seen among the seats of the Coliseum, and the sight
of a Roman soldier standing guard, silhouetted against the night sky, is
a common one.
With such ancient history and such a legacy of death and bloodshed,
there is little wonder why the Roman Coliseum is one of the most haunted
places in the world.
No. 6: Walachia, Transylvania, Land of Dracul, Romania.
“Beyond the green swelling hills of the Mittel Land rose mighty slopes
of forest up to the lofty steeps of the Carpathians themselves. Right
and left of us they towered, with the afternoon sun falling full upon
them and bringing out all the glorious colours of this beautiful range,
deep blue and purple in the shadows of the peaks, green and brown where
grass and rock mingled, and an endless perspective of jagged rock and
pointed crags, till these were themselves lost in the distance, where
the snowy peaks rose grandly . . .
“Just then a heavy cloud passed across the face of the moon, so that
we were again in darkness . . . This was all so strange and uncanny that
a dreadful fear came upon me, and I was afraid to speak or move. The
time seemed interminable, as we swept on our way, now in almost complete
darkness, for the rolling clouds obscured the moon.
“We kept on ascending, with occasional periods of quick descent, but
in the main always ascending. Suddenly, I became conscious of the fact
that the driver was in the act of pulling up the horses in the courtyard
of a vast ruined castle, from whose tall black windows came no ray of
light, and whose broken battlements showed a jagged line against the
sky.”
-- “Dracula” by Bram Stoker.
“Perhaps the only place I felt Dracula’s presence was on a long,
curving road that twists over the Transylvanian Alps. The area is so
remote and impenetrable that no major road crossed this often stormy
mountain pass until 1974. As my car climbed into the mist, traffic
disappeared, and the radio stopped working. The road passes a dam and a
hydroelectric plant guarded by a handful of soldiers standing alone in
the gloom. And at the bottom of the road are the ruins of a castle.
Dracula’s castle.
Really.
Dracula created this fortress as a refuge. When the Turkish army
surrounded him, he is said to have escaped through a tunnel and
disappeared into the mountains.
His young son was strapped to the side of his horse but slipped off and
was left for dead. His wife didn’t even try to flee. She threw herself
to death from a tower window.
I stepped out of the car to take a look. But it was night now, and the
climb to the castle would be difficult. I looked up at the dark
mountains and started to shiver, glad to have a car to spirit me
away.”
--Larry Bleiburg, The Dallas Morning News, January 2, 2005
We think that’s enough said!
No. 7: Unit 731 Experimentation Camp,
Harbin, Manchuria, China.
“It is called the Asian Auschwitz and, in terms of inhumanity and
horror, it certainly warrants this description. Yet there remains a
fundamental difference with the crimes perpetrated by the Nazis against
Jews: While Germany has shown deep contrition and remorse, the leaders
the country that spawned the evil of Unit 731 still struggle to come to
grips with what occurred . . . In the end at least 3,000 prisoners,
mainly Chinese, were killed directly, with a further 250,000 Chinese
left to die through the biological warfare experiments.”
In the gruesome world of Unit 731 the unthinkable was done on a daily
basis. Prisoners, mostly taken in Japan’s conquest of Manchuria at the
beginning of WWII, were subjected to unimaginable horrors. They were
infected with diseases such as anthrax, cholera and even bubonic plague.
To gauge the effect of these diseases on their subjects – whom they
dehumanized by calling them “logs” – live, un-anesthetized
vivisection was performed. In many cases the subjects would regain
consciousness while the dissection was taking place.
Whole towns and villages were decimated by the ghoulish doctors and
researchers of Unit 731 and the effects of their horrible crimes still
resonate there to this day.
Parts of the Unit 731 complex still remain – there are buildings where
frostbite experiments were performed, courtyards and open areas where
prisoners were subjected to live bombs detonated at close range to
enable researchers to evaluate the effect of explosives of the sort that
Japanese soldiers were encountering in the fields. Other buildings where
live human vivisections took place overlook the prisoner holding area
and the long-unused railway station where the “logs” were offloaded
for their horrible fate.
The Chinese government sanctioned the Unit and the surrounding area as a
learning center for future generations of Chinese, and just recently
visitors from the West have been allowed access to the killing fields at
Harbin. But for many years there have been reports of paranormal
activity associated with the old charnel houses: ghost lights and
apparitions are frequently seen, including a ghostly figure that walks
the empty precincts surrounding the frostbite units. Ghostly voices have
been heard and anomalies frequently appear in photographs taken in the
area. Recently, during the filming of a BBC television documentary, the
English film crew experienced unexplainable problems with their lights
and batteries – often a sure sign of ghostly activity. Many speculate
that as the story of Unit 731 is more widely told, the ghosts of those
tragically tormented and murdered there are becoming more and more
active, and more anxious for justice than ever before.
No. 8: Palmyra Island Atoll, Pacific
Ocean.
Many have extrapolated the question: Can an entire island be haunted?
Palmyra Island, really an atoll along the rim of a long dead Pacific
volcano, has a long history among sailors and landlubbers alike as being
an unwholesome place. Perhaps best known as the location of a
sensational 1970’s murder case detailed by author Vincent Bugliosi in
his novel “And the Sea Will Tell,” Palmyra has long featured in many
cautionary tales passed among old salts who know perhaps more than they
care to about this troublesome speck in the ocean.
Many claim that there is a “malevolent aura” surrounding Palmyra,
such as Richard Taylor, a yachtsman who gave testimony at the
sensational murder trial:
“I had a foreboding feeling about the island. It was more than just
the fact that it was a ghost-type island; it was more than that. It
seemed to be an unfriendly place to be. I’ve been on a number of
atolls, but Palmyra was different. I can’t put my finger on
specifically why, but it was not an island that I enjoyed being on. I
think other people have had difficulties on that island.”
Palmyra has been called the remotest place on earth, one of the last few
truly uninhabited islands, lying near the very center of the Pacific
Ocean, about 1000 nautical miles south-southwest of Hawaii and about
one-half of the way from Hawaii to American Samoa. It is tiny –
measuring approximately a mile and a half long and a half-mile wide. The
island lies well off the major Asian/American shipping lanes. There is a
huge bird population and an abundance of insect and reptile life. The
interior is rain forest jungle and the entire island is surrounded by
coral reef; the waters of the reef and the inland lagoons are prime
breeding spots for gray and blacktip sharks that are found to be
unusually aggressive in the waters surrounding Palmyra. Some visitors
and servicemen who spent time on the island in WWII reported that the
sharks took “one to two” victims a month. Even the native fish that
populate the reef are poisonous because they feed on deadly algae that
grows on the coral, making them deadly to consume.
Legends of the island appearing out of nowhere and nearly grounding
vessels are intermingled with tales of buried pirate gold; even in
modern times, in addition to the grisly murder of the 1970’s, there
have been bizarre and deadly occurrences. Many of these tales include
the crashes and unexplained disappearances of US fighter planes during
the war – a history similar to the Bermuda Triangle legacy. But where
Bermuda is inhabitable and has some redeeming attractions, there is
nothing to redeem Palmyra Island, at least in the minds of those who
have experienced it. Truly, as one man said, “only H.P. Lovecraft
could have invented this place.”
No. 9: Catacombs, Paris, France.
Long ago, as the city of Paris grew, it became necessary to provide more
space for the living. To do so, engineers and planners decided to move
the mass of humanity least likely to protest: in this case, the dead.
Millions of Parisian dead were quietly disinterred in one of the largest
engineering feats in history and their remains were deposited along the
walls of the chilly, dank passageways lying beneath the City of Light.
They lie there to this day, in the eternal darkness, an Empire of the
Dead.
The Paris Catacombs are infamous and much has been written about their
history and purpose. A million visitors a year are said to walk the dank
corridors and to stare at the bones and gaze fixedly into the empty
eye-sockets of the long dead. Many of these same visitors, and some of
their guides, have encountered more than just the silence in the
catacombs: they have had encounters with ghostly inhabitants that roam
the empty passageways and mutely follow the tour groups around.
Several report seeing a group of shadows in one area of the catacombs;
as the living walk along, the dead follow in complete silence. To some
the experience is completely overwhelming and tours have been cut short
by the growing sense of unease. Photos have revealed orbs and ghostly
apparitions, and EVPs have been recorded throughout the vaults.
The catacombs were first cleared in Roman times, with succeeding
generations of Gauls and Frenchmen perfecting the Roman engineering. Now
the catacombs are a veritable rabbit’s warren, and though many boldly
enter without a guide, to do so puts one at risk of being lost there
forever. There have been many reports of rash individuals who wandered
into the catacombs for a laugh and who have never been seen again.
This, and many chilling tales of experiences in this Empire of the Dead,
put the Paris Catacombs on our list of most haunted places.
No. 10: Magh Sleacht Plain, near
Ballyconnell, County Cavan, Ireland.
Cavan is a sparsely populated county in north central Ireland,
immediately south of the border with Northern Ireland and midway between
the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea. The countryside is dotted with
lakes and hills, and the River Shannon, the longest in Ireland,
originates in the rugged Cuilcagh Mountains in the west of Cavan.
Cairn tombs and crannog islands dating from ancient times abound in
Cavan and Magh Sleacht Plain, near Ballyconnell, was once an important
Celtic pagan shrine. Here was located the dreaded Crom Cruach, the
Bloody Bent One, the Elder King, the Chief Idol of Erin.
In ancient days Magh Sleacht, which means “Plain of Adoration,” was
the location of a mighty stone, covered all in hammered gold, which was
the stone image of Crom Cruach. In those days, he was surrounded by
twelve smaller stones, gods in ready attendance on the whims of the
mighty Old One. Here parents came to sacrifice one third of their
children to Crom on Samhain night (October 31st) in exchange for a year
full of milk, corn, healthy cattle and a fertile growing season. The god
horrified many because of his terrible demands and it was dangerous to
worship him because worshippers themselves often died in the orgiastic
bloodbath that he required.
The worship of Crom Cruach is said to have been demanded by King
Tigernmas whom some describe as a Roman Chieftain, while others claim he
was one of the last of the Formorian Kings. Still others believe Crom to
be the manifestation of Moloch, the ancient god of the idolatrous
Hebrews to whom they sacrificed half their newborn children in a trial
by fire. The similarities do not end there. King Tigernmas himself died
in worship of the Bloody Bent One, killed by rabid followers in an orgy
of blood.
Many believe that the legend is simply that, a legend. Others point to
the mention of Crom Cruach in the St. Patrick legend: they claim that
when Patrick established Christianity at nearby Armagh, he went to Magh
Sleacht and defeated Crom, and having done so, caused the golden idol to
sink into the earth. In recent times, however, some followers of the
pagan faith have rediscovered Crom Cruach and, perhaps he has been
waiting patiently to answer their call.
Visitors to the plain of Magh Sleacht report strange occurrences
including the sound of chanting and the smell of burning meat or flesh;
others have photographed shadowy shapes that linger about the rocks near
sunset; still others claim to have seen ghostly apparitions on the plain
in the light of day.
Just as in ancient times, farmers and travelers are giving the old plain
a wide berth. They believe that something has lingered there in a long
and fitful sleep perhaps, but now it is awake again, hungry and fretful.
Can it be that the Bloody Bent One has returned to his native homeland?
There are many who think just that.
Countryside tours often include a trip to County Cavan. A side trip to
Magh Sleacht may require an overnight stay in nearby Ballyconnell, but
isn’t it worth it to experience the reawakening of one of the oldest
deities known to man? Or, is it?
