① Italy’s Haunted Island
Poveglia, located near Venice, Italy, is an island known as a haunted island. In the past, Poveglia served as a quarantine area when the bubonic plague spread across Italy. It is known that the infected were incinerated on this island. Approximately 160,000 people died here.
In the 1900s, a mental hospital was established on the island. There were stories of witnesses seeing ghosts of decaying bodies crying out in pain in the mental hospital. The hospital director died suddenly, and mysterious events continued. Eventually, people left the island, which was briefly used for agricultural purposes after 1968.
Currently, all facilities on the island are abandoned. Poveglia has long been populated only by patients. The Italian government keeps a low profile, banning visits by ordinary tourists.
② Inhabited but Unreachable Places
Ordinary people are prohibited from visiting North Sentinel Island in the eastern Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean. This place is part of India’s territory but is home to the uncontacted tribe, the Sentinelese. In 2005, India declared that it had no intention to pursue contact or interference with the Sentinelese. Unauthorized contact with the Sentinelese is considered a crime.
The Sentinelese show intense hostility and aggression towards outsiders. There was an incident where a helicopter from the Indian government was shot down by arrows fired by the natives as it flew over the island. Lost fishermen who visited the island were also killed. In 2018, a Chinese-American missionary who illegally visited the island for missionary work was dead.
North Sentinel Island still retains its reputation as a mysterious island that ordinary people cannot visit.
In Hawaii, there is an island that ordinary people cannot visit. It’s Ni`ihau, Hawaii’s westernmost main and seventh-largest inhabited island. As of 2020, 84 residents lived there.
In 1846, Elizabeth Sinclair bought all the land from the Kingdom of Hawaii for $10,000. The Robinson family, descendants of Elizabeth Sinclair’s daughter, owns Ni’ihau. There is also a small military base.
To visit Ni`ihau Island, you need permission from the Robinson family. It is known as “Forbidden Island” due to its difficult access. It still retains its untouched natural state.
③ Visiting the Island Itself Is a Danger
Gruinard Island in Scotland is considered one of the most dangerous islands on earth. In 1942, the UK conducted anthrax experiments on sheep on Gruinard Island, off the coast of Scotland. They were planning an anthrax attack on Germany.
The UK government realized that the island was being contaminated during the anthrax experiments. For this reason, Gruinard Island was known as one of the most contaminated places in the world in the 1980s.
The UK government began to clean up the island in earnest in 1986. They diluted 280 tons of formaldehyde in 2,000 tons of seawater and sprayed it all over the island. In this process, the soil on the island surface was scraped off and disposed of.
Michael Neubert, the then UK Defense Undersecretary, visited Gruinard Island to emphasize that the island was safe. However, experts still speculate that it is contaminated with anthrax spores. Because anthrax remains deep in the soil, it is not safe for humans to live even after hundreds of years, they opined.
Ilha da Queimada Grande, also known as “Snake Island,” is an island off the coast of São Paulo in Brazil.
This uninhabited island is full of venomous snakes. About 4,000 snakes live there.
The snakes on the island are Bothrops Insularis, which can grow up to 70cm long. They are unique only to Ilha da Queimada Grande. Their venom can melt human skin.
The hemotoxic venom of these snakes is about 5-6 times more lethal than that of ordinary venomous snakes. There is an old story that pirates released snakes on the island to protect hidden treasures, preventing others from coming to the island. However, since Bothrops Insularis is known to inhabit only this island, the story is low on credibility.
The Brazilian government has decided to close the island. Only scientists with permission can enter the island.
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