CITY LIFE LIVELY LIFE-LIVELY CITIES THAT HIDE SECRETS:10 MOST HAUNTED CITIES OF THE WORLD by Soumya Nayak

 

Don't you believe in ghosts? ‘There is no such thing as a ghost’-That's what you think? Then you need to know about these cities.

Something is intriguing about some historic cities in this world, filled with folklore and unanswered mysteries. The world is filled with cities that can satisfy your dark side. From witchy Salem, Massachusetts to blood-thirsty Bucharest, Romania, the following places will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up — even if you claim to be an unbeliever in ghosts.

SAVANNAH, GEORGIA :

The city was built on the dead, with many of its streets and buildings constructed atop old gravesites and sacred native burial grounds. In history, there were horrifying yellow fever outbreaks and gruesome murders including an infamous triple ax murder in 1990 in this city. This city was named “America’s Most Haunted City” in 2002 by the American Institute of Parapsychology.

Picture courtesy Google

KOLMANSKOP, NAMIBIA :

This former German mining town was founded a century ago by diamond hunters, and once sported a ballroom, skittle alley, casino, and tram. But the diamonds dried up and the town was abandoned to the elements in 1954. To this day, it is supposedly haunted by the ghosts of miners who died in the brutal heat of the desert.

SHEPHERDSTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA :

There’s no shortage of allegedly haunted cities in the US. The alarmingly named  Helltown, Ohio swirls with rumors of chemical spills and Satanists, while Salem, Massachusetts still trades on its notorious witch trials (though it has perhaps gone a bit too “ghostertainment” now). However, weird things have long been reported in Shepherdstown. In the Entler Hotel, now the town’s visitor center, guests have claimed to hear the cries of a young man killed by his best friend in a gambling duel in the early 19th century.

SINGAPORE :

Beachcombers at Singapore’s Changi Beach have reported hearing the cries of Chinese soldiers massacred here by Japanese forces during the second world war, and the former military hospital of Changi was said to be ghost-ridden from the 1940s. Some say it is the most haunted place in Asia. Yet perhaps the city’s freakiest sight is Haw Par Villa, a theme park built in 1937 to illustrate Chinese folklore, and which some people say conceals one of the actual gates of hell. Security guards of the park report weird nocturnal screams, and the exhibits feature creepy waxwork people torturing each other in gruesome detail. Some say these models are actual dead humans covered in wax.

 

BEIJING, CHINA :

An ancient city established over 3,000 years ago, Beijing is home to over 21 million people and several ghosts. The best time to greet spirits is on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month each year when the country holds its Ghost Festival. It’s believed that, on this day, the gates of hell open to let ghosts roam free. Locals honor the dead by releasing water lanterns into rivers and lakes, burning incense, and leaving out food for the ghosts to eat. City dwellers claim to see a crying woman walking amongst them, then vanishing into thin air.

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND :

In the 17th and 18th centuries, it’s believed Scotland was Europe’s biggest persecutor of witches; during that time, some 3,800 women suspected of witchcraft were strangled, hung, drowned, or burned at the stake, including many killed in the capital city of Edinburgh.

This terrifying period of history continues to haunt the city in tales of cannibals, body snatchers, and devil worshippers. Edinburgh was recently named one of the 10 most haunted places in the UK.

LONDON, U.K. : 

Two of London's most popular tourist destinations, the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey, are notoriously haunted by royal spirits and ghosts of monks, respectively. Horror enthusiasts should also visit the eerie Highgate Cemetery just watch out for the vampire lurking on Swain's Lane.  Almost everything in London is said to be haunted. Ghosts lurk in the tubes, alleyways, and pubs. Highgate Cemetery’s most famous resident is said to be a living vampire, and a mischievous long-dead monk roams Westminster Abbey. 

MADRID, SPAIN :

Ghosts haunt all walks of life in this capital city, appearing in museums, like the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, whose central building was formerly a hospital, and even the imposing Linares Palace, once wracked by family scandal.

CHICHEN ITZA, MEXICO :

This monumental Mayan city in Yucatan, built around the sixth century, boasts an enormous pyramid, a ball game court, and towering stone statuary and temples. Some pretty amazing things still happen here: for instance, the pyramidal Temple of Kukulcan, devoted to a snake deity, is designed so that on the spring equinox, the sun strikes the stones in such a way as to make it seem as though a serpent is crawling down the pyramid’s side. Chichen Itza also supposedly hosted mass human sacrifices, and tourists and guides now report seeing the ghosts of those killed, and of old priests doomed to wander the city forever.

SIGHISOARA, ROMANIA :

Fans of Dracula appreciate this historic Transylvanian city, which is the birthplace of Vlad the Impaler, the vicious Prince of Wallachia who inspired Bram Stoker's legendary novel. Travelers can tour his childhood home (which includes a tiny torture museum) or brave Holy Trinity Church's eerie, creaky stairwell after dark.

There are also many cities in this world where there is always some kind of haunting. Research is still going on about the strange events in those cities. Although the causes of some incidents are known, many mysteries have not been revealed even today.