There are countless beautiful destinations to visit around the world. But some places are either too dangerous, too protected, or too mysterious to explore.

Several locations across the globe—from man-made buildings and structures to natural habitats that contain dangerous species, religious mysteries, and secrets—make these areas forbidden to outsiders.

10 The Red Zone
France

Not all scenes in France are made of rolling green hills filled with gorgeous villages. In fact, there is one deserted area that has been forbidden for nearly a century. In a region near Verdun, France, lies a virgin forest known as the Zone Rouge (aka the Red Zone). Nobody lives there, nothing has been built there, and it is actually forbidden to enter.

Before World War I, Verdun was mainly farmland. The area quickly changed during the war after millions of rounds of artillery shells were fired. The ground was churned up, the trees were smashed, and the towns were destroyed by explosives. The war ended in 1918 and left the villages a casualty of war.

The French government considered the cost of rehabilitating the land but ultimately decided to relocate the local villagers. All the shells and munitions were left in the area, and it was deemed Zone Rouge.

The 1,190-square-kilometer (460 mi²) area is still strictly prohibited by law from public entry and agricultural use. Authorities are working to clear the land. However, at the current rate, many believe that it could take 300–700 years to complete or it may never be fully cleared.^[1]

9 Fort Knox
Kentucky

One of the best-kept mysteries in the US is located just 48 kilometers (30 mi) southwest of Louisville. The United States Bullion Depository (aka Fort Knox) is stacked with glittering gold bricks . . . we think. Very few people have entered the “gold fortress,” leaving many unanswered questions about the location.

Construction of Fort Knox was completed in 1936, and it sits on a 109,000-acre US Army post. Gold was shipped in at that time by trains manned by machine gunners. Then it was loaded onto army trucks protected by a US Cavalry brigade.^[2]

Just to be clear: Technically, Fort Knox (the US Army post) is adjacent to the US Bullion Depository. But the term “Fort Knox” is often used to refer to the gold vault building.

The US Constitution and the Bill of Rights were both stored there for short periods. The US government figures that the United States Bullion Depository holds nearly 4,582 metric tons of gold, which is worth more than $175 billion. The facility has one of the most advanced security systems known. What goes on there is mostly a secret, which is how the phrase “as secure as Fort Knox” originated.

8 North Sentinel Island

As hard as it is to believe, there are still “uncontacted” indigenous groups, which means that they maintain no contact with modern civilization. The Sentinelese people of North Sentinel Island are one of those few remaining uncontacted tribes.

In 1991, an outside expedition from India floated coconuts in the water toward the island inhabited by the Sentinelese, who are known to be hostile to foreigners. On two such trips, an Indian team made contact. The Sentinelese wanted the unfamiliar coconuts, but they did not really welcome the outsiders.^[3]

It is estimated that about 80–150 people live on the island, and their language isn’t known to any outsiders. Little is known about the tribe, which keeps them a mystery to many. But we do know that they don’t care much for company.

In 2018, a US missionary attempted to contact the Sentinelese people but was quickly killed by bow and arrow. The group has made it clear for years that they have no interest in making new friends.

In 1896, a convict from the Great Andaman Island Penal Colony escaped on a makeshift raft and eventually washed ashore on North Sentinel Island. His remains were found days later with a cut throat and several arrow wounds. It’s clear that the Sentinelese don’t want any contact, and it’s best to leave it that way.

7 Chapel Of The Ark Of The Covenant
Ethiopia

One of the most sought-after artifacts from the Bible is the Ark of the Covenant. The legendary object was built around 3,000 years ago to house the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments. The Ark vanished from history after the Babylonian Empire conquered the Israelites. Nobody really knows if it was destroyed, captured, or hidden.

According to Ethiopian lore, the Ark of the Covenant is located at the St. Mary of Zion Cathedral (aka the Chapel of the Ark) in Aksum. The church only allows one man to see the Ark, and he is a monk who acts as the guardian of the artifact.

Although some reports claim that the Aksum object is only a replica of the Ark, nobody else is even permitted to enter the chapel to study the artifact, making it a forbidden place that you wish you could visit.^[4]

6 Snake Island

Around 150 kilometers (93 mi) south of downtown Sao Paulo is Ilha da Queimada Grande, better known as Snake Island. The island sits about 40 kilometers (25 mi) off the coast of Brazil, and humans are forbidden from entering the island. Snake Island got the name from the various snakes lurking across the island. Researchers believe that there is about one deadly snake for every 0.09 square meter (1 ft²) on the island.

The island is home to the golden lancehead, a unique species of the pit viper, which is known as one of the deadliest serpents in the world. They can grow to be over 0.5 meters (1.5 ft) long, and it is estimated that anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 of these deadly snakes occupy the island.

A lancehead is so venomous that a human would die within an hour of being bitten. These vipers are responsible for more deaths than any other snake in North and South America. It may be best that this island stays off-limits to visitors.^[5]

5 Mirny Diamond Mine

One of the largest man-made excavated holes in the world is found at Mir Mine (aka Mirny Diamond Mine). The enormous pit is located in Eastern Siberia and is the second-largest man-made hole in the world.

The diamond-rich deposit was found in 1955, and it is now more than 520 meters (1,700 ft) deep and more than 1,200 meters (3,900 ft) wide. Joseph Stalin ordered the construction of the mine to satisfy the Soviet Union’s need for diamonds.

During the peak years, the mine produced more than 10 million carats of diamonds annually. Open mining ceased in 2001, but underground mining is continued at the location.

The airspace above the mine is off-limits to helicopters after stories emerged about aircraft being sucked in due to downward air flow. But those claims have never been proved. The town is strictly off-limits to outsiders, though, so don’t expect to get a glimpse of this diamond in the rough.^[6]

4 Tomb Of Qin Shi Huang

Deep in the hills of central China, the country’s first emperor has lain for more than two millennia. The secret tomb of Qin Shi Huang was discovered in 1974 after some farmers stumbled across it while digging wells. They dug out a life-size terra-cotta soldier, but they didn’t realize that it would be just one of thousands of pieces of history at the site.

Archaeologists have excavated the site for nearly four decades and have uncovered about 2,000 clay soldiers. Scientists have not yet touched the central tomb, though, which contains the remains of Qin Shi Huang.

Many believe that the tomb is filled with many other treasures such as precious stones. Chinese authorities are the only ones allowed near the area, and it is up to them to decide if anyone ever gets to enter the mysterious tomb.^[7]

3 Svalbard Global Seed Vault

Halfway between Norway and the North Pole lies the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. It is tucked away deep inside a mountain on a remote island in Svalbard. It is the world’s largest seed storage and is home to crates of seeds for safe and secure long-term storage in cold and dry rock vaults. The vault holds tens of thousands of varieties of essential food crops and more than 4,000 plant species.

It is a long-term seed storage facility that was built to withstand the effects of man-made and natural disasters. The purpose of the vault is to store duplicates of seeds from the world’s crop collections. If nuclear war or global warming were to kill crops, nations could request seeds from the vault to restart their agricultural processes.

In 2018, the Norwegian government proposed to allocate 100 million NOK (roughly $12.7 million) to upgrade the seed vault to help safeguard the genetic material it contains.^[8]

2 Bohemian Grove

Each July, a group of very rich and powerful men gather at a 2,700-acre campground in Monte Rio, California, for two weeks to hold private meetings, indulge in alcoholic beverages, and who knows what else. Bohemian Grove is the name of the secret campground that belongs to the gentlemen’s club known as the Bohemian Club.

According to rumors, the only way to join the Bohemian Club is to be invited by members or join a waiting list decades long. There is also a $25,000 initiation fee along with yearly dues.^[9]

There are currently around 2,500 members, with many of them showing up to enjoy their down time at the campground that features 118 camps, a man-made lake, and a towering Owl Shrine. Some of the past and present members of the secretive group include Gerald Ford, Clint Eastwood, Bing Crosby, Merv Griffin, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush.

1 Surtsey
Iceland

Surtsey is a volcanic island off the southern coast of Iceland. It’s one of the world’s newest islands and was named after the Norse fire god, Surtur. In 1963, it emerged from the Atlantic Ocean after a fiery eruption. Columns of ash were sent into the air almost 9,200 meters (30,000 ft). For nearly four years after the eruption, the volcanic core built up the island with elevations around 152 meters (500 ft).^[10]

The island is now home to a long-term biological research program to study the colonization process of new land by plant and animal life. It was declared a nature reserve in 1965, and in 2008, UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site. Surtsey is restricted to the public and is still only open to a handful of scientists who study the island.

“I’m just another bearded guy trying to write my way through life.” Visit my site at www.MDavidScott.com

You may think that you can use any color that you want. But there are some colors that can be very hard to get your hands on. Whether they’re toxic, outdated, illegal, or copyrighted, there are some colors that are simply off-limits.

Top 10 Little-Known Facts About Color

10 Mummy brown

In the 16th century, a new shade of brown paint started appearing in European art called “Mummy Brown”. You may think this is simply a creative name, but in fact, this paint was actually made of real crushed ancient Egyptians. In the 19th, “Egyptomania” spread across Europe and the United States, as people used mummies as decor, medicine, paper, and even party games at mummy unrolling events.^[1] The exact technique for preparing the color varied quite a bit, and today it is almost impossible to tell if a painting used the substance through any kind of analysis, but all of its variations included actual mummy.

But not everyone even knew what the paint was really made of. When one painter, Edward Burnes-Jones, found out the true origins of the material he had been using he held an impromptu funeral for the mummy in his backyard.^[2] But much like ancient Egypt itself, the reign of the color had to come to an end. In 1964, the creator of mummy brown paint reported that they had run out of mummies, saying “We might have a few odd limbs lying around somewhere but not enough to make any more paint”.^[3] If you want to recreate the shade today, you might have some trouble getting the materials.

9 Vantablack

Vantablack is one of the darkest colors known to mankind. Developed by British company Surrey NanoSystems in the early 2000s, it can absorb 99.965% of visible light.^[4] It held the Guinness World Record for darkest man-made substance until a material with a much less catchy name known as “dark chamaleon dimers” knocked it out of the top spot in 2015.^[5] It can be used to keep light out of telescopes and infrared cameras and potentially collect solar energy. It may also have military applications, such as intense camouflage.^[6]

However, if you use vantablack paint to make a modern art piece or decorate your bedroom, you will probably be out of luck. Unless your name is Anish Kapoor, of course, because he holds the exclusive licensing to use the product in art. Kapoor, who is well-known for creating the bean-shaped “Cloud Gate” sculpture in Chicago, has received sharp criticism for trying to keep an entire color to himself. Fellow artist Stuart Semple hit back by creating several other colors, including “Pinkest Pink”, “Black 2.0”, “Black 3.0”, and “Diamond Dust”, which every single person in the world is allowed to use… except Anish Kapoor.^[7] Massachusetts company NanoLab also created a similar substance to Vantablack known as Singularity Black which is available for the public, so if you really want something to be as dark as possible, you can give them a call.^[8]

8 Tyrian Purple

Royal purple hues have been associated with nobility for centuries and the connection lingers to this day. During the Roman Empire, any non-noble who dared to try to wear purple could be executed. Queen Elizabeth I forbid anyone but her family from wearing it as part of the Sumptuary Laws that governed what each social class could wear. This reddish-purple was even thought to look similar to dried blood, connecting royals to the idea of a divine bloodline. It became popular among the ruling class in Egypt, Persia, and the Roman Empire and carried through until the mid-1500s.^[9]

The reason why purple dye was so rare is that it was incredibly difficult and expensive to produce. The Phoenician city Tyre was the main producer of the dye, which was called Tyrian purple or royal or Imperial purple To extract the pigment, hundreds of thousands of sea snails had to be collected, cracked, and exposed to sunlight (which produced a truly horrible smell). This process required up to 250,000 snails for one ounce of dye, which made it prohibitively expensive for almost everyone,^[10] and the snails were only native to the Mediterranean. The clothing made from this dye never faded, and it was literally worth its weight in gold.^[11] In 1856, teenage chemist William Henry Perkin accidentally invented a much cheaper purple dye while working on anti-malaria treatment. This new dye, eventually called “mauve”, helped purple become available to everyone.

7 Vermillion

Vermillion is also known by the names cinnabar and China red, but you definitely don’t want to be mixing up any of it at home. Vermillion gets its red-orange hue from mercury, and the smaller the mercury particles are, the brighter red vermillion is. It has been used for close to 8,000 years, since Ancient Romans retrieved it from Spain and used it in cosmetics and art. It was also used to illuminate medieval manuscripts. Prisoners and slaves were given the dangerous job of mining cinnabar in the Spanish mines of Almadén, and it was then heated and crushed to form pigment.^[12] It was also used in Renaissance painting and of course in China where it got its alternate name. There it was mixed with tree sap and used for temples, ink, and pottery.^[13]

The Ancient Chinese created synthetic cinnabar, but it was still toxic. Eventually Cadmium red replaced it as the choice for artists in the 20th century, as it was much less deadly and didn’t fade into a reddish-brown, as vermillion had the tendency to do.^[14] Bright red-orange remains associated with traditional Chinese culture to this day, associated with luck and happiness.

6 Scheele’s green

In the early 1800s, a brand new dye swept the Victorian high society. German color-maker Carl Wilhelm Scheele released a shade of green so vibrant that it became the go-to of ladies attending parties across Western Europe. New gas lamp technology made nighttime events brighter and this emerald green was perfect to make a statement as a modern and fashionable woman. Soon Sheele’s green was seen across Britain in dresses, wallpaper, carpeting, and artificial plants.

Unfortunately, this new dye color was made with copper arsenite, which contained the deadly element arsenic. Women who wore it broke out in blisters. Families started vomiting in their green living rooms. The factory workers who used the dye daily suffered organ failure. One faux flower maker named Matilda Scheurer suffered a gruesome death, throwing up green, the whites of her eyes turning green, and telling others that everything she saw was green.^[15] Although people at the time were aware that arsenic was deadly when ingested, the buzz around Sheele’s green helped to spread the idea that the material could kill through other methods of exposure as well.^[16] Despite doctors and media quickly figuring out the connection, people resisted the warnings in the name of fashion until 1895.^[17]

10 Explanations For The Color Schemes Used On Everyday Things

5 Lead white

As far back as the 4th century B.C., the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians were using this thick white pigment for make-up, medicine, and paint. Ancient Greek authors Pliny and Vestruvious even described it in their writings.^[18] The process for making it was fairly simple: soak lead metal in vinegar and then scrape off the white powder that formed. Many manufacturers and artists developed what was called “Painter’s Colic”, which we now recognize as lead poisoning.^[19]

Lead white’s thick consistency and fast drying speed made it a favorite of artists across Europe. But lead can enter the body if it is breathed in, ingested, or absorbed and it can cause long-term damage to the brain and kidney.^[20] Even though it was clear that this paint was deadly, artists couldn’t find a good match for its creamy warm tones, and it was used until it was formally banned in the 1970s.

4 Uranium orange

In 1936, the Fiestaware ceramics company started to come out with a bright new line of dinnerware. A bold orange-red color called “Fiesta Red”, these dishes started appearing in homes across America. The bright color came from uranium oxide, which is radioactive. From 1943 to 1959, the production of these orange dishes paused, as uranium was banned from civilian use to save it for the war effort. When they started production again, a different form of uranium was used, called depleted uranium, which is slightly less radioactive than the natural form.^[21]

Many dishes from the time period used radioactive materials in their production, and the EPA warns that they can now emit alpha, beta, and gamma radiation.^[22] Fiesta red dishes were produced until 1972, when the line was discontinued, but this line is still highly sought after by collectors, although it is recommended that you don’t actually eat off them, especially acidic food.^[23] Fiestaware still makes dinnerware, although the colors will not match the old ones due to the fact that they no longer use uranium or lead in their glazes.

3 Radium green

In 1908, a very unique paint appeared. It was self-luminous and glowed a bright green in the dark, which was perfect for watches and compasses that could now be used at night. Radium appeared all over the market in the late 1800s to early 1900s, used in drinks, candy, creams and lotions, soap, spas, and swimming pools. The glowing, fizzling radium became connected with the idea of a healthy glow.^[24] The watches were first used for the military in World War I, and after the war, they began to spread to consumers.

A group of young women and girls worked in the factories painting watch faces, later known as “the Radium Girls”, and it was considered an artistic job with access to this fun, newly discovered substance. The girls licked their paint brushes to give them a fine point and also sprinkled the dye on their fair and face so they would glow in the dark at parties. In the 1920s, the girls started to show signs of radiation poisoning. They developed sores, rotted jaws and teeth, and several died before the problem started to be understood. In 1928, Grace Fryer led her fellow workers in suing the New Jersey factory, causing a media frenzy. The girls won.^[25] Many of the surviving girls also agreed to be studied in the 1950s, and the U.S. vastly expanded their understanding of the effects of radium on the body. Radium paint for watches officially stopped being used in 1968. Glow-in-the-dark products today are most often made with photoluminesce, where they absorb and then re-emit light, which is not toxic.^[26]

2 Red-green and blue-yellow

These two colors are not forbidden by any ruler or made of some deadly material. The problem with these colors is that they are almost impossible to see. Red and green cancel each other out inside of the human eye and blue and yellow do as well. The retinas of the human eye allow us to take incoming light and make specific neuron fire in the brain to recognize each color. But these pairs of colors inhibit each other in the brain, so they cannot be viewed simultaneously.

Until 1983, when scientists Hewitt Crane and Thomas Piantanida conducted an experiment. Volunteers were shown adjacent stripes of yellow/blue or red/green. Each eye was forced to focus on a single color using an eye tracker. By doing this, their eyes were tricked into slowly blending the colors and creating a new shade.^[27] Participants reportedly had trouble describing this, as no words existed for these colors. When a repeat study was done in 2006 by Dartmouth University and scientist Po-Jang Hsieh, volunteers were given a color mapper to try and match the impossible colors that they saw, and some chose a brownish color referred to as “mud” for the red-green combination.^[28]

1 Gamboge yellow

In the 1600s, the British East India Company brought back a new bright yellow pigment from Asia. Gamboge was named after the country of Cambodia, which used to be called “Camoboja” from the Latin word “gambogium” meaning pigment. It was collected as sap from bamboo shoots of trees at least ten years and then turned into fine powder or hard rocks that could be wet to paint with. This sap was poisonous itself, but that was not the only reason that gamboge became unpopular. The color was used in traditional Chinese painting, but the color faded fast and can be hard to recognize today.^[29]

In the mid-1800s in England, a snake oil salesman named James Morrison came out with “Morrison’s vegetable pills” made of gamboge, which acted as a strong diuretic and laxative. Doctors quickly realized that gamboge irritated the skin and could be deadly as medicine in even small amounts. Also in 1980s, a Winsor & Newton paint company employee found a bullet in a piece of gamboge, and it was quickly discovered that it had been collected from the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge.^[30] In 2005, Winsor & Newton stopped using Gamboge and replaced it with a non-toxic version called “New Gamboge”.^[31]

10 Moments That Changed Color Forever

Freedom of religion tends to be taken for granted in the West, despite being illusory in practice. Every government in the world intrudes on religion and, contrary to what you might expect, it’s at least as bad today as it has been in the past. It’s just more bureaucratic.

Ranked by how widely they’re banned, here are the world’s top 10 illegal religions…

10. Obeah and Myal

Sometimes religions are only banned on paper. In Jamaica, although officially illegal, Obeah and Myal (forms of Afro-Creole witchcraft) are legally tolerated. The ban originated in the British colonial period for one pathetic reason: the practice frightened the whites, probably because it gave their slaves hope. From 1760, the year of the Tacky Rebellion (a slave uprising), Obeah and Myal were punishable by death. The law was further formalized under the Obeah Act in 1854 and for the next century Jamaicans (many hostile to Obeah) were routinely prosecuted for “rituals”. 

Other colonies followed suit with laws of their own, but most have since repealed them. Only in Jamaica, where blacks have tragically internalized colonial racism, does the Obeah Act remain in place. In June 2019, when Jamaica’s Minister of Justice suggested repeal, the public were outraged. Insisting Obeah was “evil”, they forced the government to keep the racist — and purely nominal — law in place. 

9. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is seen as such a threat in Ukraine that it’s subject to evictions and raids. The reason is the church’s historical ties to Moscow, which Zelenskiy’s government thinks could weaken Ukraine from within — despite only 4% of Ukrainians being members.

A spokesperson for the church disputes the government’s right to suppress them, pointing out the church’s historical adherence to Ukrainian law. Even the Pope has criticized the crackdown, and the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church has also urged the government to back off. “We were once banned as well,” he said, “and we survived underground.” As he put it, “banning a church doesn’t mean ending its existence.” It just creates hostility.

8. Falun Gong

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7Nz2rDKoZ8

Falun Gong (“law wheel practice”) is a qigong-inspired meditation-based religion emphasizing “the virtues of truth, benevolence, and forbearance.” Founded by a trumpet player in 1992, it had by the end of the decade attracted more than 70 million followers, becoming the second largest faith in the country after Buddhism. It also far exceeded the Chinese Communist Party’s membership of 63 million; hence it was banned as an “evil cult.” 

There’s nothing unusual about this; all but five religions in China (Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, Catholicism, and Protestantism) are officially labeled “evil cults” or “superstitions.” But Falun Gong also became one of the “five poisons” — alongside Tibetans, Uighurs, democracy activists, and pro-independence Taiwan. It wasn’t just its numbers that threatened the CCP; its pacifist principles also go against the government’s emphasis on “materialism, political struggle, and nationalism.” The movement had even gained traction among officials themselves, undermining the regime from within.

Nowadays, practitioners of Falun Gong are routinely “disappeared” by the state, tortured, and executed. According to reports, the corpses of Falun Gong practitioners supply many of the vital organs used by China’s medical establishment.

7. The Shouters

Christianity has a long history in China, with its earliest introduction dated to 635 CE. A little over two centuries later, its almost-as-long history of suppression in China began. Today, some Christian groups are grudgingly tolerated — but only if they adhere to the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TPSM). This propagandist affiliation, which tends to politicize sermons, was founded in the 1950s to suppress pastors and priests critical of the CCP.

The so-called “Shouters Sect” is one that definitely does not comply. In 1983, it became the first group to be designated “counterrevolutionary.” Then in 1995, it became the first group to be designated an “evil cult.” In practice, however, “Shouters” is a catch-all for undesirable Christians in general. The original “Shouters,” or “Callers” as they knew themselves, fot the pejorative nickname for loudly “calling on the name of Lord Jesus” during sermons. It was only after the 1982 demonstration against the TSPM that the CCP-compliant Christian community scapegoated them.

Raids and arrests are now common, and “Shouters” have received harsh sentences including life imprisonment and death. 

6. Ahmadiyya

Originating in British-occupied India during the 19th century, Ahmadiyya is a heretical Muslim sect — at least according to orthodoxy. Unlike most Muslims, they don’t believe Muhammad was the last of the prophets. In fact, Ahmadiyya is named for the much more recent, Punjab-born prophet Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908). Outlandishly he stated the obvious: Muslim society and religion had deteriorated and were now in need of reform.

Followers have since become “one of the most relentlessly persecuted communities”, with Pakistan’s first prime minister bowing to pressure from clerics and declaring Ahmadis non-Muslims. Even today, their non-Muslim status excludes them from the most basic of citizens’ rights, such as voting and obtaining a passport. And of course without a passport they’re unable to travel to Mecca. Pakistan has arrested and charged numerous Ahmadis with “blasphemy”. Malaysian authorities also call Ahmadis non-Muslim — “apostates”, in fact. Algeria, meanwhile, has been persecuting Ahmadiyya since 2016, when police raided and destroyed a newly built mosque and imprisoned the national leader.

Ironically, Ahmadiyya — like so many other religions on this list — stresses non-violence and tolerance above all.

5. Witchcraft

Although more of a catch-all for different traditions, witchcraft is often treated as religion. For example, in Cameroon, Tanzania, and the Central African Republic, it’s banned alongside other “folk or indigenous religions”. In the Gambia between 2008 and 2009, President Yahya Jammeh had up to 1,000 elderly citizens arrested and tortured on spurious witchcraft charges. In  2019, eSwatini (formerly Swaziland) cited its own (or rather its white colonial masters’) 1889 Witchcraft Act as justification for forbidding a planned witchcraft competition. In Papua New Guinea, people who use the services of witches face up to 10 years in prison and fines up to 10,000 PGK. 

In Saudi Arabia, the police force has an Anti-Witchcraft Unit tasked with hunting down astrologers, fortune tellers, sorcerers, and so on. Since there’s no legal definition of witchcraft, judges can interpret the kingdom’s religious Sharia law however they like to impose unfair punishments on the accused. An Egyptian pharmacist, for instance, was beheaded for (according to his neighbors) casting spells to break up a couple and placing Korans in the bathrooms of mosques. Often people are entrapped by the state, such as when undercover police — apparently with nothing better to do — paid a man to cast a spell. Cases also relied on confessions extracted by torture.

Meanwhile in Romania, practicing witchcraft professionally is only legal with a permit obliging witches to pay taxes on their income.

4. Christianity

Even Christianity, with its long track record of suppressing other faiths, is illegal in numerous countries. In Somalia and Comoros, it’s against the law to publicly admit to being Christian and anyone who does may be subject to harassment or death. In Mauritania, it’s even dangerous for foreign nationals to express their Christian faith. In Eritrea, only some denominations are legal.

In the Maldives, politicians win votes by keeping everyone Muslim — which they manage to do by imprisoning everyone else. Christianity is also illegal in Saudi Arabia, where Islam is all that’s permitted. Under regimes like this, as well as Iran and North Korea, Bibles are delivered by a clandestine network of underground Christian renegades.

3. Baha’i

Despite (or, let’s face it, because of) its message of peace, equality, and human unity, Baha’i is heavily restricted in its country of origin Iran. Followers are barred from higher education, national pensions, and certain jobs — for example in government, law, and, perhaps most cruelly of all, food production because they’re considered unclean. Baha’i-owned businesses are also subject to heavy restrictions or forced to shut down. A fatwa issued by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei instructs citizens to avoid dealing with them entirely.

They’re also subject to unlawful arrests, arbitrary detention, and, from their fellow Iranians, brutal discrimination. Literally adding insult to injury, Baha’is are even denied the usual Iranian right of diyeh (“blood money”) restitution for the murder or harm of their relatives.

Elsewhere, life can be just as harsh if not harsher. In Brunei, the “deviant” religion is banned outright, while in Egypt, followers are denied bank accounts, property, and even their own churches and religious literature. Also, couples married in the faith aren’t recognized by the Egyptian state, which means they have no access to basic spousal rights like inheritance, divorce, and residency. On national identity cards, Baha’is are designated simply with a dash — unlike Muslims, Christians, and Jews, all of whom are recognized by the state.

2. Jehovah’s Witnesses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMmFBxsOD8E

At first glance, it’s puzzling why so many governments, in very different nations, are against Jehovah’s Witnesses — especially given their avowed lack of interest in politics. But China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, Morocco, the Maldives, Qatar, Uzbekistan, Comoros, and many more all ban Jehovah’s Witnesses activities. The reason is simple: for despotic regimes, Jehovah’s Witnesses’ political neutrality is a threat to national security. Never mind what Jehovah’s Witnesses themselves say in protest, or how law-abiding they are in practice; they won’t pledge allegiance to a state — not over God anyway. This is why they were banned by the Nazis.

Russia is particularly notable for stepping up its persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses since the Supreme Court banned the religion, calling it an “extremist organization” in 2017. 2019 saw almost 500 raids on Jehovah’s Witnesses’ homes, with Bibles, computers, phones, and other items being seized. 

Often these raids are early in the morning. Calling to mind Soviet-era purges, van loads of police officers (up to 20 personnel) will descend on a residence, pound on the door, and handcuff the owners. Forced to stand facing the wall for hours, the state’s bleary-eyed victims will even be denied use of their own toilets while the armed thugs carry out their search. Alternatively, law enforcement spies have been known to quietly infiltrate Jehovah’s Witnesses’ homes under the pretext of repairing their internet, only to download files from computers.

1. Psychedelic sacramental religions

So important was the freedom of religion to the Founding Fathers that its protection was enshrined in the very First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law … prohibiting the free exercise [of religion].” In practice, however, many religious practices remain illegal — from smoking weed to polygamous marriage. 

Notably, the First Amendment unofficially exempts the first Americans, the Native Americans. Because it wasn’t until 1978 that Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIFRA), aimed at correcting generations of suppression of indigenous religion. However, the sacramental use of peyote — crucial to many but federally banned — remains contentious even today. Although the AIFRA was amended to allow for such use by the Native American Church, only members of federally recognized tribes are in practice granted the concession. Citizens with Native American ancestry but no registered tribal membership are still not technically permitted.

Ayahuasca churches, such as Santo Daime and UDV, have similar problems — right around the world, thanks to America’s War on Drugs. A recent attempt in the Netherlands to legalize ayahuasca for religious use was denied, leaving followers of the religion to organize illicitly — even in “enlightened” Western Europe — for fear of arrest and imprisonment.

We’ve told you before about some of Earth’s strange corners that you can’t set a foot on. However, it turns out there’s no shortage of such locations, so here are 10 more forbidden places you’ll never be able to visit.  

10. Only memories of tragedies live on North Brother Island

The desolate North Brother Island lies near one of the biggest cities in the world: It’s in the East River, between New York City’s Riker’s Island and the Bronx. It’s also the location of two famous historical tragedies and an untold amount of human suffering. It’s arguably most famous as the home of Mary “Typhoid Mary” Mallon, the symptomless Patient Zero of many a typhoid fever outbreak. Mallon spent the last 23 years of his life detained and quarantined on the island, believing all the while that she was a victim of great injustice. 

However, the island claimed its greatest death toll as the nearest landmass to the General Slocum disaster of 1905, where the massive steamship went ablaze near North Brother Island. Over 1,000 people died, and only 321 survived. After these tragedies, the hospital located on the island was put to use after World War II, first for veterans of the war and then for heroin addicts. 

The hospital was closed and left to rot in 1963, and it is now officially forbidden to visit the North Brother Island. However, this isn’t because the island is haunted by the ghosts of the people who met their horrifying fates there (as far as we know). It’s simply because the North Brother Island is home to one of the largest Black-Crowned Night Heron colonies, and as a result, the place is a bird sanctuary. Pretty anticlimactic, huh?

9. Bhangarh Fort is officially haunted at night

To be fair, you can visit the Bhangarh Fort in India’s Rajasthan pretty much whenever you like… as long as you do it in the daytime. After dark, the place is strictly off limits, but it’s not because the officials fear that tourists steal trinkets or start bonfires. It’s because they fear the tourists will be eaten by vengeful ghosts. 

Yes, the Bhangarh Fort is considered to be so haunted that the area’s officials have strictly forbidden all visits to the area at nighttime, making it possibly the only historical building (or at the very least one of the precious few) in the world that is legally haunted. There are many stories surrounding the place, but the most common is that a wizard once cursed the fort for all eternity because they had disobeyed his order to avoid building taller buildings than his dwelling. That seems a bit petty, but hey, that’s wizards for you. Still, whether you believe in ghosts or not, the locals certainly have plenty of chilling stories about people going missing and strange voices in the night — and whenever the sun starts setting, tourists are promptly packed in their buses and vans. 

8. The mysterious closed town of Mezhgorye

The town of Mezhgorye has been around since 1979. It was initially less-than-invitingly called Ufa-105 or Beloretsk-16, but was granted a proper name when it received a town status in 1995. Located near the Ural mountains in the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia, the town is closed and evidently highly classified despite the warm welcome sign at its border. 

Mezhgorye is thought to house a little under 20,000 people who work for the nearby top secret base called Mount Yamantau. This is thought to be a massively deep and unfathomably large underground construct, which Russian officials have described as “a mining site, a repository for Russian treasures, a food storage area, and a bunker for Russia’s leaders” depending on who you’re asking, but everyone else seems to be convinced the base has a whole lot to do with nuclear weapons.

7. Setting foot on Pravcicka Brana is strictly forbidden

You’d be forgiven to think that the Pravcicka Brana arch in the Czech Bohemian Switzerland National Park seems somewhat familiar. After all, the giant natural stone arc is one of the most recognizable landmarks in the country, and has been prominently featured in movies such as The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

You’d also be forgiven to want to walk the arch and admire the stunning scenery of the national park all around you, and maybe even take the most Instagram-worthy photo in history by standing on the arch and having a friend photograph you from a lookout point. However, this is something you absolutely can’t do. In fact, even official, otherwise affable visitor guides straight up tell you to not even think about it. The combined forces of erosion and thousands and thousands of tourist feet would play merry hell on the fragile arc, and the risk of collapse is a very real one. You’re welcome to enjoy the Pravcicka Brana from afar (at a price, of course), but actually setting foot on it is strictly, strictly forbidden. 

6. Svalbard Global Seed Vault: No doomsday tourists allowed

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a hyper-secure doomsday vault that stores the seeds of various crops and plants for that tragic day in the future when nature may need a backup. As an iconic place and an imposing Bond villain lair design, the vault is a source of fascination for a certain type of tourists, and operators NordGen often receive requests for visitation. Understandably, they’re not too keen on having tourists wandering the halls of what may one day become humanity’s last hope for survival and looking for souvenirs, so all private visits to the vault are strictly forbidden.

It’s not all bad, though: NordGen is fully aware of the photogenic nature of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, and they are completely cool with private visitors who want to pop by and take a selfie in front of the famous entrance… as long as they don’t expect to be let in. 

5. Only monkeys may walk on Morgan Island

South Carolina’s Morgan Island is home to a breeding colony of 3,500 Rhesus monkeys, which were moved there by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources after they started causing outbreaks among the locals in the Puerto Rico research center that was their original home. The monkeys have been there since the 1970s, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases uses them for life-saving research while also maintaining, feeding and generally taking care of the colony. 

For obvious reasons (and also because the Institute wants to keep the island clean of human interaction), visiting the island is strictly prohibited. However, it is completely cool for boats to sail near the shores to laugh at the Rhesus monkeys’ many amusing beach antics.

4. Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang is so deadly it can’t be explored

You might be familiar with the Chinese terracotta warriors uncovered from a vast imperial tomb. Those, you totally can visit — the terracotta army is housed in a museum built on the site they were discovered, and some of them even tour the globe as art museum exhibitions. 

The thing is, they’re not the entirety of the imperial tomb. They’re just the figures guarding the tomb. The actual tomb, a.k.a. The Mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, is a giant, 22-square-mile complex that has multiple buildings, courtyards and even a secret palace — and we may never get to visit it. While the construct is buried by soil and kept dry and intact by a surprisingly advanced ventilation system, even archeologists think it may be too dangerous to fully explore and excavate. Emperor Qin was a paranoid and superstitious sort of fellow, and he constructed his palace to be a full-on Indiana Jones maze full of deadly traps that may or may not still work. While some scientists point out the Hollywood-style traps may just be the product of historians’ imagination, the Chinese government still seems content just sitting on the discovery until they develop sufficient technology to venture in the tomb without destroying anything (and, presumably, to avoid getting a faceful of mercury-laced arrows). 

3. Good luck reaching Heard Island

To be fair, it’s not entirely forbidden to witness the unique, lush ecosystem of Heard Island with your own two eyes. You can totally visit the island if you’re willing to jump the hurdles and obtain the correct documents and permits. Good luck getting there, though: Though Heard Island technically belongs to Australia, it’s actually nearly 250 miles to the south of Western Australia and just 62 miles from Antarctica. Flying is a no-go, as the vast majority of the island is occupied by a tall, steep volcano called Big Ben.

There are no commercial tour services to take you there. The only way to get there is by boat, which according to Australia’s Antarctic Division means that you have to endure some two weeks of sailing “through some of the roughest seas on the planet” — and then do that again to get back to Australia. Also, the island has no permanent residents, so you have absolutely zero backup during your stay there. 

2. Niihau is Hawaii’s “forbidden island”

Hawaii enjoys a reputation as a famously welcoming and chill place, but it also has its secrets. Niihau, Hawaii’s “forbidden island,” was bought by Elizabeth Sinclair from King Kamehameha V in 1864, and the King had only one resquest for her: To keep the place in good condition for its people. 

The island is now owned by Sinclair’s descendants Bruce and Keith Robinson, and the family has kept their promise with a vengeance: The island is a lush, pristine habitat for many endangered species and a peaceful home to the people who live there. Its peacefulness is largely thanks to the family’s policy of keeping tourists as far away as humanly possible. The island gained its “forbidden” nickname in 1952, when a polio epidemic was ravaging Hawaii and the family decided to protect Niihau by forbidding entrance without a doctor’s certificate and a two-week quarantine period. The tactic worked, the nickname remained, and for decades, only members of the family and the roughly 130 natives living on the island were allowed there. People who want to visit the island as their dying wish? Mick Jagger? Billionaires and members of royalty? All have requested; all requests have been denied.

In recent years, however, the Robinsons have gotten a little fed up with the constant barrage of requests and started allowing a small number of carefully controlled tours to the north end of the island. So, it remains to be seen just how “forbidden” the island will be in years to come. 

1. The Chernobyl sarcophagus will irradiate you

When the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster happened, its aftermath left the Chernobyl exclusion zone, a large, technically forbidden zone that nevertheless is visited pretty much all the time. While the radiation levels in large parts of the area, including the town of Pripyat, are more or less survivable, there are still some zones that are strictly forbidden to visit on pain of (very painful) death. 

The most obvious of these forbidden locations, both physically and by common sense, is Reactor 4, the reactor whose meltdown caused the whole disaster. The reactor is now covered by a hulking concrete sarcophagus designed to keep both radiation in and people out. The sarcophagus itself is a crumbling old thing that will be dismantled by 2023, but its successor is already in place: The massive 354-foot-tall steel structure called New Safe Containment, which covers both Reactor 4 and the sarcophagus, was finished in 2016.