7 of the World's Creepiest Attractions ...

Looking for a good mummified bat for your dashboard, an elephant foot for your mantlepiece or a monkey skull for your black magic ritual? Well, look no further than Akodessewa Fetish Market in Togo, the market favored by West African voodoo practitioners. A far cry from any other market in the world, this creepiest of creepiest attractions includes categorized animal parts in all states of decomposition. The sight and stench of the stalls is one of a kind, and you can even cross “attending a traditional voodoo ceremony” off your bucket list, as there are plenty on offer.

Creep inside the Church of São Francisco, and a chill will certainly run up and down your spine. As one of the world’s creepiest attractions, the Capela dos Ossos is walled and columned with bones from over 5,000 exhumed skeletons. Arches created from ribs and tibias, skulls and vertebrae forming artistic designs; this chapel is no place for those who fear the great beyond. Each bone is meticulously placed by the artists, 16th century Franciscan monks, and the entrance warns those who dare to cross the threshold that your bones will be next: “We bones, lying here, for yours we wait.”

Created for the families and workers of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, this amusement park was slated to open in May, 1986. However, five days before the grand opening, Chernobyl Power Plant exploded, resulting in the worst nuclear accident the world has ever seen. The aftermath left a town evacuated by 49,000 people; completely deserting the amusement park and the buildings surrounding it. After 25 years, no one has returned, leaving one of the creepiest attractions to stand dormant, bumper cars and Ferris wheels frozen in time.

Wandering the halls of Mütter Museum, you’ll find the information to be most morbidly disturbing. The 20,000-item collection of anatomical oddities includes a woman’s body from the 1830s whose fat turned soapy, a man’s colossal colon, and a liquid-suspended human face, sliced in half. You can also take a trip down Philadelphia’s medical memory lane, by touring the historical wing of the Pennsylvania Hospital, which showcases America’s oldest surgical amphitheater, where hernia repairs, amputations and tumor removals were often performed without anesthesia.

One of the creepiest attractions in England is derived from one of the creepiest books in literature. Whitby’s cliffs leave nothing to be desired, if you’re looking for the dark, dank atmosphere of rolling fog in Bram Stoker’s dreary Dracula novel. You’ll be sure to recall the arrival of dog-shaped Dracula in the harbor, with its dead captain (not) guiding the ship through the flashing storm to crash into wreckage upon the beach. This North Yorkshire seaport inspired Bram Stoker’s blood-curdling setting, and the modern-day port is complete with abbey ruins and St. Mary's Church graveyard. If you’d like to creep yourself out even more, then a stay in Bagdale Hall oughta do it – a 16th century Tudor manor house whose former owner haunts the corridors.

After learning of Leap Castle’s long and horrid history, it’s no wonder it makes a list of the world’s creepiest attractions. Built in the 15th century by the O’Bannons, the castle was overtaken by the O’Carrolls. Following Mulrooney O’Carroll’s death, a family bloodlust for power erupted. Two of the brothers struggled for control, one of whom – a priest – was murdered by his own blood in front of his family in the chapel, now known as the Bloody Chapel. The bloody history continues as Leap Castle was a sight for imprisonment and execution. An oubliette – an underground dungeon where prisoners are cast away to starve to death – was discovered during renovation. Three cartloads of human remains were removed from the oubliette’s spike-filled depths.

Crazy ol’ Julie Brown would sit on her front porch, singing, “One day I'm gonna die, and I'm gonna take all of you with me”; and in 1915, her Carrie moment came. On the day of her funeral in Frenier, Louisiana, a hurricane blew through Manchac Swamp, killing hundreds. The deads’ mass graves are now lit up with torches at nightfall, casting an eerie sensation through the cypress trees of the swamp. Take a haunting boat ride through the swamp at night, where you can listen to scary stories while watching the crocodiles creep in the mossy murky darkness.

Ooh, I feel quite a chill now! Fascinating they might be, but there’s a few more than creepy attractions here I’m not sure I will ever make my way to see. How about you?