Uncanny Atlas
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Somewhere You Can Go

Haunted sites, anomalous zones, places with a reputation, and placed fiction.

94 entries · page 1 of 2
Folklore
81 Chaoyangmen (Chaonei No. 81)
A French-style mansion on Chaoyangmen Inner Street in Beijing, which the New York Times called perhaps the city's best-known haunted house. Its ghost story drew crowds after a 2014 film, though English Wikipedia says it is accepted that no Kuomintang officer ever owned the house.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 7 of 7
Folklore
Al Jazirat Al Hamra
Al Jazirat Al Hamra is an abandoned pearling town in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE, left by its people in 1968. Locals widely say its empty houses and mosque are haunted, and some say jinn live there.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 7 of 7
Folklore
Anna Baker's wedding dress
A ghost story attached to the Baker Mansion, a museum of the Blair County Historical Society, about a wedding dress that Anna Baker is said to have bought for a marriage her father stopped.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 3 of 7
Folklore
Anne Boleyn's ghost
The ghost of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, beheaded in the Tower of London in 1536, is reported at the Tower and at Hever Castle, Blickling Hall, Salle Church and Marwell Hall.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 3 of 7
Folklore
Aokigahara forest
Aokigahara is a forest below Mount Fuji in Japan, with the Narusawa Ice Cave, a tourist site, at its edge. Japanese literature has tied it to suicide, and Wikipedia says it is reputed to be haunted.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 3 of 7
Folklore
Area 51
A top-secret air base in Nevada. Declassified CIA histories show it was used to test spy planes such as the U-2, and its secrecy made it central to UFO folklore.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 1 of 7
Claimed sighting
Baleroy Mansion
A stone house on Mermaid Lane in Chestnut Hill whose owner, George Gordon Meade Easby, said it was haunted, and which holds a blue chair said to kill whoever sits in it.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 3 of 7
Folklore
Banchō Sarayashiki
The ghost story of Okiku, tied to a plate and a well, told in a Himeji version and an Edo version and staged as bunraku, kabuki and a 1916 play.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 5 of 7
Folklore
Bell Witch Cave
A cave on former Bell family land near Adams, Tennessee, run as a tour site tied to the Bell Witch legend of about 1816 to 1820, though Brian Dunning of Skeptoid says the cave played no part in the original story.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 2 of 7
Folklore
Bhangarh Fort
A fort at Bhangarh, India, held by the Archaeological Survey of India as a protected monument. Rana Safvi wrote in The Hindu in 2017 that Bhangarh is ranked India's most haunted fort and that entry is barred between sunset and sunrise.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 2 of 7
Claimed sighting
Bobby Mackey's Music World
A nightclub in Kentucky said to be haunted, with ghost stories tied to an 1850 slaughterhouse on the site and to the 1896 murder of Pearl Bryan. Researchers found no record supporting the legends.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 3 of 7
Disputed
Borley Rectory
An English rectory that Harry Price promoted as the most haunted house in England, whose case three SPR members attacked in a 1956 report and Robert Hastings re-examined in 1969.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 3 of 7
Folklore
Casa Matusita
Casa Matusita is a building in Lima, Peru, around which ghost stories and tales of strange night noises have gathered for decades. A historian told Infobae there is no record supporting any of them.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 7 of 7
Folklore
Catherine Howard and the Haunted Gallery
Catherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII, died on 13 February 1542. A story about her running down a gallery at Hampton Court Palace gave the Haunted Gallery its name, and visitors and staff there report chills and sightings.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 7 of 7
Claimed sighting
Eastern State Penitentiary
A penitentiary that took its first inmate in 1829 and is now a historic site. Atlas Obscura calls it famously haunted; the site itself bans paranormal investigations.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 3 of 7
Folklore
Ghost stories of the Manassas battlefield
The opening battle at Manassas was fought on 21 July 1861. Visitors and staff at the battlefield park now tell of ghostly soldiers and phantom gunfire.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 7 of 7
Folklore
Inunaki Pass and the Inunaki Village legend
The old Inunaki Tunnel, between Hisayama and Miyawaka in Fukuoka Prefecture, is known as a ghost spot and tied to an internet-era legend of a hidden village. Separately, a real murder took place at the tunnel in 1988.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 3 of 7
Religious tradition
Keramat shrines
Keramat are holy places of Malay communities where people make vows, often linked to pious figures. Singapore's Kusu Island has three, visited by Malay and Chinese pilgrims, while religious authorities in Malaysia and Brunei have acted against the practice.
Provenance · Religious tradition
Somewhere You Can Go
Folklore
Kuldhara
Kuldhara is a Paliwal village in Jaisalmer, long abandoned, with a reputation as a haunted place. One story says the departing villagers cursed Kuldhara to stay empty; a survey of the site suggests its water supply failed.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 2 of 7
Disputed
Lake Vostok
A freshwater lake under about 4 km of ice beneath Russia's Vostok Station in central East Antarctica, first detected by airborne radio-echo survey in 1974-75 and confirmed by satellite in 1993. A 2013 report of a new bacterium in its water was later put down to contamination.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 7 of 7
Folklore
Lincoln's funeral ghost train
A story told along the Hudson River Railroad says a phantom copy of the train that carried Lincoln runs each year on 25 April, the date the real train passed Hyde Park in 1865.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 7 of 7
Religious tradition
Ma'nene, the Toraja rite for the dead
Ma'nene is a rite of the Toraja people in which the bodies of the dead are taken from the grave, washed, groomed and dressed in new clothes. One Torajan quoted in the press says it also brings together relatives who live far away.
Provenance · Living tradition
Somewhere You Can Go
Religious tradition
Mae Nak Phra Khanong
Mae Nak is the ghost of a woman who died giving birth while her husband was at war, the most popular Thai ghost story according to the Bangkok Post. Her shrine on Sukhumvit Soi 77 in Bangkok draws devotees who bring offerings and requests.
Provenance · Living tradition
Somewhere You Can Go
Claimed sighting
Magnetic Hill, Ladakh
A stretch of road near Leh where vehicles seem to roll uphill. Wikipedia says the road slopes downhill and the effect is an optical illusion.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 6 of 7
Folklore
Major Weir's trial
Thomas Weir of Edinburgh confessed to incest, sorcery and other crimes and was tried on 9 April 1670. His house in the West Bow later gained a haunted reputation.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 4 of 7
Folklore
Manila Film Center
On 17 November 1981, scaffolding collapsed during the Manila Film Center's rushed construction and workers died. The death toll is disputed, and a legend grew that bodies were left in the concrete and haunt the building.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 5 of 7
Folklore
Maria Makiling of Mount Makiling
Mount Makiling in Laguna is widely held to be the home of Maria Makiling, a diwata of legend. José Rizal wrote her story down in 1890, and people still repeat superstitions about her, such as never carrying the forest's fruit home.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 6 of 7
Folklore
Mary Gallagher of Griffintown
Mary Gallagher was killed by decapitation in Griffintown, Montreal, on 27 June 1879. Local folklore says her ghost comes back every seventh year to look for her head.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 7 of 7
Claimed sighting
Monte Cristo Homestead
A late-Victorian homestead on a hill above Junee, New South Wales, built by Christopher Crawley in the 1880s. The owners say the ghost of Mrs Crawley, the builder's widow, has been seen there many times.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 7 of 7
Disputed
Mr. Procter's house at Willington Mill
At Joseph Procter's house by Willington Mill, glasses rose off the table with no visible cause, and a Dr. Drury who sat up there fainted at the sight of a female apparition.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 2 of 7
Claimed sighting
Museum of Shadows
A museum of objects it calls haunted, with a site in Nebraska opened in 2016 and a second in Pensacola, Florida, opened in 2024, both run by Raterman.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 3 of 7
Religious tradition
Nyi Roro Kidul
The ruler of the southern sea, also called Kanjeng Ratu Kidul. The Yogyakarta palace ties its labuhan offering at Parangkusumo to her promise to help Panembahan Senopati and his descendants.
Provenance · Religious tradition
Somewhere You Can Go
Folklore
Old Alton Bridge (Goatman's Bridge)
A bridge near Denton that locals call Goatman's Bridge, tied by local legend to a half-man, half-goat figure and to stories about a Black goat farmer.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 3 of 7
Folklore
Old Changi Hospital
A disused former hospital at Changi, Singapore, owned by the state. Since it was abandoned it has gathered ghost stories, from a nurse said to walk the grounds to poltergeists.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 5 of 7
Disputed
Old Jeffrey, the Epworth Rectory spirit
A spirit the Wesleys called Old Jeffrey disturbed Samuel Wesley's rectory at Epworth, mostly in December 1716 and the spring of 1717.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 1 of 7
Folklore
Port Arthur
Port Arthur in Tasmania was a penal station from 1830 to 1877, where over 1000 people died. The authority that runs the historic site offers ghost tours built on stories told since 1870.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 7 of 7
Folklore
Poveglia
An island in the Venice lagoon near the Lido, once a quarantine stop for shipping, whose haunted reputation the Italian skeptics' group CICAP traces to a 2009 US television show.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 4 of 7
Folklore
Preston Castle
The Preston School of Industry in Ione, a reform school for male youths that opened in 1894. Its head housekeeper, Anna Corbin, was killed in 1950 and the case was left unresolved.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 4 of 7
Folklore
Queen Jane Seymour dies at Hampton Court
Queen Jane Seymour died at Hampton Court Palace on 24 October 1537, soon after bearing a son. Visitors tell of a ghost in white with a candle.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 7 of 7
Claimed sighting
RMS Queen Mary
A retired ocean liner moored at Long Beach, California, now a hotel and attraction that promotes ghost stories about its first-class pool and stateroom B340.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 2 of 7
Documented
Roopkund, the skeleton lake
A lake in the Himalayas where the remains of more than 300 people have been found. A genetic study published in 2019 found they died in different centuries and came from different places.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 2 of 7
Folklore
Samantha Houston and Love Letters
Historians have found no evidence for the story of Samantha Houston, a girl said to have died at the Driskill hotel in Austin, Texas, Austin Monthly reports. A painting there, Love Letters, is said to be haunted by her.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 5 of 7
Folklore
Sarah Ellen Roberts, the Pisco vampire
Sarah Ellen Roberts, an Englishwoman buried in Pisco, Peru, became the subject of a vampire legend. On 9 June 1993, eighty years after her death, crowds gathered at her grave.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 7 of 7
Folklore
Sathorn Unique Tower
An unfinished 43-storey skyscraper in Bangkok, left incomplete in an economic crisis. People in nearby communities believe it haunted or unlucky, pointing to a former graveyard under it and its shadow on the temple Wat Yan Nawa.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 6 of 7
Folklore
Shaniwar Wada
Shaniwar Wada is a fort in Pune where the ruling Peshwa Narayanrao was murdered in 1773. A popular story says his voice cries out there for help when the moon is full.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 4 of 7
Claimed sighting
Storsjöodjuret
Storsjöodjuret is a creature said to live in Storsjön, a lake in Jämtland. The earliest written hint of it dates from 1635, and in 1894 a company was set up in Östersund to catch it.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 7 of 7
Folklore
Tat Tak School
A closed school in the Ping Shan area of Yuen Long, Hong Kong, surrounded by graves, that the National Geographic Channel listed among Asia's ten most frightening places. Villagers have said they heard no ghost stories about it.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 6 of 7
Folklore
The 99-Door Mansion (Caledonia House)
Caledonia House, an abandoned mansion in Penang, Malaysia, built for the Ramsden family and rumoured to be haunted since John St Maur Ramsden was shot dead there in 1948.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 6 of 7
Folklore
The Bermuda Triangle
A stretch of the western Atlantic between Florida, Bermuda and Puerto Rico, described in a 1964 magazine article as a zone where ships and planes vanish. Losses linked to it include the five bombers of Flight 19 in 1945; the U.S. Coast Guard and NOAA say the losses there have ordinary physical causes.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 7 of 7
Folklore
The Bernardo de Gálvez portrait
A painting of Bernardo de Gálvez, a Spanish general, that hangs in Galveston's Hotel Galvez in Texas. Local folklore says photographs of it fail unless you ask his permission first.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 5 of 7