Name: Top 10 Tourist Attractions Built on DARK History
Uploaded: 2026-03-04T17:21:52.000Z
Duration: 11 min 38 s
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This is Pripet, a once modern town that had to be abandoned in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster.

Relative clauses (Restrictive vs. nonrestrictive)

Welcome to Watchmojo and today we'll be looking at tourist destinations with dark pasts that attract the public's most macabre interests.

We're finally going back to where we belong.

A near inescapable prison incarcerating all who angered the sovereign ruler of the day.

The city of London possesses a number of dark tourism spots, from the infamous London Dungeon to His Majesty's Royal palace and fortress of the Tower of London.

The latter area lies along the River Thames and has held a number of official titles over the years.

The Tower of London's shadowy reputation doesn't really come from its historical significance as a residence or treasury, but

rather its usage as a prison and place of execution.

The sentence most closely associated with the Tower is beheading by axe, carried out by a masked executioner.

Ghosts are said to live within the walls here, whether they be of Anne Boleyn or those of the two young princes who are confined there by Richard III and assumed murdered.

Mysterious stories of death and dismay only add to the Tower's grim legend.

There are not so many executions that somebody is expert in it.

Tales are that quite often the executioner was very drunk.

It wasn't exactly a high status job to hold.

There are tales where several strikes to actually take the head from the body.

If the visitation of burial sites a la the sedgly ossuary or catacombs in Paris sounds macabre, well, that's because it is.

Still, that hasn't stopped scores of intrepid adventurers from making pilgrimages to these areas, presumably in search of some supernatural thrills.

Yes, some people even cannot believe that these are real bones.

The number of those interred within the Paris catacombs is said to be over 6 million.

Due to a decision to stem overflow from the city cemeteries.

Horror films such as 2007's Catacombs and As above so Below from 2014 both centered their frights on this Parisian site's infamously creepy reputation.

The real life catacombs have proven popular over the years for tourists visiting Paris for the first time.

There's a local legend which says that moving the bones of so many deceased people unleashed a dark and malevolent force that still haunts the Catacombs.

SHOES ON the Danube Bank Budapest, Hungary here's some free advice.

Don't be like the clueless tourists that defaced this powerful monument that lies along the Danube river during their 2023 visit.

These sculptured replicas of World War II era footwear were designed in tribute to the victims of the Arrow Cross party massacres.

A Hungarian militia group ordered those facing the Danube to step out of their shoes before they were shot so that the discarded footwear could be sold.

Perversely enough, the aforementioned desecration in 2023 wasn't even the first time the shoes on the Danube Bank Memorial had been tampered with.

Thieves tore away some of the shoes back in 2014.

Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary Alcatraz Island, California, USA America's worst Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly and Whitey Bulger, all called the Rock Home.

Tourists have routinely paid money for guided tours of the island where the decommissioned Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary lies.

The area now operates as a museum and is open to tourists.

The reputation of Alcatraz today is complicated not only due to its status of being escape proof, but

but also rumors of the ghosts of those who tried and died in escape attempts.

The isolated island prison also housed some of history's most infamous criminals, from James Whitey Bulger and Al Capone to Robert Franklin Stroud, otherwise known as the Birdman of Alcatraz.

You act as though you hate everyone in the world.

Tiong Ek Genocidal center and Killing Fields Phnom Penh, Cambodia the war has killed love, Sydney and those who confess to the Angka vanish and no one dare ask where they go.

Reverence is key for any tourist considering a visit to Phom Penh, Cambodia and the site of the Khmer Rouge's killing fields.

This was the area when Pol Pot's brutal totalitarian regime caused the deaths of nearly 2 million Cambodians.

With the Cheongek Genocidal center being the place where visitors can learn the sobering historical context of the genocide.

We must be like the ox and have no thought except for the party.

Elsewhere, the Tuol Slang Genocide Museum is another place where tourists can learn about the Khmer Rouge's torture and imprisonment of Cambodians and hear the victims stories.

It's an intensely powerful experience, to be sure, and

not one that should be taken lightly by anyone choosing to take the tour.

Onka has identified and proclaims the existence of a bad new disease.

A memory sickness diagnosed us thinking too much about life in pre revolutionary Cambodia.

The Colosseum Rome, Italy Never has such a civilized culture poured so much of its wealth into engineering spectacles of death for the entertainment of its people.

It's recognized by some as one of the new seven Wonders of the World.

But it doesn't really matter what sort of elected title you give the Coliseum in Rome.

This is not only due to the millions of visitors that experience this gigantic amphitheater firsthand every year, but

also its status as a standing monument of ancient Rome.

50,000 Romans watching every movement of your sword, willing you to make that killer blow.

The Colosseum was a central hub for Roman life and entertainment.

Although this latter word could mean everything from open air markets to brutal gladiatorial contests to the death, the Colosseum was also frequently a place of execution, a fact that certainly shouldn't be lost upon anybody choosing to visit the site today.

In the morning, you had wild beast shows at around lunchtime, crucifixions in the afternoon, the Piece de la Resistance.

It sounds like the most morbid of reenactments.

The supposed narcotourism trait of guests engaging in paintball contests at a complex formerly owned by Colombia's infamous international criminal, Pablo Escobar.

This recreation of bloody shootouts between median cartel members and armed AAA agents has raised eyebrows even among the most ardent supporters of dark tourism.

On top of that, the only people who had sat phones were the filthy rich landowners, the politicians.

Lucky for us, the narcos were richer than them all.

Still, that hasn't stopped tourists from heading to Medellin, Colombia, to experience firsthand one of the 20th century's most fascinating crime stories, its rise to power and its inevitable fall.

Escobar's grace even fits the bill as a tourist destination, thanks largely to the drug lord's reputation as a mythical Robin Hood who assisted poor Colombians during the height of his influence.

PLATA O PLOMO CHERNOBYL EXCLUSION ZONE pripyat, UKRAINE this whole area was in what was a very tightly controlled exclusion zone following the 1986 disaster.

Due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, tourists cannot currently visit the Chernobyl exclusion zone, though access will likely resume at some point, even during periods of peace.

This is due to the high levels of radiation that remain in areas such as as Pripyat.

This is Chernobyl, a nuclear power plant that should be taken seriously.

Guided tours are still available, allowing guests to see firsthand the areas affected by the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

A miniseries from 2019 supposedly contributed to the uptick in those traveling to Ukraine, with close to 150,000 visitors reported that year alone.

Fukushima Site Okuma, Fukushima, Japan what you can see behind me is the no Go area, which today we are going to go and explore.

This tourist site is admittedly a difficult one to visit, thanks largely to the very specific and specialized criteria for any sort of organized tourist.

Yet this hasn't stopped the town of Okuma, located within Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, from receiving a fair share of visitors.

We've been told that we can't open our windows because if we do, the radiation will reach dangerous levels.

This is thanks primarily to the dark tourism interest in the infamous nuclear accident that occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant back in 2011.

Guests can learn about the 2011 Thoku earthquake and tsunami, which directly caused reactor damage, as well as the immediate aftermath of the accident and the subsequent cleanup efforts.

Like in Chernobyl, there are now a handful of tour companies running trips to the Fukushima area.

I met up with a tour guide to take a look around the towns that have been left behind since the disaster.

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