Could You Handle An Afternoon Walking Around The Creepiest Place On Earth?

Picture this: a secluded island, tortured spirits, a deranged religious nutjob and hundreds of beaten up children’s dolls. No, I’m not talking about the start of a dodgy Rob Zombie movie – this is an actual destination that you can visit, although whether you’d want to take a sojourn here is another story.

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The Isla de las Menucas (the Island of the Dolls) is a remote island situated just south of Mexico city, made accessible by the many gondoliers lingering along the canals of Xochimico. Rather than being inhabited by people, this island is populated by the severed heads, limbless bodies and empty eye-sockets of hundreds of children’s dolls. The story behind how they got there is no less sinister than having one of their blistering faces staring back at you from a treetop.

In the 1950s a man named Julian Santana Barrera was ridiculed for spreading the word of the Lord Jesus Christ at a time when only anointed priests had the right to do so. The locals became pretty pissed with Julian’s approach to his beliefs, to the extent where he was beaten for his sins. It was at this time that the bent priest decided to start collecting dolls from dustbins in order to ward off evil spirits. Normal.

Legend has it that he started to build the doll shrine in dedication to a little girl whose body he “found” floating in the canal near his home. Supposedly the girl had drowned, and this was Julian’s way of commemorating her short life. It wasn’t until the 90s that his horrific creation was discovered when the local council came to clean up the canal and ever since then, the Island of the Dolls has become a popular tourist attraction for those who enjoy a disturbing day out.

If the idea of walking around a dodgy island created by a religious psychopath doesn’t wig you out enough, the story goes that the dolls are possessed by the little girl’s spirit. Some locals say they have seen the toys move their heads, while others claim to have heard the dolls whispering to each other. Fuck that.