10 Mysterious Places You Aren’t Allowed To Visit

By Diliff - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2065989

The world is a mysterious place.

How's that for a generic opening line? Don't worry, the genericism stops there, because there's nothing typical about the places explored here. In this article, you'll visit the sensational magic of Disney World, some ominous French caves, the chilling underground of Moscow, the vaults of Vatican City and even one seriously spooky Indian island.

When we say 'visit', we actually mean 'read about', because you've next-to-no chance of actually going to these locations physically. The law forbids it for most and you'd need to be a high and mighty socialite to have a chance of sneaking into others.

That's fine, don't sweat it. Once you read about some of these locales and their history, it's probably for the best that they're not open to the general public...

10. Club 33 In Disney World, United States

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Unless you're willing to fill out the forms and wait on a 14-year waiting list, visiting Disney World's elusive Club 33 will be tough. Oh, you didn't know that there's a secret range of night clubs inside the amusement park? Well, there is, and it used to be one of Disney's biggest secrets.

Anyone who has waited in line for a ride on Splash Mountain will know the agony of endless queuing all too well. It's at these moments adult visitors must crave an alcoholic beverage to cure their ills. Inside Club 33, that's possible, and it remains one of the only places in Disney World that sells booze to this day.

Club 33 opened just 6 months after Walt Disney's death in 1967. Since then, it's become legend amongst park lovers who wonder what's behind those doors. The interior also includes a Disney shop, because apparently even exclusive night spots must be plagued by blatant consumerism.

9. Poveglia, Italy

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Considered by some to be the most haunted island on the planet, Poveglia in Italy is probably somewhere to strike off the holiday wish list. There's no chance of getting onto the Venetian stretch anyway. Poveglia was sold for around £400,000 in 2014 and has been closed to the tourists ever since.

Start thanking that buyer.

Poveglia has a nightmarish history of illness, both physical and mental. When the Bubonic Plague hit Venice hard in the 1300s, this tiny island was where sufferers were sent to be quarantined. This happened again in 1922, albeit as a quarantine station for those who were mentally ill.

Since then, rumours of ghosts and ghouls have been part of the island's folklore. The mental hospital only closed in 1968, but the past 50 years have been heavy on superstition. Even if Poveglia was open for exploration, millions of Italians wouldn't want to go near it.

8. RAF Menwith Hill, United Kingdom

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From the air, Menwith Hill's facilities look like the world's most boring collection of warehouses or some sort of golfing shrine. Those bulbous structures are in fact radomes, and they allow the place to transmit electromagnetic signals that are said to look after the integrity of intelligence support in the UK and United States.

OK, not a golfing holiday wonderland then.

The intrigue only starts when digging deeper into Menwith's history. Dr. Steve Schofield from the British American Security Information Council claimed the facility was involved in drone attacks that were kept private from the general public. These covert missions are top secret and sinister, in Schofield's opinion.

Naturally, just driving through the gates into North Yorkshire's most curious secret isn't possible. Menwith is out in the middle of nowhere for a reason.

7. Coca-Cola Vault, United States

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We move from warfare to soft drinks, and onto something a little more tasty (sorry).

Coca-Cola needs no introduction. It's one of the world's favourite drinks, is responsible for excited faces when that Christmas ad comes on telly each year and has been a long-standing tradition since launching 131 years ago. Somehow, The Coca-Cola Company have been able to keep the drink's recipe secret all that time.

A secret vault in Atlanta houses Coke's formula, and it's possible to visit the place to get a sneak peak. Just kidding, but sugar-hungry tourists can buy tickets to explore the drink's history and (according to the worldofcoca-cola.com website) "get closer than ever before" to the ingredients.

The vault is sealed shut however, meaning a quick tour and glimpse of where the recipe is kept is all visitors get before being ushered out into the gift shop.

6. Snake Island, Brazil

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Otherwise known as Ilha da Queimada Grande, 'Snake Island' is an island (funnily enough) off the coast of Brazil that is covered by an army of venomous reptiles that want to eat your soul, after munching your corpse.

Those suffering from Ophidiophobia should be thankful the Brazilian government decided to shut off all access to Queimada Grande. The dangerous golden lancehead pit viper calls the island home, and it's said the snakes took residence on the land mass when rising sea levels cut off a connection to the mainland.

Much of the island is bare, but there are rainforest areas. Guess where the snakes congregate? If you answered 'in the rain forest, duh', you're wrong. They're everywhere, and have been breeding non-stop since moving in and reclaiming the place from humanity.

Stay. Away.

5. Lascaux Caves, France

Ethan Doyle White [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

If the modern entrance to Lascaux Caves had a fancier door, it'd look like something gamers might expect to see in Skyrim. There's no way anyone feels comfortable strolling down that staircase towards certain doom. Beautiful French countryside or not, that door looks like bad news.

The Lascaux Caves are located near the village of Montignac in southwestern France. They were discovered by teenagers in 1940; they entered via a shaft leading underground, and presumably had balls of steel or guns with them. After the group discovered paintings of animals and fauna, the caves were restored and opened to the public.

It didn't take long until fungus created black mould that was dangerous to inhale. In 2008, workers finally gave up the fight against these shrooms and closed the caves to the public. That was after only one worker was allowed to enter for 20 minutes per week to see what the state of the place was.

Bad, we imagine.

4. Metro-2, Russia

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Continuing the video game references, Metro-2 is virtually identical to the creepy tunnels found in 4A Games Metro 2033 series. The location is similar too. Said to run parallel with the public Metro-1 system in Moscow, Russia, Metro-2 is a secret underground network that can trace lineage back to Joseph Stalin.

Access to the tunnels isn't necessarily shut off. That's because Metro-2 has become something of a myth more than a fact, and this only adds to the rich intrigue surrounding these abandoned train shafts. Creepily, conspiracy lovers claim Metro-2 connects to the Kremlin by way of the Federal Security Service headquarters.

There are also links to the government airport at Vnukovo-2, and an underground town beneath Moscow's Ramenki District.

It's certainly not the kind of place you'd like to be left alone. If all the above is true, Metro-2 has somehow been kept private. There are even mysterious ventilation shafts close to Moscow University that don't appear connected to the Metro-1 system.

3. North Sentinel Island, India

By NASA Earth Observatory image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided by the NASA EO-1 team. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey - http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/42000/42136/nsentinelisland_ali_2009324_lrg.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8955271

Just like the vicious snakes on Ilha da Queimada Grande in Brazil, the indigenous tribe on North Sentinel Island in India will kill any intruders on sight. The Indian government have given up trying to establish contact with the Sentinelese people because they're so incredibly hostile.

Located in the Bay Of Bengal, North Sentinel is said to be have been home to an unnamed number of men and women for more than 60,000 years. Photographs of the population, however many, are rare due to the attacks on anyone who has tried to make contact with the tribespeople.

A 3-mile radius has been imposed on the island to ensure anyone travelling nearby has safe passage. To put it into perspective, that's roughly the size of Manhattan in New York, and just goes to show that the Sentinelese don't want you or anyone else popping by for tea.

Spooky.

2. Granite Mountain, Utah

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Before anyone starts getting clever, no, that's not a still from GoldenEye. The Granite Mountains in Utah do look like the kind of place James Bond might infiltrate to get his hands on Alec Trevelyan though.

Granite Mountain is actually home to the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There, these Mormons managed to excavate 600 feet into the north side of Little Cottonwood Canyon and set up a place to store information related to family history and genealogical research.

The place is also watertight when it comes to security.

Getting near Granite would be difficult without being spotted by cameras or the swish heat sensors installed by the Church. They're protecting history, after all, so the owners can't have just anyone walking up, knocking on the door and gaining entry.

1. Vatican Secret Archives, Vatican City

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Most texts, correspondence, papal accounts, state papers or other church documents contained within the Vatican Secret Archives can be requested for reading. The documents themselves aren't private, but the Pope doesn't want randoms walking about the place. Entering the building itself is strictly prohibited.

More than 35,000 volumes are said to be housed in the Archives, and almost all are accessible. The only limit imposed is on documents less than 75 years old.

Sitting adjacent to the Vatican Library, the Archives can be accessed in person should one gain permission from the pontiff himself. The chances of that are slim unless you happen to be pals with the guy, so it's hardly surprising the building isn't heavily populated.

Working there must be super-creepy.

Would you like to sneak into and visit any of these places? Let us know your thoughts down below!