00:00Not surprisingly, it's known as Snake Island, and it's probably the most dangerous place on the planet.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at islands on Earth with the most sinister backstories of all time.
00:12We're on our way to Jeffrey Epstein's infamous private island.
00:17Sentosa, Pulau Balakang Mati, Singapore.
00:21Living in Sentosa is a dream come true for me.
00:24If you visited Singapore, you may have stumbled upon this island.
00:28It's currently home to a Universal Studios theme park.
00:31It might surprise you to learn it's also called the island behind which death lies.
00:36It's unclear where it gets its name.
00:38Some believe it was due to it being a haven for pirates.
00:41Others think it was haunted.
00:42There's no consensus.
00:44The simplest explanation is that it shelters a stretch of water from wind, making it dead water.
00:49When the British Empire ruled Singapore, it was home to a military base of theirs.
00:54The island became much darker during World War II.
00:57When Japan invaded and made it a prisoner-of-war camp, with roughly 1,000 Allied troops, who
01:04were kept in poor conditions.
01:06Devil's Island, French Guiana.
01:09It was one of the most feared places on Earth.
01:15A colony of the damned.
01:17This island is currently a relaxing tourist destination.
01:21Centuries ago, it was a horrific penal colony where the French Empire sent thousands of prisoners.
01:26Between 1852 and 1953, 80,000 prisoners were sent there, with roughly 2,000 surviving.
01:38No one was intended to come back.
01:40It was a place where criminals went to vanish.
01:43Many died due to diseases, but deaths caused by men were also common.
01:47Few penal colonies, if any, had harsher punishments than here.
01:50This made a swift death more appealing than the alternative, which was called the dry guillotine.
01:57A vast majority of prisoners were falsely convicted, such as Alfred Dreyfus, who was sent there primarily
02:03because of French anti-Semitism.
02:05Alone on the island, except for a contingent of guards, Dreyfus was kept in a stone hut on
02:11the edge of the sea.
02:12Island of the Dolls, Mexico.
02:15Mexico's Isla de las Muñecas, or Island of the Dolls, is straight out of a horror movie.
02:20This is arguably the creepiest island on Earth you can visit right now.
02:24It's located in Mexico City, and its name comes from the vast quantity of dolls that cover the island.
02:30Roughly a century ago, its former owner, Don Julian Santana Barrera, started collecting dolls.
02:37Barrera hung them all across the island, which makes it look like something straight out of a horror flick.
02:41Barrera died in 2001, and since then, it's become a tourist attraction.
02:46Visiting it isn't as simple as boating over, though.
02:49A fair few rowers refuse to take people there due to its haunting nature.
02:53No one has confirmed if any of these dolls have come to life, but who's to say they haven't?
02:59Hashima Island, Japan.
03:01Once upon a time, in 1959, over 5,000 people lived on this Japanese island off the coast of Nagasaki.
03:11It used to be a coal mine during Japan's industrial era, but it became abandoned after running out of resources in the 70s.
03:19In the 30s, they began forcing Korean civilians and Chinese war prisoners to relocate to Hashima.
03:26There, they were forced to labor in brutal conditions, which led to most perishing on the island.
03:31Since 2009, tourists have been allowed to visit the haunting island.
03:35Most of its industrial concrete structures still stand, but they're in terrible condition and are slowly being reclaimed by nature.
03:42Little St. James, U.S. Virgin Islands.
03:57We're on our way to Jeffrey Epstein's infamous private island.
04:01Also known as Epstein Island, the full extent of this island's depravity is still unknown.
04:06It was owned by Jeffrey Epstein from 1998 until he died in 2019.
04:10It's believed a ton of his most egregious crimes took place on this island.
04:15Guy Domm says at the time, he assumed that the passengers were Epstein's wife and kids.
04:20It wasn't until later that he learned Epstein didn't have a family.
04:24It became a hotspot for his crimes against minors.
04:27It's believed that he invited many of his rich and powerful friends along.
04:30One of his victims, Virginia Roberts, claimed she was even abused by Prince Andrew on the island.
04:36Locals assert that this continued until 2019.
04:39Now it's owned by billionaire Stephen Deckhoff, who bought it for $60 million in 2023.
04:45He reportedly plans to turn it into a luxury 25-room resort.
04:49Clipperton Island, French Polynesia.
04:51That destination is four miles wide, a dot in the Pacific, and a week's sail away from civilization.
04:57This ring-shaped island lies roughly 700 nautical miles southwest of Mexico.
05:02It's owned by France, but no one lives there.
05:05That's not always been the case.
05:07Mexico once laid its claim on the island, forming a military colony there in 1905.
05:12The Mexican Revolution dominated the 1910s, and Clipperton Island fell on hard times in 1914.
05:19This led to most of the settlers perishing, alongside the rise of Victoriano Alvarez, who proclaimed himself king of the island.
05:27The lighthouse keeper turned tyrant, enslaved the island's women, and ruled for two whole years.
05:33One of these women eventually snapped and murdered the brutal dictator.
05:37Fortunately, an American gunboat noticed them one day in 1917, then rescued the 11 survivors, all women and children.
05:45Grinyard Island, or Anthrax Island, Scotland.
05:49This island is the key to some of the big secrets and what-ifs of 20th century history.
05:57This remote Scottish island might look quaint from afar, but it's hiding a deeply disturbing past.
06:03During World War II, Britain attempted Operation Vegetarian, which aimed to cover the German countryside with linseed cakes full of anthrax.
06:12It was ultimately abandoned in favor of Operation Overlord, but not after testing it out on Grinyard Island.
06:18The ambition was to develop a frightening new weapon.
06:22One involved putting 80 sheep on the island, then bombing them with anthrax.
06:27As you can expect, this contaminated the whole island, making it unfit for habitation for decades after.
06:33Anthrax is a naturally occurring, but deadly organism, and any outbreak can have fatal consequences.
06:41It was thankfully cleared up by 1990, after almost half a century of quarantine.
06:47North Sentinel Island, India.
06:50This island is potentially one of the most dangerous places in the world to visit.
06:54It's home to the world's most isolated community, the Sentinelese.
06:58We believe they've lived there for at least 50,000 years, with virtually no contact with the outside world.
07:04They're highly aggressive towards any visitors.
07:06This led to them killing fishermen in 2006, and a Christian missionary in 2018.
07:12Jesus said,
07:13My father has given me all authority over everything and everyone in heaven and on earth.
07:18There was a brief period of friendliness during the 90s, when Indian anthropologists gave the Sentinelese gifts.
07:24They returned to being hostile in the 2000s, and it's unclear why.
07:28Diseases may have spread to the islanders due to the gifts,
07:31or they may instead be angry that the gift-giving stopped.
07:34We'll likely never know.
07:36Maybe they want to steal their women or steal their children,
07:39because that's happened to them before in their history.
07:41Pavilion, Italy.
07:42There are a few places on this planet that you can read the history of and leave you wondering,
07:49how is this possible?
07:50How did all of this darkness happen in one place?
07:54This island lies a short sail south of Venice, and was first settled in the medieval era.
07:59Starting in 1776, it became Venice's quarantine island for roughly a century.
08:04This has made it a widely sensationalized place in recent years,
08:08with numerous myths being spread about it.
08:12I don't like it.
08:13For instance, many claim 160,000 plague victims were abandoned there,
08:18but this is an unconfirmed figure.
08:20It later became a geriatric hospital, which remained there until 1968.
08:25Since the early 2000s, it's become a popular spot for paranormal investigations.
08:29Many of the buildings remain, but Venice seeks to make it a locals-only island,
08:34allowing people to avoid the hordes of tourists.
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08:53Snake Island, Brazil
08:54It's probably the most dangerous place on the planet.
08:57As the name suggests, this island has a terrifying abundance of snakes.
09:01Estimates believe there are between 2,000 and 4,000 snakes on the island.
09:06It's home to some of Earth's most venomous snakes,
09:08having venom five times as potent as a mainland viper.
09:11It's home to the golden lancehead vipers, who live nowhere else.
09:16They're currently critically endangered,
09:18making it important that no one visits this island, barring officials.
09:21With these snakes, it will be a particularly painful death.
09:26You're going to die screaming.
09:28These endangered snakes are declining in population,
09:30largely because of illegal pet trading.
09:32So, this makes it one of the least appealing tourist destinations on Earth,
09:36with a very high chance of dying.
09:39If the signs don't warn you off,
09:41the residents will.
09:43All 4,000 of them.
09:45Were there any disturbing islands we failed to include?
09:47Let us know in the comments below.
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