Located in Xochimilco, Mexico, the Island of Dolls may be one of the creepiest places that you could ever visit. With hundreds, maybe thousands of various aged dolls surrounding the area, now tangled up in cobwebs and crawling with insects, you’ll likely have nightmares if you ever have the courage to go…
By Amrith Raj – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0 Don Julian
The island was previously owned and looked after by a man named Don Julian Santana for he hung dolls around the island. Don was good friends with his neighbor, who doubled as a drinking buddy until Don turned to the Bible and faith.
It is said that trapped within lilies of the canal, a young girl drowned, her body then found on a bank nearby, Don not being able to save her. Santana then began experiencing incomprehensible paranormal occurrences like footsteps, whispers, and sorrowful cries around the woods he lived by, so he would hang whatever dolls he found in the area, whether they were in the canals or in the trash, in an attempt to ease the spirit of the deceased girl Over the next fifty years, he continued to place dolls throughout the island, though a lot of them had absent body parts. Now, there are hundreds of dolls.
Creepy fact: After the former owner, Julian Santana Barrera died in 2001, his body was reportedly found in the same spot as the young girl. Some believe that their deaths were caused by spirits underwater – spirits of those who died in an intentional fire in Xochimilco and were dumped in the canals.
The island was discovered shrouded in water lilies in 1987 and it became a huge tourist attraction after Don Julian’s death. People bring their own dolls as well to place on the island. In 1943, the place gained attention with the help of a Mexican filmmaker named Emilio el India Fernandez, who made a film called Maria Candelaria. It has recently appeared on the Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures and in the Amazon Prime series Lore.
Would you ever visit this island? Or Have you, I’d love to know! Thank You For Reading. As always, you can share your experiences in the comments below!