The world is full of exciting places but which ones will you get to see? I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I can confirm that you aren’t ever going to be able to visit the following wonderful places.
Lascaux Caves, France
You have probably heard about the amazing 17,000 year old Palaeolithic cave paintings in Lascaux. Maybe you have even thought that you might pop down there the next time you are in France. Don’t bother. The caves are completely closed to the public and have been since the 1960s. If you decide to go there then you will find a recreation of the paintings which you can visit. That’s a bit like going to Disneyland and seeing some random fat guy dressed as Mickey Mouse though, isn’t it?
North Sentinel Island
Hey, how would you like to meet one of the last remaining isolated tribes on Earth? Cool, eh? You could show them the wonders of the modern world like Angry Birds, diet Coke and those annoying Crocs shoes. There’s just one problem; they’ll probably kill you. This remote island in the Bay of Bengal is inhabited by an unknown number of people who have the endearing habit of firing arrows at visitors. No outsider has managed to set foot on the island for many years now but feel free to give it a try.
The Vatican’s Secret Archives, Italy
This sounds more like a thing than a place but with a bit of imagination you can imagine a room filled with dusty documents explaining who Jesus really was, where the Holy Grail is kept and where Elvis now lives. This treasure trove of documents was closed completely to outsiders for a long time and is now restricted to a small number of researchers. You might get to see some of the documents if you are really lucky but you will never, ever get to enter the place where the archives are kept. Unless you’re the Pope or work in a senior position in the Vatican, I guess.
Poveglia, Italy
This is a tiny island near Venice with a fascinating history. It has been used as a place of exile to hide from enemies, as a place to send mentally ill patients and as a quarantine area to send and then burn thousands of plague victims. All pretty groovy so far, right? Well, even more excitingly it is classed as the most haunted place in Italy. Now, for the bad news; it is abandoned and off limits to all visitors, even those who are infected by the plague.
Metro 2, Russia
Apparently, Stalin built a secret metro system in Moscow which is still used today by the Ministry of Defence for unknown reasons. It is said to have four lines and be longer than the non-secret metro which any normal person can use. This secret metro system is believed to link the Kremlin, the Federal Security Service, the government airport and a whole underground town among other places. You’ll never get to travel on here. Heck, it probably doesn’t even exist. Having said that, the US security services believe it exists and the map you can see above was made by them.
Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion, Ethiopia
If you founded a church in Ethiopia which housed one of the most important biblical objects in history what would you do? Correct, you would make sure that absolutely bloody nobody could get into it. Oh, except the qualified monk who runs it and keeps visitors at bay, but you can trust him. Legend has it that some chap called Menelik I was the son of King Solomon and he fled to Ethiopia in 950 BC. There, he did the sensible thing and founded a dynasty while storing the Ark of the Covenant which he had taken with him in a church. I am going to mark this one down as completely true in every aspect.
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