Dharavi Slum, Mumbai, India  

 

      Immortalized by the Oscar winning Slumdog Millionaire movie, Mumbai’s Dharavi Slum is not only the largest slum in India, but in entire Asia. Home to almost 1 Million people, Dharavi Slum greets visitors with stomach turning odor, presence of piling garbage and human waste and endless displays of poverty, disease and depressing living conditions.

     It is difficult to predict whether sudden influx of money from Thanatourism delivers any realistic improvements to this Dark Tourism Destination, but reports say that much of the revenue goes directly to the community which is now more than excited to showcase their God-awful standards of living. Good business sense dictates that in order for them to keep this easy revenue coming, they will have to ensure that people within continue looking poor and sick and both odor and garbage remain as stringent and in visitors’ face as ever. But as it goes in impoverished communities, loan sharks will make sure that regardless of how much Dark Tourism revenue the slums generate, the poor will get poorer while the rich get richer.

Cu Chi Tunnels, Saigon, Vietnam

                A 75-mile-long underground tunnel system located below Cu Chi district of Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) was used by Viet Cong freedom fighters to run military campaigns against occupying US forces. In 1968, Cu Chi Tunnels served as the base from where Viet Cong launched Tet Offensive which ultimately aided in humiliating withdrawal of US forces from Vietnam.

            Back then, Cu Chi Tunnels were full of deadly spiders and wandering scorpions, offering little space with unbearable humidity and had many passages wired with booty traps. Today, the site is a popular Dark Tourism Destination and a prime example of how former warfare can be turned into a lucrative tourist attraction.

             Popular, easy to access corridors have been widened to accommodate inquisitive tourists and a firing range has been set up to offer more authentic experience for those with trigger happy fingers. For $1, you get to fire a shot from an AK-47 rifle that was used during the Vietnam War and munch on a simple food guerrilla fighters used to live on.

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

          Visitors to Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh will not be able to avoid aggressive tuk tuk drivers who will accost them on every steps with offers to take them to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, or as it is commonly referred to by locals – The Killing Fields. This former high school was turned into a Security Prison 21 (S-21) in 1975 by the ruthless Khmer Rouge regime to torture and execute unwanted individuals.

            The most shocking part of the visit to Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum is that despite unspeakable atrocities done to the prisoners, locals, many of whom lived during the Khmer Rouge regime seem to be more than excited to have it in their capital as it attracts hundreds of tourists every day. Instead of trying to forget what the Strychnine Hill (the meaning of Tuol Sleng in English) represents, Cambodians are excited to have this Dark Tourism Attraction in their capital and won’t hesitate to tell visitors about the piles of skulls and bones that can be found there, for as long as they get the tourists to pay them for transport to the site.

The Zone of Alienation in Chernobyl, Ukraine

 

         Opened to tourists in 2002, the site of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor's meltdown and the surrounding area is now considered to be safer than a short flight, in terms of exposure to radiation. In fact, a small number of locals still live in the area (around 500 - it's cheap, for obvious reasons!), but it still makes for a chilling experience. The disaster occurred in 1986, and has since caused an estimated 47 clearly attributable deaths, 28 of which occurred soon after the disaster (others were from related causes later). The increased cancer risk in the area in the past, though, means total estimated additional (early) deaths due to the Chernobyl disaster are put in the 4000-5000 range by many. With 350,000 people having been evacuated due to the disaster (14,000 from Chernobyl itself), you'll find much of the city still left exactly as it was on evacuation on April the 26th 1986. That's seriously haunting.

 

Devil’s Island, French Guiana

 

            Set up by French Emperor Napoleon III in 1852, the smallest and northernmost island of the Iles du Salut archipelago north of French Guiana housed the most notorious penal colony in the world until 1952. Vast majority of convicts sent to the disease infested Devil’s Island never made it out of the ghastly, inhospitable environment it provided.

        Nowadays, Devil’s Island is one of the prime tourist attractions in French Guiana and one of the most popular Dark Tourism Destinations among the tourists seeking macabre tours. A visitor can enjoy access to the cells in which inmates died, the headquarters from where the prison was run or the cemetery with graves of people whose lives were claimed by the island.

Ground Zero, New York City, USA

 

 

           The 9/11 attacks in which two planes flew into the World Trade Centre buildings in New York City, claiming lives of nearly 3,000 people, count as the most notorious modern history attacks in the world.Needless to say, macabre site of such worldwide significance draws attention of many Dark Tourism enthusiasts and counts as one of the most important Dark Tourism Destinations in the world. This top 10 list would not be complete without the WTC site on it.

Auschwitz Concentration Camp, Poland

 

 

      The largest of all Nazi concentration camps, Auschwitz (or Oswiecim as it is called in Polish) is believed to have served as an extermination camp for more than one million people, most of which were Jews. Majority were killed in camp’s gas chambers, while others died of disease or starvation. Set up by the architect of the holocaust Heinrich Himmler, Auschwitz was also the site where evil “Angel of Death” doctor Josef Mengele performed his experiments on live people.

 

       The numbers are outward signs of the stunning brutality and immeasurable pain that made up daily life at Auschwitz, a place where mass murder became an industry. In just about five years, 1.6 million prisoners arrived at the camp’s ominous gates. Most came in cattle cars. Among them, only 400,000 were registered as inmates. The rest went straight to the gas chambers and were then incinerated in the camp’s five crematoriums. More than one million people died in this factory of death.

     Due to its notoriety, Auschwitz is one of the most visited Dark Tourism Destinations in the world today. The popularity of the site is so huge, the access is only granted to organized tour groups during peak hours of the peak season. Tours are a source of massive revenue for Poland’s travel industry.

The River Kwai Bridge, Thailand

        While most of WWII fights took place in Europe, other parts of the world were also heavily involved. Much of South East Asia was under Japanese occupation between 1942 and 1943 and plans were to also invade India. To accomplish the goal, Japanese troops stationed in Burma (today’s Myanmar) needed more support but since no convenient infrastructure was available, the decision has been made to build a railway that would connect Kanchanabury in Siam (today’s Thailand) with West Burma’s Moulmein.

      The quarter of a million people, both Asians as well as the prisoners of war from the Allied (Commonwealth, American and Dutch) nations were forced into labor to get the construction underway. Camps were built in both Burma and Siam starting the railway from opposite ends to meet in the center. Due to food shortages, workers suffered from malnutrition. Medical supplies and sanitary facilities were either nonexistent or insufficient giving malnourished and overworked people little chance to battle off malaria, cholera or the tropical ulcer which were common in these areas.

     Construction of the 416 km long Siam – Burma railway (the Death Railway) took 16 months, during which an estimated hundred thousand workers, of which approximately 13,000 were the prisoners of war died. Their bodies were buried alongside the tracks wherever they’d dropped.

      Travellers wishing to get the glimpse of what conditions the Death Railway workers lived and died in can visit one of the three museums that contain graphic photographs and tools used by the prisoners to build the railway. A cemetery with the remains of about 7,000 workers is only a short drive away. It is also possible to hop on a train and take a ride on the Death Railway the construction of which claimed so many lives. To have memorable pictures, most Dark Tourism visitors do not pass on the opportunity to walk along the River Kwai Bridge with the infamous river after which it is named in the background.

London Dungeon, UK

 

        London Dungeon would be precisely what Dark Tourism is all about. It is an exhibit of macabre events from medieval history that offers believable glimpses into torture, plaque, serial killing and more.

        Although London Dungeon started as a museum of macabre history, the visit now includes interactive, actor led experiences, rides and special effects.

Children’s Memorial, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem

        This unique memorial, hollowed out from an underground cavern, is a tribute to the approximately 1.5 million Jewish children who perished during the Holocaust. Memorial candles, a customary Jewish tradition to remember the dead, are reflected infinitely in a dark and somber space, creating the impression of millions of stars shining in the firmament. The names of murdered children, their ages and countries of origin can be heard in the background.

 

Pont de l’Alma Road Tunnel, Paris, France

 

           Pont de l’Alma is a road tunnel near the bridge of the same name in Paris, France where Princess Diana of Wales died on August 31, 1997. Princess’ boyfriend Dodi Al-Fayed and their driver Henri Paul who was an acting head of security at the Ritz Hotel (owned by Dodi Al-Fayed’s father Mohamed) also died in the accident.

The Flame of Liberty, which is an exact replica of the Statue of Liberty’s flame sits above the entrance to the tunnel and is considered the unofficial memorial to Princess Diana.

 The DMZ (most easily accessed from South Korea)

 

 Marking the notorious divide between North and South Korea, and presently a riskier spot to drop in on than it has been in the recent past, the DMZ offers up a weird contrast between the environmental benefits of a human-free environment, and an emotional marker that separates a country that many residents still see as being one. On the tours, you'll see the heavily guarded meeting spots where North and South Korean diplomats talk out a fragile truce (or not, as the case may be), head down into the tunnels burrowed by the North Korean military in an attempt to infiltrate South Korea, and see elderly South Koreans in tears at the border, leaving messages for loved ones they haven't met in nearly 60 years. The separation of Korea was fast and divisive, and the emotions still run high. The best tour to take is with the USO, as the American military have a little more access than the South Korean tourism offices. You can't visit the DMZ alone.

Hiroshima Peace Museum
Hiroshima, Japan

 

        Over one million people every year visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, which displays the belongings of those killed by the atomic bomb dropped there in 1945. It's divided into sections telling the story of Hiroshima until the bomb, and the damage inflicted by it.

Pere Lachaise Cemetery
Paris

           Paris's largest cemetery is home to luminaries including Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde, Frederic Chopin, Molière, Marcel Proust and Jim Morrison, attracting visitors from all over the world.

 

 Titanic Museum
Belfast, Ireland

 

             Opened this year to coincide with the centenary of the Titanic disaster, the Titanic Belfast Museum is located on the slipways where RMS Titanic was built and tells the story from her construction to her end, at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

 World War One Battlefields
Ypres, Belgium

       The area around Ypres saw some of the fiercest fighting of WWI. The town is now home to the Menin Gate, commemorating soldiers who have no grave, and the In Flanders Fields Museum -- thousands visit every year.

DARK TOURISM

Dark tourism (also black tourism or grief tourism) is tourism involving travel to sites associated with death and tragedy.