While there are plenty of places in the world that would easily make you want to live there forever, there are others where one is not even advised to step foot on owing to unknown dangers that lurk in every corner.
NORTH SENTINEL ISLAND
On a secluded island in the Indian Ocean, there’s a tribe of indigenous people that attacks anybody who attempts to visit.
The island has been named both the hardest to visit and the most dangerous on the planet.
India has banned its citizens from visiting North Sentinel Island or attempting to contact the people who live there. Going within three miles of the island is illegal.
We know the Sentinelese people for their violence and unwillingness to communicate with any outsiders.
We know little about the square island where they live, largely because it is covered in forest.
The tribe quickly attacked and murdered two fishermen who washed up on shore in 2006.
When helicopters from the Indian Coast Guard fly overhead whether on reconnaissance missions or dropping off parcels of food for the people they are met with arrows and stones.
Nobody is sure how many Sentinelese people live on the island it’s estimated to be anywhere between 50 and 400 people.
They have lived in seclusion on the island for over 60,000 years, according to anthropologists.
But, according to one tribal rights group, the Sentinelese are in danger of dying out.
Survival International has named the tribe the most vulnerable group of people in the world, as they have not built up immunity to common diseases like the flu.
LAKE NYOS
Lake Nyos is in the Cameroon Volcanic Line, a 950-mile long chain of volcanoes and crater lakes extending from the Gulf of Guinea into Cameroon and Nigeria.
Its origin is not completely understood. Various local folktales told about haunted lakes that can explode or engulf and kill people.
Maybe such stories about killer lakes are based on past disasters similar to what happened in 1986 at Nyos.
As people didn’t know of the volcanic origin of the maar lakes, they attributed the lake’s misbehavior, as the stories go, to supernatural powers, like gods, spirits, or enraged ancestors.
They considered the shores and surroundings of lake Nyos haunted and taboo by indigenous people.
Lethal lakes like Nyos are not common, as they need some very specific conditions to form.
The lake must be in a tropical climate where temperatures remain high all year round, as pronounced seasonal temperature-changes can cause annual lake overturning that will release the stored carbon dioxide.
The lake must be of volcanic or tectonic origin to be deep enough that the pressure, depending on the height of the water column, on the bottom holds the gases dissolved in the water.
The lake must be located where volcanic gases flow from the ground or hot springs occur.
If you feel like swimming in a lake where you never know if the water will just shoot you up in the air like a flying fish, stay away from lake Nyos.
