They have white sandy beaches and turquoise blue sea, offer untouched nature or are located directly in front of exciting metropolises – and yet these nine islands are closed to the public. 9 Forbidden islands No One Can Enter!
An isolated people who do not want any contact with the outside world, a radioactive waste storage facility or a virus research area: For different reasons, it is forbidden to enter these nine islands.
1. Ni’ihau, Hawaii
On the 180 square kilometer island of Ni’ihau, which belongs to Hawaii, the approximately 200 residents make a living from gathering and hunting. Access is only allowed to people who are expressly invited by the islanders – for everyone else, Ni’ihau is one of the “forbidden islands”. The only exception: Since the early 1990s, tourists have been able to book a hunting tour on Ni’ihau that costs several thousand euros. Otherwise, the Coast Guard strictly keeps any curious visitor away.
9 Forbidden islands: 2. North Sentinel Island, Andaman Islands
Only two years ago, the Sentinelese people hit the headlines again: A young US tourist, who probably wanted to proselytize the tribe living far away from any civilization in the Indian Ocean, was shot at with arrows and died. His body will probably never be recovered, because the Indian authorities have forbidden to enter the island because of incidents like these – too dangerous!
3. Queimada Grande, Brazil
This island is deadly! The reason: there is at least one island lance viper (Bothrops insularis) per square meter on the wooded island off the metropolis of Sao Paolo. A member of the viper family, the deadly bite snakes have driven away the entire island human population that once called it home. The authorities have therefore banned access to the “deadliest island in the world”.
4. Plum Island, New York
Foot-and-mouth disease and rinderpest were once researched on the island off New York, which is only seven square kilometers in size. Because living pathogens that can be dangerous to both animals and humans are stored in the high-security center for research into animal epidemics and diseases, access is only permitted to authorized researchers.
5. North Brother Island, New York
The 5.3-kilometer island in the Hudson River once served as a quarantine station for townspeople suffering from smallpox or typhoid. In the 1950s it housed a drug rehab facility. Today the island may not be entered and is closed to the public.
9 Forbidden islands: 6. Riems, Germany
Friedrich Loeffler, a student of Robert Koch, founded the world’s first virus research institute on the Boddeninsel off Greifswald (Mecklenburg-West Pomerania) in 1910. After the Nazis later temporarily researched biological weapons on the island, scientists from the Friedrich Löffler Institute are still investigating Riems dangerous epidemics. Therefore, the island is strictly sealed off from the public.
7. Farallon Islands, United States
The rugged volcanic islands lie off the coast of San Francisco in California – and an invisible danger lurks on them: because radioactive waste was dumped around the Farrallon Islands between 1946 and 1970, they are considered contaminated and are classified as a restricted area among the “forbidden islands”. Almost 50,000 containers and steel drums with contaminated waste lie on the seabed – according to experts it is too dangerous to lift them and dispose of them somewhere else. Nobody knows exactly how high the level of danger for the sea and people really is.
8. Gruinard Island, Scotland
The island can be reached by rowing boat in ten minutes from the Scottish mainland. Because experiments on sheep with the anthrax bacterium, also known as anthrax, were carried out on the island during World War II, it is now too dangerous to visit.
9 Forbidden islands: 9. Poveglia, Italy
The last of the “forbidden islands” is located in the Venice Lagoon. She is considered cursed since a doctor in the psychiatric clinic located there conducted experiments on sick people. It has been uninhabited for around 50 years, and because the buildings on it have become very dilapidated in the meantime, nobody is allowed to enter them.
Caribbean islands with airports
Dream beaches and sun guarantee / Greek islands are booming
