We’ve all heard of Area 51, but there’s a lot more out there in this world that’s officially “off limits.”



From secret society encampments with mock sacrificial ceremonies to secluded island tribes wary of the outside world, let’s take a look together at these five absolutely forbidden locales.

 

1. The Lascaux Caves | Montignac, France

In southwestern France, a complex of caves features 600 wall paintings of local animals—and the drawings all hail from the Upper Paleolithic period roughly 17,000 years ago. These incredible historical records were once open to the public—from 1948 until 1963—although carbon dioxide, heat, and related contaminants from the many visitors damaged the paintings with fungi to the point that the caves are now entirely off-limits to us peons. Fortunately, the paintings have been faithfully restored.

 

2. Bohemian Grove | Monte Rio, CA

 

Image Credit: Gabriel Moulin (Cremation of Care mock sacrifice ceremony)

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You can’t get much better than the super-secretive Bohemian Club, which holds a private two-week camp every July at the 2,700-acre Bohemian Grove grounds outside San Francisco. The club’s all-male membership focuses on artists as well as world leaders—in other words, street urchins like us aren’t invited. Formed in 1872, the club’s members have included the likes of the presidents of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton; former U.S. presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Herbert Hoover; and writer Jack London. Aside from regularly holding mock sacrificial ceremonies (spooky), this was also the spot where a Manhattan Project meeting occurred in Sept. 1942, leading to the development of the atomic bomb.

 

3. Snake Island | Offshore Brazil

Snake Island, aka “Ilha da Queimada Grande,” is a remote island off of Brazil. Nothing to see here, right? Well, nothing that you want to see.



 

That’s because this otherwise uninhabited rock is filled with Golden Lanceheads, a species of pit viper with a potent poison that actually “melts” the flesh away around the bite. There are between one to five of these snakes per every square meter of the island. Shit. As a result, the Brazilian Navy has forbade anyone from visiting. Sam Jackson is pissed just thinking about this place.

 

4. Ise Grand Shrine | Uji-tachi, Japan

 

One of the Shinto religion’s most holy sites, this shrine is reportedly home to the Sacred Mirror. The shrine’s chief priest or priestess must always hail from the Imperial House of Japan and the public cannot enter the shrine or approach it beyond a certain limit. Also, the deity Amaterasu is said to chill here. Intense.

 

5. North Sentinel Island | Andaman Islands, Bay of Bengal

 

The Sentinelese people that reside on this island are a largely mysterious tribe of 50 to 400 natives that reject contact with the outside world. They have had virtually no contact with modern civilization and are known to throw stones and shoot arrows at helicopters and planes. The Indian government respects their sovereignty and merely monitor their well-being from afar.

It seems likely we’ll never know much about the tribe, although they wouldn’t have it any other way.