Dangerous Places On Earth

There are some places on earth you should never visit, no matter how much you need a holiday. We're talking about lakes that'll kill you in a single hour, caves that will boil you alive, and radioactive islands where the rats will give you bubonic plague. I don't want to put you off traveling for life, and you won't believe just how dangerous our planet can be. Some of these places are:

Death Road.

If you're planning a road trip, you might want to stay clear of Yungas Road in Bolivia. This terrifying track twists and turns along a sheer cliff face, climbing to a height of 15,260 feet above sea level. In places, the road is only 10 feet wide, with no guardrails to protect you from the blood-curdling 2,000-foot drop. Clouds of dust from the poorly maintained track make it hard to see, while humid winds from the nearby rainforest create regular rainstorms and mudslides. No wonder this place has earned the nickname Death Road.

Despite its deadly reputation, plenty of daredevil drivers continue to use the route. Cars, trucks, and lorries often needed to pass each other, forcing one vehicle to teeter on the very edge of the narrow track. During the 1990s, between 200 and 300 people lost their lives each year after losing control of their cars and plunging into the abyss below. Thankfully, in 2006, the Bolivian government built a newer, safer road, which most cars choose to drive on instead. If you do insist on driving Death Road, which is technically now illegal, though rarely enforced, remember there's no turning back once you begin.

Naica Crystal Cave.

Some of the most beautiful places on earth are also the deadliest. Just take the Naica Crystal Cave, for example. Located nearly 1,000 feet beneath a mountain in Naica, Mexico, this underground cavern is crammed with enormous milky-white selenite crystals. The oversized pillars were formed by volcanic minerals in water, which crystallized as temperatures in the cave system cooled over thousands of years. Today, they're big enough for several grown adults to walk on, measuring as long as almost 40 feet and weighing up to 55 tons.

The cave is situated above an underground magma chamber, which means the temperature can climb as high as 113 degrees Fahrenheit, and the humidity can reach 99%. As a result, the air is so saturated with moisture that sweat can't evaporate from your skin to cool you down, making it difficult to survive more than 10 minutes without risking heatstroke, organ failure, and death. Today, scientists who visit the crystals must wear a special cooling suit with a supply of chilled air, and even then, they can only tolerate the conditions for an hour maximum.

Snake Island.

You have to be seriously silly to visit this island off the coast of Brazil.

Officially named Ilha da Queimada Grande, it's more commonly known as Snake Island. Beneath the treeline, you'll find a wriggling, writhing mass of around 4,000 deadly serpents, just waiting to sink their fangs into unsuspecting sightseers. These snakes are actually a rare kind of pit viper called the Golden Lancehead, known to be one of the deadliest snakes in Latin America. Their venom contains hemotoxins that will melt the flesh they bite, destroying red blood cells and causing death in under an hour. These snakes are not messing around. Snake Island was once attached to the Brazilian coast before several millennia of rising sea levels separated it from the mainland. Because there were no predators and plenty of seabirds to eat, the stranded snakes thrived to a terrifying extent.

There are now estimated to be between one and five Golden Lanceheads for every square meter of the island, meaning that visitors are never more than a few feet away from a slithering adversary. The risk is so great that the Brazilian Navy has banned any human from visiting Snake Island, with the exception of scientists conducting essential research.