Buzz
While most of the world's islands have been extensively explored and their secrets uncovered, a handful still remain shrouded in mystery. Islands marked on maps for centuries seem to disappear without a trace. Remote islands that once hosted dangerous, top-secret facilities are now abandoned or destroyed. Islands once used to quarantine the diseased or insane now carry with them unsettling, eerie memories for those brave enough to visit. Some islands even behave in ways that defy explanation, baffling those who study them.
Islands that are nearly entirely isolated from the outside world boast unique flora, appearing as though they belong to an alien planet. Other islands maintain their mystique due to the mysterious origins or fate of their inhabitants. These ten strange and fascinating islands are remarkable for these reasons and many more.
10. Isla Bermeja, The Vanished Island
On maps dating back to the 1700s, Isla Bermeja was depicted off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, farther out than any other island claimed by Mexico. The island was seen as crucial for the country’s efforts to extend its territorial claims on offshore oil and to prevent the United States from encroaching on Mexico’s interests in this area. But there was one significant problem: A 2009 study by the National Autonomous University of Mexico concluded that the island didn’t exist—at least not where the maps indicated. Despite using underwater sensors and aerial reconnaissance, the search team couldn’t locate the island in the area shown on the maps.
The island was believed to be situated 55 nautical miles beyond Mexico’s 200-nautical-mile territorial limit. By claiming the island, Mexico would expand its oil rights into the heart of the Gulf. Although the island was never found, Elias Cardenas, head of Mexico’s congressional Maritime Committee, vowed to keep searching, hoping that it might still be discovered in another location. He speculated that the island could have sunk or submerged.
Mexican conspiracy theorists offered their own explanations for the disappearance of Isla Bermeja. Some suggested the US might have bombed it, while others blamed global warming or an earthquake. Cardenas rejected the idea of bombing, stating that such an event would have been highly noticeable.
The island’s disappearance was first reported in 1997, when a Navy fishing expedition failed to locate it. Until its vanishing, Isla Bermeja, which was said to measure 80 square kilometers (31 mi), had served as the starting point for Mexico’s 200-nautical-mile territorial limit. Now, the Alacranes islands mark the end of the country’s territorial waters, significantly reducing Mexico’s “economic zone.”
9. Vozrozhdeniya Island
In the 1920s, Soviet officials were searching for a location that had very specific qualities: it had to be isolated, surrounded by desert, and located within Soviet borders. Two islands met these criteria, with Vozrozhdeniya in the Aral Sea being the chosen one. A highly secretive biological weapons lab was set up there, where deadly pathogens such as plague, anthrax, smallpox, brucellosis, tularemia, botulinum, and Venezuelan equine encephalitis were genetically altered to resist medical treatment.
Gennadi Lepyoshkin, a physician, microbiologist, and Soviet Army colonel, dedicated 18 years of his career to the island. He recalled that as many as 300 monkeys would be caged annually, next to instruments that measured the airborne concentration of pathogens. After being exposed to these germs, the monkeys were taken to labs where their blood was tested, and the progression of the diseases in their bodies was closely monitored. "They would die within weeks, and we would perform autopsies," Lepyoshkin explained. The 1,500 people working on the project not only labored on the island but also lived there in Kantubek, the only town, which featured a social club, stadium, schools, and shops. It was a 'beautiful' place, where workers could swim in the Aral Sea or sunbathe along its shore.
As the Aral Sea dried up, the island became part of the surrounding desert. Today, Kantubek lies in ruins, having been looted after the Soviet Union left. Scientists believe the biological weapons lab no longer poses a significant threat. Most of the pathogens, except for anthrax—which can survive for centuries—have been destroyed due to the area’s high temperatures and harsh environment.
When the Soviets abandoned the site, they buried the anthrax spores to conceal their violation of the 1972 treaty prohibiting biological weapons. In the 21st century, officials from the US and Uzbekistan visited the site, burning warehouses that contained 'remains of previous experiments.' US Defense Department officials are confident that the anthrax spores have been destroyed, but it’s impossible to be entirely certain.
8. Bannerman Island
Bannerman Island, located in the Hudson River, is just a half-hour boat ride away from New York City. There’s no other means of getting there. Those who visit this mysterious island often find themselves wondering why there is a castle perched atop it. The castle was constructed by Frank Bannerman VI, who made his fortune reselling surplus military gear bought at government auctions following the US Civil War.
Bannerman needed a secure place to store the large amounts of black powder and other surplus items he had purchased. When his son, David, suggested Pollopel Island, Bannerman bought it in 1900. The following year, he built an extensive arsenal on the island and added a small castle beside it as his residence, renaming the island Bannerman Island in his honor.
Construction halted after Bannerman's death in 1918. The ferryboat service was destroyed by a storm in 1950, and the island was left abandoned. On August 8, 1969, a fire ravaged the arsenal, and New York State, which had purchased the island and its buildings in 1967, declared the island off-limits. It wasn’t until 2017 that it was reopened, and tour guides began sharing its enigmatic history with intrigued visitors.
7. Earthquake Island
The devastating earthquake that struck Pakistan in September 2013, claiming 39 lives and destroying homes, also gave birth to an island. The earthquake, which was recorded as a magnitude 7.7 by Pakistan’s chief meteorologist Mohammed Riaz and a magnitude 7.8 by the US Geological Survey in Colorado, caused the ground to shift in a remarkable way.
Before the earthquake, this island didn’t exist. However, after the tremors subsided, locals reported witnessing the sudden appearance of a small island, about 100 meters (330 feet) long and 9 meters (30 feet) high, near the port of Gwadar. Arif Mahmood, the director-general of the Pakistan Meteorological Department, explained that the earthquake might have caused land beneath the sea to rise, forming the island, though further research would be needed to uncover the precise cause.
6. Poveglia Island
During the height of the bubonic plague, which wiped out nearly half of the world’s population, the Romans had a solution to keep the healthy separated from the sick. Infected individuals were sent to Poveglia Island, a small, isolated landmass between Venice and Lido. There, they spent their final days together, awaiting death. The island soon became synonymous with death itself, and when future epidemics arrived, the barely alive were discarded there, their bodies burned in mass graves.
In the 1920s, Poveglia Island became home to a mental hospital, designed to house not only the mentally ill but anyone displaying symptoms of sickness, whether physical or mental. Essentially, if you were unwell in any way, you were sent to Poveglia, where the ground was half dirt, half human ash, and where you’d join over 100,000 deceased individuals. At one point, an unethical doctor ran the hospital, performing brutal experiments on patients, including drilling into their brains to observe the effects. Eventually, the doctor ended his life by leaping from the bell tower, adding his own soul to the island’s macabre history.
5. Floating Eye Island
Located in the Parana Delta, between the Argentine cities of Campana and Zarate in Buenos Aires Province, lies an island with a nearly perfect circular shape, spanning a diameter of 120 meters (390 feet). It is surrounded by a channel, also shaped like a circle, and together, the island and the surrounding channel resemble an eye, with the island appearing like the pupil. This unusual formation gave the island its nickname, 'The Eye.' The island also rotates on its axis, a discovery made by film director Sergio Neuspiller in 2016 while scouting locations for a science fiction movie.
Upon discovering the island, Neuspiller, along with his crew and Richard Petroni, a New York-based hydraulic and civil engineer, decided to shift their focus from the planned science fiction film to creating a crowd-funded documentary about the mysterious island, 'The Eye.'
4. Socotra Island
Socotra Island, located off the coast of Yemen, appears as though it belongs to an alien world. Its rare and endangered plant life thrives due to the island's isolated position, extreme temperatures, and arid environment. About a third of its flora is unique and found nowhere else on the planet. To protect this natural wonder, 70 percent of the island is designated as a national park.
Some of the plants on the island resemble turnips planted upside down. One particularly unique tree, known as the Dragon's Blood Tree, has crimson sap and branches that appear devoid of leaves except at the tips. This gives the tree the odd appearance that its branches are roots, making it seem as though the tree is growing upside down. This fascinating tree is used for its purported medicinal properties, fabric dye production, incense making, and wood staining. The island's bottle tree is designed to store water in the arid climate, with a thick trunk and sparse limbs that transition into clusters of thin branches ending in dense green foliage.
Encircled by turquoise waters, the island is home to vast limestone caves inhabited by bats, the only mammals native to Socotra. Within these caves, messages in multiple languages have been etched into the walls, thought to have been left by sailors between AD 1 and 6. The people of this island are also distinct: they possess a unique DNA haplogroup not found anywhere else on Earth. Some even suggest that Socotra was the original location of the Garden of Eden. In 2008, UNESCO designated Socotra as a World Heritage Site.
3. Easter Island
A team from the University of California at Santa Cruz sought answers from Easter Island about how its inhabitants had managed to live and farm so far from any continent. They used paleogenomic research to trace the genetic history of the Rapa Nui, the mysterious people of Easter Island.
It had been thought that the Rapa Nui had interbred with South Americans long before Europeans reached Easter Island in 1772. However, to the surprise of the UC Santa Cruz team, their research, based on museum samples, showed no evidence of contact between the Rapa Nui and South Americans before the Europeans arrived. This finding challenged earlier studies and sparked controversy. If these results are accurate, it suggests that the Rapa Nui alone were responsible for carving and transporting the island's massive moai statues, without assistance from South Americans.
Raiders who kidnapped Rapa Nui people to sell as slaves drastically reduced their population from thousands to just over 100. As infighting and disease swept through the remaining population, the island’s secrets, including the origins of its people and the creation of the famous statues, remained shrouded in mystery for years, as elusive as the island itself.
2. Partridge Island
Partridge Island, located off the coast of Saint John Harbour in New Brunswick, Canada, served as a quarantine station beginning in 1830. Immigrants arriving in Canada were kept there to prevent the spread of diseases they may have contracted on board ships. During the Great Famine of 1847, thousands of immigrants came to Canada, and 2,500 Irish immigrants were quarantined on the island.
The quarantine station was a defense against diseases such as cholera, typhus, smallpox, scarlet fever, yellow fever, and measles. Immigrants were subjected to kerosene showers followed by hot water baths. The overwhelming number of sick individuals, particularly during the Irish Potato Famine, strained the island's resources. Due to the massive influx of Irish immigrants, the island earned the nickname 'Canada’s Emerald Isle.'
Immigrants who passed away due to disease while quarantined on Partridge Island were buried there, with one particularly tragic mass grave rumored to have produced grass of a more vibrant green than the surrounding area, supposedly nourished by the bones of the deceased. Partridge Island closed its quarantine station in 1941, and since then, it has become a place of mystery, 'visited' only through photographs.
1. Diego Garcia
Diego Garcia is a 44-square-kilometer (17 mi) atoll located in the Indian Ocean, characterized by thick tropical jungles and pristine white sand beaches. The island was home to 2,000 native Chagossians until the British government forcibly removed them between 1968 and 1973 to make way for a US naval base. This relocation occurred as part of an agreement between the US and Britain, with the island’s strategic importance making it ideal for controlling the region between East Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, allowing US forces to reach both Asian and Middle Eastern targets.
Diego Garcia played a key role during military operations such as air support in the 1991 Gulf War, the 2001 Afghanistan war, and the 2003 Iraq war. Some claim that the isolated and restricted island also serves as the site of a secret US prison camp, though American authorities deny these allegations.
