Mexico's Island of The Dolls

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/esparta/2994076542/

South of Mexico City, situated along an extensive network of canals, is the Island of The Dolls (La Isla de las Muñecas). Here, thousands of decaying children's dolls inhabit the island; hanging from tree branches and placed like ornaments all around.

Many years ago, a peculiar recluse named Don Julián Santana Barrera left all that he knew and took up a lonely residency on the island. Soon after,  Julián began to fish dolls out of the canal, believing  that they would appease the spirit of a dead girl who drowned there in the 1920's. Julián was convinced the little girls spirit haunted him. Dolls were also brought to him by locals who would trade them for the produce that he grew on the island.  For 50 years Julián continued to build his macabre shrine,  all the way until his mysterious death in 2001 where was found dead - drowned in the same canal as the little girl.

Locals believe the island to be very haunted and claim unknown voices emerge when darkness falls. Visitors on the island say that whispers can be heard and the eyes of the dolls move on their own.