London Mail Rail
London's abandoned "Mail Rail" was first opened in 1927 as the first driverless, electric railway in the world YouTube

Sixty-five feet below the streets of London lies an abandoned Underground line dotted with antique maps and 1920s machinery lie covered in dust.

The so-called Mail Rail, properly known as the Post Office Underground Railway, opened in 1927 and is still in working order but has been out of use since 2003. The forgotten relic is due to be turned into a tourist attraction as part of a £22m national postal museum.

A train, built in the 1920s, still rattles along the disused track. It was the first driverless, electrified railway in the world and carried 12 million parcels a day from Whitechapel in the East End to Paddington in west London.

If the British Postal Museum and Archive manages to raise another £2m in donations, the project will open as a ride for passengers - who will be taken through the peeling, damp tunnels along a track through Mount Pleasant Station. But the Mail Rail is far from the spookiest tourist attraction to entice visitors.

Island of Dolls, Mexico

Island of Dolls
Julian Santana Barreta created "Doll Island" in memorial of a drowned young girl Wikimedia Commons

On an island in Mexico, severed dolls heads and disfigured bodies are hung in trees, tied to buildings and lie scattered in the greenery. The Island of Dolls, in the Xochimilco canals 17 miles south of Mexico City, attracts thousands of visitors each year.

The island is a floating garden, known as a chinampa, which was covered in the terrifying dolls by a man named Julian Santana Barrera who owned the area. He scattered the dolls in memorial of a drowned young girl, who he found floating in a canal near his home.

Forest of Death, Japan

Japan Forest of Death Aokigahara
Suicides are believed to occur more often in March, which coincides with the end of the fiscal year Wikimedia Commons

Aokigahara, also known as the Sea of Trees, is the second most popular place for suicide in the world. It is silent because of the density of the trees - which prevents the wind rustling branches and leaves - and the lack of wildlife. The forest has an association with demons in Japanese mythology and is reportedly haunted by the Yurei, the angry spirits of those left to die.

It is thought that 100 suicides took place every year before 1988. In 2010, 247 people tried to commit suicide and 54 people succeeded. Hangings and drug overdoses are common and spike in March at the end of the fiscal year. Signs are placed around the forest, urging the distressed to reconcider taking their own lives. It is still fairly popular with hikers, who are attracted to the isolation and pristine condition.

Pripyat, Ukraine

Pripyat Ukraine
A view of the amusement park and ferris wheel in Pripyat, from the City Centre Gymnasium Wikimedia Commons

Tourists are now allowed in the abandoned town of Pripyat in Ukraine. Founded in 1970 as a nuclear city, the town was evacuated after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. It had a population of around 49,300 and contained apartment blocks, shops and the infamous ferris wheel.

The amusement park has become an emblem of the ghost town, although it was only open for one day to entertain the public while they awaited evacuation. The town's schools, health centres, transport systems, factories and cinema were all discarded quickly, leaving behind everything they contained.

Stanley Hotel, Colorado

Stanley hotel
The ghost of the phantom piano player is said to be the wife of the original owner Wikimedia Commons

An inspiration for Stephen King's The Shining, the hotel attracted hundreds of guests and ghost hunters with it's historic past. King got the idea for the novel after he stayed in room 217 in the hotel, which was almost empty at the time.

A number of ghosts and spectres are thought to haunt the building. Staff working in the kitchens have reported hearing parties in the ballroom, only to find it empty. A piano can be heard playing without a pianist and various guests have reported seeing a man standing over their beds.

Toul Sleng, Cambodia

Toul Sleng Cambodia
The rooms of the former school were crudely divided into cells Wikimedia Commons

The Toul Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh used to be a high school, which was turned into a notoriously gruesome prison under the Khmer Rouge. Around 20,000 people were incarcerated in Security Prison 21, where they were tortured and murdered. Now a memorial and museum, the prison contains photographs of inmates, weapons used for torture and the skulls of victims.

It was first documented in 1979 and there are only 12 known survivors of the prison. The name Tuol Sleng means "Hill of the Poisonous Trees" or "Strychnine Hill".

The Door to Hell, Turkmenistan

The aptly named Door to Hell is natural gasfield in Derweze in the Ahal Province of Turkmenistan. It was set alright by Soviet scientists in 1971 and has been burning ever since. After discovering the methane gas, the ground beneath the drilling rig collapsed. Fears of the gas spewing out after the incident prompted the scientists to burn it off. It was thought it would take a few days, but it is still on fire mroe than 40 years later. It is approximately 70 metres wide.

Spiders seem to be attracted to the phenomenon and hundreds swarm to the area.