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Scottish Sun
25-07-2025
- Scottish Sun
Locals in hols hotspot buy creepy abandoned plague quarantine island ‘built on human ash' to escape tourist crowds
Activists want to turn the small island into an urban park LAST RESORT Locals in hols hotspot buy creepy abandoned plague quarantine island 'built on human ash' to escape tourist crowds Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) LOCALS in a holiday hotspot have purchased what has been dubbed the world's 'creepiest' island which was 'built on human ash' in order to escape hoards of tourists. Poveglia, just off the coast of Venice, Italy, got the dubious moniker as in the 18 century it was used as a quarantine station during outbreaks of the plague. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 5 Poveglia island off the coast of Venice covers just 18 acres Credit: Getty 5 Tourists are banned from going to the island due to safety concerns of the crumbling buildings Credit: Alamy 5 The activist group want to turn the island into an urban park for locals Credit: Corbis The 18-acre site was also used as a mass burial ground, where some 160,000 victims are thought to have been burned to stop the spread of the disease. It has been said that even to this day, human ash from these cremations make up more than 50 per cent of the island's soil. The small island was eventually abandoned in the 1990s tourists are banned from setting foot on the spine-tingling patch of land due to countless crumbling derelict buildings. However, next month it will be taken over by an activist group Poveglia per Tutti (Poveglia for Everyone), and transformed into an urban park for the Venetians. Read More on World News GAME OF BONES Tower of London mystery as experts unearth 50 human bodies in 'biggest dig' The Italian city is a huge tourist attraction with an estimated 30 million people visiting every year. In an attempt to deter so many people a €5 (£4.40) access charge has been levied which has done little to deter visitors but officials claim it helps them monitor the flow of sightseers. Cruise ships were banned from arriving in the city in 2021, forcing them to dock on the mainland at Marghera or Ravenna, nearly 90 miles to the south, or at Trieste, nearly 100 miles across the Adriatic. Tourists are then bussed in to the historic city. The changes have reduced air pollution in Venice but has not caused a reduction in the number of visitors on cruise ships. Many locals have been forced to out of Venice and go a live on the mainland due to high housing costs, which have been fuelled by Airbnb as well as a lack of services. World's most haunted island near Venice, Italy – with mass burial plague pits and an asylum That migration, along with the deaths of an ageing population, has seen the city's population drop by around 10,000 in the past decade. Figures from 2022 show it dropped below 50,000 and currently stands at 48,342 people. The activist group has won a six-year lease for the island seeing off its competitors which included the mayor of Venice Luigi Brugnaro, who wanted to build on the land. The group used the slogan '€99 for 99 years' and asked Venetians to dip into their pockets to help preserve the island from development. More than 4,600 people donated. One of the founders of Poveglia for Everyone, Patrizia Veclani, said: 'We woke up with a nest egg of €460,000 and a community full of high-level professional skills.' The group will pay just a little more than €1,000 a year for the renewable lease. Joining forces with the group is the University of Verona who will monitor the project's environmental and social impact. It said its aim was to regenerate the northern part of the island 'transforming it into a lagoon urban park open to citizens and respectful of the ecosystem and the landscape elements that characterise the lagoon'. Veclani told The Times the university's involvement had played an important part in convincing the Italian national land agency, which runs under the control of the Ministry of Economy, to grant them the lease. She told the paper: 'Having an academic analysis of the impact is very important for us. 'It means we can be a model for others and there are many more like us throughout Italy.' Having won the lease, the activists now face a number of challenges. The island doesn't have any electricity or water. There is also no satisfactory pier to provide boats to dock. The kitchen garden, which had once gained a name for itself for its peaches, has been allowed to run wild. Veclani said: 'Nature has reclaimed it. 'But with the advice of botanists we are considering what appropriate plants can be reinstated. We are lucky to be able to call on many experts. 'The sharing of knowledge has been wonderful. What's important is that it is returning to the city, rather than becoming the umpteenth luxury hotel.' Brugnaro, who is being investigated for corruption and has denied the accusations, wished the group well. He said: 'I am on holiday but I can tell you that I am very happy with this solution.' 5 The island doesn't have any electricity or water Credit: Getty - Contributor
Scottish Sun
12-05-2025
- Science
- Scottish Sun
Inside 3,000-year-old ‘drug den' where humans used BONES to take hallucinogens in ‘terrifying' mystery ritual of visions
There may be a very surprising reason for the bizarre ritual GAME OF BONES Inside 3,000-year-old 'drug den' where humans used BONES to take hallucinogens in 'terrifying' mystery ritual of visions Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A MYSTERIOUS ancient society was using hollowed-out bones to take drugs inside an "exclusive" psychedelics chamber. The long-abandoned drug den was where ancient Andeans would consume hallucinogens as part of strange "vision-seeing" rituals. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 8 Ancient chambers that could only hold a few people at a time were used for consuming hallucinogens Credit: Rick et al., PNAS, 2025 8 The chambers were an exclusive space where "terrifying" drug-fuelled vision-seeing rituals were held Credit: Daniel Contreras 8 Ancient Andeans would use carved hollowed-out bone tools to take drugs Credit: Daniel Contreras This "Chavín" society lived in the Andes two thousand years before the Inca empire. And scientists say these lesser-known people "access to altered states of consciousness" by taking psychedelics. Scientists say the drug-consuming bone tools are the earliest evidence of the use of "psychoactive plants" in the Peruvian Andes. The hollow bones were turned into ancient snuff tubes, and were found in stone chambers inside a prehistoric ritual site. It's called Chavín de Huántar, a ceremonial site high up in the mountains of Peru, at an elevation of around 10,000 feet. They would conduct "exclusive rituals" inside private chambers that could only hold a few people at a time. Researchers say this would've created an "air of mystique and control". "Taking psychoactives was not just about seeing visions," said archaeologist Daniel Contreras, who worked on the discovery. "It was part of a tightly controlled ritual, likely reserved for a select few, reinforcing the social hierarchy." These chambers were contained inside massive stone structures at the site – and were built around 3,000 years ago, before being sealed 500 years later. 'Once in a century' Pompeii discovery as ancient luxury SPA is saved from ashes with thermal baths & stunning mosaic And they would've had "profound, even terrifying" experiences after taking the drugs. "To those who inhaled, the supernatural might have felt like a force beyond comprehension," the University of Florida explained. "And that was precisely the point. "By controlling access to these altered states, Chavín's rulers established a potent ideology. 8 The chambers were tucked inside monument stone structures at Chavín de Huántar Credit: Daniel Contreras 8 The purpose of Chavín de Huántar and its rituals have long been a mystery Credit: Daniel Contreras 8 The Chavín de Huántar archaeological site sits at an elevation of 10,000 feet Credit: Daniel Contreras "And convinced their people that their leadership was intertwined with mystical power and part of the natural order." Evidence of nicotine from wild relatives of tobacco was found, as well as vilca bean residue, which is a hallucinogen related to DMT. Researchers believed that the rituals were used to reinforce the authority of leaders and create a class structure. 'The supernatural world isn't necessarily friendly, but it's powerful,' Contreras, of the University of Florida, explained. Picture Credit: "These rituals, often enhanced by psychoactives, were compelling, transformative experiences that reinforced belief systems and social structures." Trumpets made from conch shells were also found at the site. And researchers think that the chambers were designed to "enhance" musical performances using these trumpets. "One of the ways that inequality was justified or naturalized was through ideology," Contreras said. 8 The Chavín people long predate the Incan Empire Credit: Wikipedia 8 Traces of drugs were found on the bone tools used by these ancient people Credit: Rick et al., PNAS, 2025 "Through the creation of impressive ceremonial experiences that made people believe this whole project was a good idea." Contreras added: "It's exciting that ongoing excavations can be combined with cutting-edge archaeological science techniques to get us closer to understanding what it was like to live at this site." This research was published in the journal PNAS.
