The world's real forbidden places, and why you can't go

What the legend says

Lists of forbidden places promise that somewhere behind a patrol boat or a locked gate lies something the public must not see. The forbidden places mystery works by implication: if you cannot go, there must be a reason worth hiding. The places themselves are usually real, and even news reports reach for the same language. CNN Brasil put the word proibida, forbidden, in quotation marks for an island off São Paulo that is full of snakes; ABC News called a Japanese island a sacred forbidden island. This file takes well-documented places you are not allowed to visit and checks where they are, what is in them, who may go and what the rule actually says.

Where it started

Most of these restrictions began with a decision that can be dated. In India, North Sentinel Island is a tribal reserve under the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Protection of Aboriginal Tribes) Regulation of 1956. In France, Lascaux cave was opened to visitors in 1948; green algae were spotted in 1958 and 1959, and the cave was closed in 1963. In Iceland, Surtsey was protected in 1965, while the eruption that built it was still going on. In Brazil, a decree of 5 November 1985 created the protected area that covers Ilha da Queimada Grande. Okinoshima's rules are far older, rooted in religious tradition.

How it grew

Names and news did the rest. Ilha da Queimada Grande is known as Snake Island, and its name, Queimada Grande, is said to come from fires that fishermen once set to drive the animals away. Okinoshima is so revered that many people avoid saying its name and speak instead of the island whose name cannot be spoken. North Sentinel was pulled into the spotlight again when an evangelist, John Allen Chau, died there on 17 November 2018.

One misunderstood name belongs to the Vatican. Its archive was called secret from about 1646, a word that then meant “private, separate, reserved”: the pope's own archive. It was officially opened to researchers from every country in 1881, and on 22 October 2019 Pope Francis renamed it the Vatican Apostolic Archive, writing that the old name had come to be misread as hidden and reserved for a few.

Which details hold up

North Sentinel Island, in India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands. What is in it: the Sentinelese, who remain uncontacted. The 2011 census estimate of about fifty was guesswork, and researchers think the real number may be close to two hundred. The whole 59.67 square kilometre island is a tribal reserve, visits are prohibited under the 1956 regulation, and the Indian Coast Guard patrols a buffer zone around it. Since the 1990s the administration has followed a hands-off, eyes-on approach. The reason is not a secret: direct contact could pass on diseases that might wipe the group out.

Ilha da Queimada Grande, off the southern coast of São Paulo state in Brazil, between Peruíbe and Itanhaém. What is in it: the jararaca-ilhoa (Bothrops insularis), a critically endangered snake found only there and considered the most venomous in Brazil. The island lies inside a federal protected area run by the conservation agency ICMBio; landing is restricted, dangerous and needs prior authorization, which ICMBio grants only to approved research projects. Precise snake counts are often quoted, but the sources Real or Legend could read say only that the area has one of the highest snake densities in the world, so this file gives no figure.

Lascaux, at Montignac in France. What is in it: prehistoric paintings, found on 12 September 1940 by four boys. The original cave is closed for conservation reasons; visitors are sent instead to replicas nearby, Lascaux IV and Lascaux II.

Surtsey, off Iceland's south coast. What is in it: the plants and animals colonising a new volcanic island, studied by scientists since soon after it formed. Tourist traffic has been banned since 1965 unless the Environment Agency of Iceland grants permission, chiefly to stop people introducing organisms. The reserve now covers the whole volcano and the sea around it, 65 square kilometres in all, and Surtsey joined the World Heritage List on 7 July 2008.

Okinoshima, about 60 kilometres from Munakata in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. What is in it: a Shinto shrine and some 80,000 votive offerings left between the fourth and ninth centuries, now national treasures. Women are barred completely. Until 2017, 200 men a year could land for a single day's festival, after purifying themselves naked in the sea, and were bound not to reveal anything they saw or heard. Since then priests from the Munakata Taisha shrine have occupied the island one at a time, and public access without permission is a criminal offence.

Verdict

Forbidden places explained: the restrictions on this list are real, written down and enforced. What is in these places is documented, too. It is an isolated people whose survival depends on being left alone, an endangered snake, fragile prehistoric paintings, a natural laboratory and a sacred site. The mystery tends to live in nicknames and lists rather than in the records. Real or Legend files the restrictions as confirmed; the idea that they conceal secrets is not.