Top 12 Places You're Not Allowed To Visit

The only inhabitants of this 430,000-square-metre (43-hectare) island off the coast of the state of São Paulo, Brazil are, at the last count, 5,000 Golden Lancehead Viper (Bothrops insularis); one of the most venomous snakes in the world and a species in danger of extinction. They have no other habitat. The Brazilian navy keeps intruders away from this island. The only human ever to inhabit the place, the lighthouse keeper, reportedly fled it with his family as they were attacked by the ophidians. So now only a few researchers get permission to visit the island.

The holiest of shrines for followers of the Shinto religion is the Ise Grand Shrine in Ise, Japan, in Mie prefecture. It is dedicated to the goddess Amaterasu-ōmikami. She is the goddess of sun and an ancestor of the emperors of Japan. The 4th-century BCE temple is actually a complex of 123 shrines nestled among natural formations, like rocks, waterfalls, forests, caves and mountains typical of this naturalistic religion. The temple is torn down and rebuilt every 20 years. It symbolises Shintoism’s belief in death and rebirth. Only a priest or priestess member of the imperial family can go inside, leaving the rest of humanity outside at the gate.