<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/gettyimages-485369741.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273" srcset="https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/gettyimages-485369741.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273 400w, https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/gettyimages-485369741.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551 800w" > 1 of 50 Island of Dolls, Mexico The Island of the Dolls (Isla de las Munecas), located in the Xochimilco canals south of Mexico City, is home to hundreds of spooky dolls. Discovered in the '90s, the island is said to be dedicated to the memory of a little girl who drowned in the canal many years ago. (Getty Images)

The earth is dotted with magical landscapes and fairy-tale destinations but it is also home to eerie places that are straight out of nightmares (or very, very strange dreams) — from a forest of spooky, crooked trees to an island inhabited by thousands of venomous snakes.

And while some of the mysterious sights featured in the slideshow above were man-made (Mexico's spooky Island of Dolls was created as a memorial to a young girl who drowned), many were formed by Mother Nature herself. The UNESCO-protected Tsingy de Bemahara Strict Nature Reserve , for example, boasts a rare, geological phenomena — karstic landscapes and limestone uplands cut into impressive "tsingy" peaks and a "forest" of limestone needles. The nightmarish, rocky spires are razor-sharp and needle-like, known to cut through flesh and equipment easily. Only a few scientists have dared to travel to the area to conduct detailed research.

And there is the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness in New Mexico, an alien world of tawny desert, stunning rock formations, towering hoodoos and fairy chimneys, fossils and petrified wood. The haunting scenery is a product of time and the natural elements. The area was once a riverine delta that lay just to the west of the shore of an ancient sea, the Western Interior Seaway, which covered much of New Mexico 70 million years ago. The water slowly receded and eventually disappeared, leaving behind a 1,400-foot-thick layer of jumbled sandstone, mudstone, shale, and coal that lay undisturbed for 50 million years. Then, 6,000 years ago, the last ice age receded, exposing fossils and eroding the rock into the fantastic hoodoos you see today, according to the University of Montana's Wilderness.net.

Click through the slideshow to see some of the eeriest, creepiest locations in the world (just be warned if you have a fear of heights, snakes, dark places and skeletons). Which destinations would you add to the list?