From haunted college dorms to secret North Korean organisation headquarters here are 5 rooms that are off limits to the public.
5. Room 428 – ghosts and paranormal activity in Ohio University
This room, located at Ohio University, is unavailable to students. It has been boarded up and closed off because of various paranormal reports regarding the room. Poltergeist activity has been felt: objects flying across the room, doors that open and shut by themselves, and dark shadows appearing and disappearing without explanation.
The creepiest thing about this room is the demon-like face that appears in the wood grain of the door. The door has been replaced multiple times only to have the face appear again. The apparition is known to be playful, and is said to be the spirit of a student that committed suicide in the room. If being a freshman at a college university wasn’t stressful enough, imagine having to share your dorm with a ghost!
4. Vatican Secret Archives
Pope Paul V created the Secret Archives in 1612. Four hundred years later, the Vatican celebrated by making 100 items available for public viewing for the first time. Secretum, the Vatican says, translates more accurately to “personal” than to “secret” and refers to the private letters and historical records of past popes. In fact, the archives haven’t been secret since 1881, when Pope Leo XIII opened them up to scholars.
Some believe it houses evidence of extraterrestrial life. Others, ancient texts that disprove the existence of Jesus. Perhaps dark truths that would discredit and destroy the Church?
The archives, or Archivum Secretum Apostolicum Vaticanum, contains historical records chronicling intriguing historical events. Its contents, once plundered by Napoleon and moved to Paris, span 12 centuries.
3. The Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion
It is written in Ethiopia’s ancient book of kings that the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (Menelik, conceived during a royal one night stand) brought the Ark from Israel. It is now kept at The Chapel of the Tablet at the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion.
Many historians are not convinced about this account of the Ark coming to Aksum. They believe that it is simply propaganda to get people to accept Menelik’s lineage as rulers of the country. Others, including the patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox church, Abuna Paulos, disagree.
There is only one man alive who is allowed to see the Ark, but he pays a hefty price for that honor. The previous guardian and senior Aksum priests choose the guardian of the Ark. And once appointed, the guardian must commit to a life of solitude, tending to the relic, praying beside it, and never going further than the small yard that encloses the chapel where it is kept.
2. Jiangsu National Security Education museum
The museum is dedicated to the history of Chinese espionage is so secret that foreigners are banned. The director of the Jiangsu National Security Education museum in Nanjing, who would only give her name as Ms Qian, said the collection of tiny pistols, miniature cameras, and concealed wiretaps may be timeworn, but is still too sensitive for foreign eyes.
No photography is allowed inside the museum either, she said.
However, the museum did reveal that it has exhibits including guns disguised as lipstick, hollowed-out coins used to conceal documents and maps hidden in decks of cards.
1. Room 39 North Korea’s secret
Is one of the most secret organizations in arguably the world’s most secretive state. Its mission: Obtain foreign currency for the regime of North Korea’s authoritarian leader Kim Jong Il.
The powerful entity, which has existed for decades, is believed to raise funds through business ventures — some legitimate and some not — that include counterfeiting and drug-smuggling. The money, according to experts who follow North Korea’s inner workings, is used by Kim mainly to buy the loyalty of high-ranking officials in North Korea and maintain control of the country.
Video: Top 5 Unknowns
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