Forts, forests, and ruins where something unseen lingers.
10 places
A 14th-century stepwell in central Delhi, built during the Tughlaq or Lodi period. Local accounts name a djinn in the lower chambers, and legend holds that the black water that once filled the well compelled anyone who looked into it to leap to their death.
India
A 17th-century Rajput fort in Alwar, Rajasthan, declared the most haunted place in India by the Archaeological Survey of India — the only site they officially prohibit entering after sunset.
India
An early 20th-century residential tenement in Mahim, Mumbai, where a woman drowned in the compound well and is said to roam the area at night — announced by the sound of anklets.
India
A forested hill in Kurseong, West Bengal, home to the Victoria Boys' High School (est. 1879) and a stretch of road where a headless boy is said to walk a few paces and vanish into the trees.
India
A black-sand beach near Surat, Gujarat, that served as a Hindu cremation ground for centuries. Locals report disembodied whispers and unexplained disappearances of late-night walkers.
India
Three abandoned colonial-era buildings on defence-controlled land in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, where apparitions of British-era soldiers and a woman in red have been reported since the 1950s.
India
An abandoned 13th-century Paliwal Brahmin village near Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. Its 84 settlements were evacuated overnight in the early 19th century, and a curse is said to prevent anyone from resettling the land.
India
Abandoned limestone quarries in the hills above Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, shut by Supreme Court order in 1996. Thousands of workers died of respiratory illness during operation; local accounts describe a malevolent female entity — a daayan — seen wandering the ruins at night.
India
The ruins of a 19th-century textile mill in Colaba, Mumbai, gutted by fire in 1982 during the Bombay mill workers' strike. A popular Bollywood shoot location where possession and apparition incidents have been reported.
India
The seat of the Peshwa rulers of the Maratha Empire in Pune, Maharashtra. On every full moon night, a boy's voice is said to cry from within the ruins: 'Kaka, mala vachva' — Uncle, save me.
India