Island of the Dolls

Ciudad de México · Mexico · Haunted site

Thousands of mutilated dolls hang from the trees where Julián Santana tried to appease the spirit of a drowned girl.

On a chinampa deep in the canals of Xochimilco, the hermit Julián Santana spent more than fifty years hanging up dolls he fished from the water or scavenged from dumps. Legend has it that in the 1950s he found a girl drowned in the canal and began collecting the dolls to soothe her restless spirit. Visitors claim the dolls whisper, blink and turn their heads at night, and that the girl's ghost still inhabits the island. Santana himself was found drowned in 2001 in the very canal where the girl is said to have died. Today the island is one of Mexico's most notorious haunted destinations, reached by trajinera boat.

FAQ

Where is Island of the Dolls located?

Island of the Dolls is in Ciudad de México, Mexico.

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Accounts are drawn from local folklore and visitor reports.

Image: Px-lga · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons