Top 10 countries
most rewarding for the dark tourist overall
1. Germany [It had to be – I'm not being masochistic about my original home country – but not only was it the place where the worst atrocity in human history originated (the
Nazis'
Holocaust) but it was also the pivotal focal point during the
Cold War, when the country doubled up, literally, as two states belonging to opposing systems, one a
US NATO ally, the other a
communist Warsaw Pact member with the most over-efficient internal spy network ever. All this left dark sites for tourists to visit in a range and in numbers that is just impossible to beat. Basically it's No.1 for the same reasons that its capital
Berlin is also the capital city of dark tourism.]
2. Poland [Without
Germany's reign of terror during
WWII in its neighbour Poland, the Latter probably wouldn't even feature in this list. But the
Nazis perpetrated their very worst crimes chiefly in occupied Poland, esp. in the form of the
Holocaust. And it is in this context that it features the No.1 single dark destination in the world:
Auschwitz. Poland's struggle in overcoming communism also added to its dark portfolio. And its general touristic infrastructure has been improving dramatically over the years.]
3. the USA [The Big Country which offers not only quirkiness en masse, but also a massive share of dark destinations of a very wide range, many
WWII or
Cold War related, but also some more exotic categories – oh, and of course the world's No. 1 terrorist atrocity
memorial site at
Ground Zero. And in terms of tourist infrastructure, including the dark, much of the country is in the top league too.]
4. Japan [Not as wide a range of dark sites as Nos. 1-3, but still pretty varied, from dangerous volcanoes to icky medical exhibitions, although its principal reason for getting into the Top 10 is of course the fact that it is home to two of the historically darkest places ever:
Hiroshima and
Nagasaki.]
5. Rwanda [For the sheer shocking darkness of some of the dark sites in Rwanda, the country should be at No.1, really. However, almost all of them pertain to the same pitch-black dark chapter in history: the
Rwandan genocide. So what Rwanda offers in degree of darkness it somewhat lacks in range. Still, going to see all those genocide memorials in Rwanda is hard-core dark tourism of the highest order and therefore the country must feature in this list, no doubt about it …]
6. Cambodia [Bordering
Vietnam, and dragged into the
Vietnam War, despite its official neutrality, it subsequently became the home of one of humankind's most unimaginably horrifying
genocides, an
auto-genocide in fact, at the hands of the brutal
Khmer Rouge regime under
Pol Pot. This left some dark sites on the dark tourism map that may not be many in number, but rank amongst the toughest in the world to visit.]
7. Ukraine [Few dark sites to visit, but with the No.2 of the darkest sites in the world (and my
personal Number One!), namely
Chernobyl, it just had to feature here too. Its other dark sites also add to its range, though in terms of tourist infrastructure it's a little trickier than countries Nos. 1-6 to get around in.]
8. Austria [Cute little Austria in the Top 10 dark countries? Oh yes. It's not all just skiing and lederhosen. For starters,
Hitler was not only originally from Austria (not
Germany!), he also returned to it (well, annexed it to the German
Third Reich) bringing all the legacy of
Nazism. Thus some of the most evil places of this period, from
euthanasia centres to one of the most notorious
concentration camps (
Mauthausen) are to be found on Austrian soil. In addition, the country's capital
Vienna rightly has a reputation for being a city obsessed with death – an
undertaker's museum, one of the world's largest and most impressive
cemeteries,
catacombs full of skulls and bones (and even mummified bodies) shown off with glee by tourist guides, all bear witness to this.]
9. Kazakhstan [Also the ninth biggest country in the world, and with a dark history to match. Although that's mostly the legacy of the
Soviet Union and would just as well apply to today's
Russia. Kazakhstan, however, had to bear the brunt of the dark elements of the Soviet days. It was the prime place for exiles and
gulags (just as much as Siberia) during the
Stalin era and beyond. In addition it was abused as the "rubbish bin" of the Soviet Union, as it were, as far as environmental crimes are concerned: it was here that the main nuclear testing ground was located, the
"Polygon", near the formerly "closed city" of
Kurchatov, and the city of
Semey/Semipalatinsk, whose
anatomical museum bears witness to the gruesome medical effects of radiation. Similarly, the
USSR's central rocket launching/testing facilities (for both military
ICBMs and the "civilian" space programme) was set up in Kazakhstan too, namely at
Baikonur (still in use – and still causing environmental concerns). Moreover, megalomaniacal irrigation programmes, both in Kazakhstan and in neighbouring
Uzbekistan and
Turkmenistan, led to the drying up of the
Aral Sea, once the largest lake of the country, now in large parts a polluted desert, which stands as one of the worst man-made
environmental disasters in history and also devastated the Kazakh ex-harbour town of
Aralsk. Furthermore there's generally a plethora of
industrial wastelands, relics of the Soviet era of
communism, and plenty of evidence of a new
cult of personality revolving around the "first" (and only) president Nazarbayev, especially in Kazakhstan's OTT new capital of
Astana.]
10. North Korea [OK, admittedly it's not so much the number and quality of the country's dark sites as such that make it appear in this list, it's more the fact that the country itself has such a dark reputation, also that it is so extremely exotic a tourist destination, and that it's just so plain weird and surreal that it had to be slotted in at No.10 here. No independent travelling is possible in North Korea (and you won't see the current really dark places that the country reputedly has plenty of), but the style of OTT propaganda-driven guided tour travelling in the
DPRK is absolutely unique in the world. And: when it comes to
cults of personality, no one can get even close to beating the North Koreans. Of the
Big 4 communist leaders' mausoleums in the world, that of the
Kims is the No.1 by miles, even though it is normally the least accessible.]
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--- Outtakes/extended, top 20 list candidates:
11.
Russia [The largest country in the world – and with a dark history to match, full of grim chapters of similarly gigantic proportions. Only, Russia isn't exactly a champion when it comes to dealing with the dark chapters of its past, and thus there are far fewer sites pertaining to this past that the dark tourist can visit than could be the case if the attitudes in Russia were different. Moreover, the places developed for dark tourism that do exist are often found in far away locations that are very difficult or impossible to get to – such as former
gulag sites. Places connected with the
USSR's/Russia's nuclear legacy (including some of the worst ever nuclear disasters such as at
Mayak) tend to be "forbidden zones" to this day. The two biggest cities,
St Petersburg and
Moscow, however, offer a bit more – and the latter includes the original of all the
Big 4 communist leader mausoleums: the
Lenin mausoleum on
Red Square.]
12.
Vietnam [Of course, it's first and foremost the legacy of the
Vietnam War that grants this country a place in the Top 20 – and the range of war-related sites is pretty wide too, including one of the most hard-core war crimes exhibitions in the world. But there's also a long-standing
communist cult of personality that adds to the attraction for the dark tourist, and neither
Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum (one of the
Big 4 in the world) nor the
Ho Chi Minh museum in
Hanoi should be missed by anyone interested in these things.]
18.
France (for its splendid
WWII-related sites alone)