Island of the Dolls

The Island of the Dolls is a small chinampa (artificial island) in the canals of Xochimilco, south of Mexico City. Its reclusive former caretaker, Don Julián Santana Barrera, reportedly began hanging discarded dolls from the trees after a girl drowned in the canal nearby, believing her spirit still lingered on the island and that the dolls would keep her company — or ward off her restless ghost. Over decades he covered the island with hundreds of mutilated, weathered dolls, and local boatmen say the figures move their heads and whisper after dark. Santana was found dead in that same canal in 2001, on the spot the girl is said to have drowned. In 2022, Guinness World Records recognized the site as home to the world's largest collection of haunted dolls, and it remains a fixture of Xochimilco's dark-tourism boat tours.