Inside a creepy abandoned theme park dubbed the ‘cemetery of attractions’ – and the terrifying reason it’s rotting
A SPOOKY theme park once considered one of the best and biggest attractions in Venezuela is left to rot.
Abandoned, looted and torn apart – Diversions Grano de Oro has become known as a haunted ‘cemetery of attractions“.
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Built in 2001, the theme park quickly became one of the main attractions of the western state of Zulia.
It was filled with water parks, playgrounds and mega roller coasters.
Just a short drive from Venezuela’s second largest city, Maracaibo, a city that once thrived on oil, attracting thousands of visitors every week.
Traveling circuses and famous musicians performed wild shows that drew large crowds.
But the magic soon disappeared.
In mid-2014, global oil prices collapsed and the Venezuelan economy entered a free fall.
Inflation soared, unrest and crime exploded, and dire humanitarian conditions forced more than 7.5 million people to flee the country since 2015.
Life in Maracaibo became so bleak that thieves reportedly broke into coffins and stole items from corpses.
With large parts of the city starving and poverty-stricken and the state experiencing constant power outages, there was little time or money for rides and fun.
In 2018, the park was officially closed, although it had become a shell of its former glory well before then.
Now Diversions Grano de Oro lies in shattered ruins – mentioned by Venezuelan media Impacto Mundo as “the cemetery of attractions”.
Left to the elements and looters, it has been turned into a desolate wasteland in just a few years.
It is difficult to imagine that children once enjoyed themselves within the remains of the walls.
The rusty frame of a gigantic roller coaster haunts the landscape.
Elsewhere, a forest-themed playground lies in tatters, pieces of climbing frames scattered across the ground amid mud and dirt.
A solemn face carved into a giant fake tree speaks to the sadness of it all.
Moreover, the abandoned theme park was built on top of an area with a dark history.
It lies on the ruins of Aeropuerto Grano de Oro – once the site of an infamous air disaster, where in 1969 155 people died when a plane crashed during take-off.
Elsewhere, a Chinese amusement park has been made available unwanted title of “the worst theme park in the world” after tourists were baffled as they thought it was deserted.
Sat inside Chinas capital of Beijingthe Shijingshan Theme park has been called a knock-off Disneyland by tourists for decades.
The not-so-magical park first opened on September 28, 1986 and costs just 10 yuan (£1.11) to enter. It has been destroyed due to damaged, cheap versions of Disney’s attractions and characters.
Another hit Disney World is Japan’s Nara Dreamland.
It should have been the most popular adventure attraction in the country, but it turned out to be a spooky attraction deserted area filled with dust and rot.
And in Singapore, a deeply disturbing theme park is all about hell.
Haw Par Villa – where children from the age of six go on a school trip together – teaches visitors about sin and the many gory ways in which they can be punished after death.
Nearly 4,000 square meters house a variety of disturbing exhibits, including dismembered human bodies, tears of blood, demons feasting on flesh and humans on pitchforks.
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