Gunkanjima) Hashima Island(, japan

Few places in the world have a history as very very odd, or as poignant as Gunkanjima's.

Hashima Island, commonly called Gunkanjima (meaning Battleship Island), is one among 505 uninhabited islands in the Nagasaki Prefecture about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from Nagasaki itself. Hashima Island floats off the coast of Nagasaki in Japan, surrounded by a concrete sea wall which gives it an armored warship appearance.

The island got famous because of his unbelievable appearance: surrounded by a sea wall, you will find an entire abandoned city with huge concrete buildings.

In the past Hashima Island was rich in coal, then, Mitsubishi, the owner of the mine, thought it would be more efficient if the employees lives closer to the mines. This is how the island was built as a city, including hospitals, schools, shops, cinemas and even a cemetery.

In 1959, the island was one of the most densely populated areas on earth. On the tiny island (400 x 160 meter), more than 5000 people lived and worked.

When petrol replaced coal as Japan's main source of fuel, Mitsubishi closed the mine, everyone left, and this island city was abandoned, left to revert back to nature. The apartments began to crumble, and for the first time, in the barren courtyards, green things started to grow. Broken glass and old newspapers blew over the streets. The sea-breeze whistled through the windows. Now, fifty years later, the island is exactly as it was just after Mitsubishi left. A ghost town in the middle of the sea.

Everything can be found in that abandoned city: schools, shops, an hospital, clubs, pools, a gymnasium… It is hard to believe that it is truly real until we see it with our own eyes.

From 1974 to 2009, the island was officially closed to all visitors, but recently the intriguing site has been re-opened to organized tours.

Today, Gunkanjima is a tourist attraction (sightseeing boat trips around the island are available) and a backdrop for many films (it served as an inspiration for the villain's lair in the 2012 film "Skyfall"), the ultimate portrait of Japan's industrial ruins.

Candido Godoi, Brazil

Cândido Godói, a small town in Southern Brazil, nicknamed as ‘Twin Land’. As the name suggests, a phenomenal number of twins are born in the remote town each year –'Twin Land' The place where more than one in 10 pregnancies is a multiple birth. it’s twin birth rate is 18 times higher than the world average and it has some 700 twins in population of 6,600 - 1,000% higher than global average twin rate Why?

Well according to its local, it was after Nazi physician Mengele, who fled to the village after ending of World War II, that the births started happening. Oddly enough Mengele was known to have a strange fascination with twins.

Mengele disguised himself as a roaming physician and veterinarian and gave pregnant women in Cândido Godói an ahead-of-its-time, twin-inducing mix of drugs or hormones, the historian suggests.

Mengele, who died in Brazil in 1979, was notorious for his often-deadly experiments on twins at Auschwitz, ostensibly in an effort to produce a master Aryan race for Hitler.

Modern scientists, however, propose that it is most likely due to toxic waste or inbreeding.

In 2009, a series of DNA tests were conducted on about 30 families by Brazilian geneticist Ursula Matte and her team of 20 researchers. Through the tests, it was discovered that a specific gene occurs more frequently in the village in the mothers of twins, than in mothers without twins. And given the high level of inbreeding in the small town largely populated by German-speaking immigrants, the phenomenon is bound to have compounded.

Dr Matte found that from 1990 to 1994, 10 percent of the births in São Pedro were twins, compared with less than 1 percent for Brazil as a whole.

‘We analyzed six genes and found one gene that confirms, in this population, a predisposition to the birth of twins,’ Dr Matte told the New York Times.

The scientists believe that a small number of immigrant families living in São Pedro may have brought the variant gene to the region. “This does not mean that it is a universal gene,” Dr. Matte said. “If I take twins from New Zealand and test them, it will probably generate a different result.”