Go To Hell by Erika Engelhaupt
Published: August 2024
Summary from Goodreads:
You can go to hell and back with the help of this one-of-a-kind illustrated travel guide to real-life underworld destinations around the globe. Full of intrigue, lore, and plenty of brimstone and fire, each of the 54 destinations—from Antarctica’s Blood Falls to a tropical hell on Grand Cayman island—will be worth adding to your devilish bucket list.
The world over, humans have been fascinated by hell in some form or another for thousands of years and across cultures. Now, with this illustrated collection, you can add hell to your travel bucket list with more than 50 one-of-a-kind underworld destinations, from ghost towns where Halloween is always in season, to ancient caves long viewed as entrances to Hades, to volcanoes that brim with fire and legend.
Don’t be scared: along with the fascinating history of each location, star author Erika Engelhaupt also offers practical tips to make the most of your visit to the underbelly of the world. These hellish destinations include:
Ireland’s “Hell Caves,” where Halloween was born
The Gates of Hell crater in Turkmenistan, burning for more than 50 years
Hell, Michigan, where you can serve as the mayor of Hell for a day
Turkey’s Pluto’s Gate, an ancient Greco-Roman temple guarding a toxic cave
China’s Fengdu City of Ghosts, where tourists pre-game the afterlife in a town devoted to the underworld
The Maya Cenotes throughout the Yucatan Peninsula, long considered portals to hell
And so many more!
Ever wish you could send a postcard from hell? Now you can.
Confession:
This was a very interesting read, although it did get a bit bogged down in the middle with a lot of descriptions of different volcanoes. I had no idea that there were so many places associated with hell or were considered to be entrances to the underworld. I will probably never get to visit many of these places, but it was interesting learning about them.
The book is split into three parts: Portals to the Underworld, Hells on Earth and Otherworldly Destinations. Each of these sections talks briefly about a place, most of them something naturally occuring, shows a picture or two and then at the end of the chapter, a brief description on what you need to know before you visit the site. Many of the pictures showed the actual place being talked about, but there were a couple of places that were not pictured which was a bit disappointing.
I found the first section, Portals to the Underworld to be the most interesting of the three. It was the longest section and seemed to fit the best with the theme of the book. There are places all over the world where legends and myths have grown around certain natural occurrences that are considered to be entrances to the area’s religions and concepts of the underworld. Although these seemed to be more centered around greek and roman myths there were other areas mentioned. There are other places around the world and even a couple in the US that I was not aware of. All were very interesting and sounded like cool places to visit.
The middle section of the book, Hells on Earth, became a little tedious, as most of these were about volcanoes around the world, both active and currently inactive ones. But there were other places mentioned too that were very interesting. I have been to the ones in the US in Death Valley and Yellowstone Park. But the next time I find myself in Michigan, I must visit Hell and maybe even be mayor for a day there! Many of the other places mentioned here sounded very dangerous and I appreciated that the author emphasized this. There are even a few places that will kill you within minutes if you step inside of them. It was kind of scary stuff.
The last section, while interesting, didn’t seem to have much to do with Hell or the underworld, but the places mentioned sounded very cool. I especially would like to see those caves in New Zealand where there are glowworms that hang from threads and illuminate the surroundings. That sounded very cool. There are lots of otherworldly places in the world and it would be wonderful to visit, but just learning about them here was satisfying. Again more pictures of these places would have been nice.
A lovely look at some interesting places here on earth that are associated with the various versions of the Underworld. The text is interesting and written in a very accessible way. The only fault would be the sparsity of pictures. It would have been a more interesting read with the pictures helping to visualize the places talked about. While not a true travel guide to these places, it makes for an interesting read for those of us wanting to learn about these places from the comfort of our homes.
Confessions of a Serial Reader 