This atoll is located a thousand nautical miles from the Hawaiian Islands, so beloved by tourists. At first glance, the island looks like a piece of paradise, which seems to have everything for a happy and carefree life and relaxation: wonderful climate, magnificent nature, wonderful beaches, azure sea ...
But soon people realized that Palmyra is some kind of mystical predator, which itself has the mind of a killer, and its henchmen in the form of creepy sharks, poisonous lizards, numerous mosquitoes and so on keeps only in order not to leave a person, who got to the island, not a single chance to survive.
It all started with the fact that in the distant 1798 the American ship "Betsy" landed on the reefs near this "paradise island". The people in the water were immediately attacked by bloodthirsty sharks, as if they were waiting for this feast. Later, survivors recalled that sea predators began to circle around the ship even before it crashed.
Ten lucky ones still managed to swim to the shore. And although the rescue ship soon sailed to the island, he picked up only three surviving members of the Betsy's crew, who told such horrors about this atoll that many did not even believe in their horror stories.
The mysterious island has been mapped and called Palmyra since 1802, when an American ship with that name sank near it. For a long time, mariners could not understand why ships crashed near this, in general, quiet place with a coastal bottom favorable for navigation. However, the Spanish caravel "Esperanta", which crashed near Palmyra in 1816, clarified something. As the captain of the caravel described that crash, a storm suddenly began not far from the island, which carried their ship to the reefs. The crew of the Esperanta was picked up by a Brazilian ship that was following the trail, but the Spanish captain tried to plot the coordinates of the reef on the map so that no one would crash into them in the future. Imagine his surprise when, a year later, sailing in this place, he did not find any reefs.
In 1870, the American ship "Angel" was wrecked near Palmyra. True, what happened to him, no one knows for sure. The ship simply disappeared, and later the corpses of its crew were found on the island. Who or what killed people remains unknown, since no one has ever lived on the atoll.
Our time has not clarified the mystery of the island of Palmyra
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the island of Palmyra officially became the possession of the United States. When World War II broke out, the Americans deployed a military garrison here. As one of the soldiers of this unit, Joe Brow, wrote in his memoirs, at first they thought that they were very lucky - not a place, but just paradise. But the joy was premature. Within a few days, all the soldiers were seized with unreasonable fear. I wanted, Bry wrote, to leave this terrible place as quickly as possible, otherwise something irreparable will happen to you. Everyone became nervous and angry, fights broke out between the soldiers every now and then, which often ended in death. And suicides began to occur with terrifying frequency.
Once, Joe recalls, they shot down an enemy plane that fell on an island not far from them. But the soldiers could not find him, although they ransacked the entire atoll. After the war, the garrison left the mystical island, and it again became deserted.
And so in 1974, the married couple Melanie and Three Hughes decided to visit him, who went here on their expensive yacht. For three days they told the dispatchers by radio that they were living on Palmyra and that everything was in order. Then the connection ended. Rescuers who arrived here just a couple of days later found the very carefully dismembered bodies of the Hughes spouses, and their remains were buried in different parts of the atoll. At the same time, things and all jewelry remained untouched.
The last trip to the mystical island in order to study this mysterious place was undertaken by the traveler and explorer Norman Sanders, who in 1990, together with three of the same daredevils, landed on the atoll, and this happened at night. According to Norman, they immediately sensed fear and impending disaster. The researchers lasted only a week on Palmyra, although they planned to stay for two months. After a couple of days, they almost began to fight each other, and one of them even attempted suicide. At the same time, for some unknown reason, their on-board instruments began to fail, computers fail ... In general, the guys fled from this damn place on April 24, but when they arrived home, it turned out that in some mysterious way they had lost a whole day. Well at least they remained intact ...
At the end of the last century, the American authorities began to place radioactive waste on an uninhabited island, so those who want to visit this terrible corner of the planet today can be counted on one hand. And the military themselves, who bring deadly waste here, sometimes tell terrible things about the island, for example, about the hordes of bloodthirsty rats that have bred on the atoll. True, the military generally keep quiet, since a long language in their case can result in dismissal from service, or even worse ...
Attempts to explain the secrets of the mystical island
Palmyra Atoll is very similar to a living monster, so many researchers tend to consider it as such, that is, an island with its strong and destructive aura that lures and kills travelers.
But the researcher Mershan Marin believes that there is some mysterious, very evil creature on the island that can control here not only the weather, reefs and even sharks, poisonous reptiles, as well as other aggressive animals, but also affects the consciousness of people, making their uncontrollable zombies.
Another version is a portal to another, very scary world for us. It is from there that all the evil spirits break through here, which in some way can change our reality and kill people.
This atoll is located a thousand nautical miles from the Hawaiian Islands, so beloved by tourists. At first glance, the island looks like a piece of paradise, which seems to have everything for a happy and carefree life and relaxation: wonderful climate, magnificent nature, wonderful beaches, azure sea ...
But soon people realized that Palmyra is some kind of mystical predator, which itself has the mind of a killer, and its henchmen in the form of creepy sharks, poisonous lizards, numerous mosquitoes and so on keeps only in order not to leave a person, who got to the island, not a single chance to survive.
It all started with the fact that in the distant 1798 the American ship "Betsy" landed on the reefs near this "paradise island". The people in the water were immediately attacked by bloodthirsty sharks, as if they were waiting for this feast. Later, survivors recalled that sea predators began to circle around the ship even before it crashed.
Ten lucky ones still managed to swim to the shore. And although the rescue ship soon sailed to the island, he picked up only three surviving members of the Betsy's crew, who told such horrors about this atoll that many did not even believe in their horror stories.
The mysterious island has been mapped and called Palmyra since 1802, when an American ship with that name sank near it. For a long time, mariners could not understand why ships crashed near this, in general, quiet place with a coastal bottom favorable for navigation. However, the Spanish caravel "Esperanta", which crashed near Palmyra in 1816, clarified something. As the captain of the caravel described that crash, a storm suddenly began not far from the island, which carried their ship to the reefs. The crew of the Esperanta was picked up by a Brazilian ship that was following the trail, but the Spanish captain tried to plot the coordinates of the reef on the map so that no one would crash into them in the future. Imagine his surprise when, a year later, sailing in this place, he did not find any reefs.
In 1870, the American ship "Angel" was wrecked near Palmyra. True, what happened to him, no one knows for sure. The ship simply disappeared, and later the corpses of its crew were found on the island. Who or what killed people remains unknown, since no one has ever lived on the atoll.
Our time has not clarified the mystery of the island of Palmyra
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the island of Palmyra officially became the possession of the United States. When World War II broke out, the Americans deployed a military garrison here. As one of the soldiers of this unit, Joe Brow, wrote in his memoirs, at first they thought that they were very lucky - not a place, but just paradise. But the joy was premature. Within a few days, all the soldiers were seized with unreasonable fear. I wanted, Bry wrote, to leave this terrible place as quickly as possible, otherwise something irreparable will happen to you. Everyone became nervous and angry, fights broke out between the soldiers every now and then, which often ended in death. And suicides began to occur with terrifying frequency.
Once, Joe recalls, they shot down an enemy plane that fell on an island not far from them. But the soldiers could not find him, although they ransacked the entire atoll. After the war, the garrison left the mystical island, and it again became deserted.
And so in 1974, the married couple Melanie and Three Hughes decided to visit him, who went here on their expensive yacht. For three days they told the dispatchers by radio that they were living on Palmyra and that everything was in order. Then the connection ended. Rescuers who arrived here just a couple of days later found the very carefully dismembered bodies of the Hughes spouses, and their remains were buried in different parts of the atoll. At the same time, things and all jewelry remained untouched.
The last trip to the mystical island in order to study this mysterious place was undertaken by the traveler and explorer Norman Sanders, who in 1990, together with three of the same daredevils, landed on the atoll, and this happened at night. According to Norman, they immediately sensed fear and impending disaster. The researchers lasted only a week on Palmyra, although they planned to stay for two months. After a couple of days, they almost began to fight each other, and one of them even attempted suicide. At the same time, for some unknown reason, their on-board instruments began to fail, computers fail ... In general, the guys fled from this damn place on April 24, but when they arrived home, it turned out that in some mysterious way they had lost a whole day. Well at least they remained intact ...
At the end of the last century, the American authorities began to place radioactive waste on an uninhabited island, so those who want to visit this terrible corner of the planet today can be counted on one hand. And the military themselves, who bring deadly waste here, sometimes tell terrible things about the island, for example, about the hordes of bloodthirsty rats that have bred on the atoll. True, the military generally keep quiet, since a long language in their case can result in dismissal from service, or even worse ...
Attempts to explain the secrets of the mystical island
Palmyra Atoll is very similar to a living monster, so many researchers tend to consider it as such, that is, an island with its strong and destructive aura that lures and kills travelers.
But the researcher Mershan Marin believes that there is some mysterious, very evil creature on the island that can control here not only the weather, reefs and even sharks, poisonous reptiles, as well as other aggressive animals, but also affects the consciousness of people, making their uncontrollable zombies.
Another version is a portal to another, very scary world for us. It is from there that all the evil spirits break through here, which in some way can change our reality and kill people.
There are many mysterious places on Earth. Although the Bermuda Triangle is rightfully considered the most famous among the anomalous zones of the Earth, the small Pacific island of Palmyra (Palmyra Atoll) can seriously compete with it.
Palmyra Atoll is a small coral group of islands in the central Pacific Ocean, located about 1200 kilometers south of Hawaii in the Line Archipelago. The relief of all the islands of the atoll is low and flat. Low sand dunes on the islands do not exceed 1-2 meters above sea level. The coast of the islands abounds in both surface and underwater reefs.
The islands of the atoll are covered with rather dense shrub and grassy vegetation, coconut palms and small groves of balsa trees (up to 30 meters high) grow, the wood of which is extremely low density, very small in weight and, at the same time, quite high strength.
The atoll has two internal lagoons - Western and Eastern, which are separated from each other by a spit that rises above the ocean surface only during low tides. Outwardly serene lagoons are teeming with aggressive sharks and carnivorous fish of various sizes. There are many seabirds and green sea turtles that occupy the shores and the reefs and sandbars that rise from the water at low tide.
Why is this island named mysterious? A whole chain of tragic events took place in the history of Palmyra.
In 1798, the American ship Betsy, heading from America to Asia, crashed into reefs near the island. Most of the people who tried to swim to the island drowned or were eaten by sharks. The survivors said that they would never again agree to return to this cursed land. During the two months that they were there, out of ten people, only three survived. The survivors claimed that everyone else was destroyed by the island.
Sunken ship near Palmyra atoll (photo from the resource loveopium.ru)
On November 7, 1802, the USS Palmyra, under the command of Captain Sawle, was shipwrecked when it collided with the atoll's reef. The surviving part of the brig's crew, having got out on land, named the atoll after their ship.
In 1816, the Spanish caravel Esperanta hit the reefs of Palmyra. Her captain later assured that the storm that spun the ship began suddenly, against the background of an absolutely clear sky and complete calm. And the wind died down exactly at the moment when the caravel got a hole. Fortunately, a Brazilian merchant ship was passing by and rescued by the Esperanta's crew. The Spanish captain carefully mapped the location of the reefs and the fairway along which even a large ship could be navigated to the western lagoon of the atoll. But a year later, when he swam in the same places, there was no longer a single underwater obstacle according to the old coordinates. It is not surprising that the sailors soon called Palmyra a cursed place and tried to bypass it.
In 1870 the American brig "Angel" did not return from an expedition to the island. After some time, the remains of a shipwreck and the corpses of crew members were found on the coast of Palmyra. All of them reportedly died a violent death, but who killed them is unknown. Sailors still claim that this island is a cursed place.
In 1940, the island was taken over by the United States. During World War II, the American government used it to attack Japan. Joe Brow, a soldier of the garrison located on the island, said that when he arrived there, he considered himself lucky, since the place looked like a real paradise. But soon his opinion changed dramatically. “Everyone on the island was scared,” recalls Brau. “Some were afraid to approach the water, as it seemed to them that they would be swallowed by sharks. Others argued, in hysterics, demanded to leave the island, assuring that otherwise something terrible would happen. Several people committed suicide; unmotivated outbursts of aggression were observed among the soldiers, which led to quarrels, fights and even murders.
American plane from the Second World War in the thickets of Cooper Island (photo from the resource airfields-freeman.com)
Hal Horton, a former naval officer who was on Palmyra from 1942 to 1944, said: “One of our patrol planes once fell off an island. We searched for it for a long time and persistently, but did not even find a bolt or a piece of metal. It was strange and amazing. On another occasion, the plane took off from the runway, gained an altitude of about 60 meters and turned in the wrong direction. It was believed that the plane would fly north, but instead it flew south. The day was clear. We could not understand anything. There were two people on board that we never saw again. We were very unlucky on this island. Seasoned sailors called him cursed. One day we heard the sound of an airplane above us, which was looking for us, but it crashed into the water before finding the runway. We didn't get to the guy in time. Sharks were the first to find it. "
After the war, the mysterious island became uninhabited again, but continued to attract seafarers.
In 1974, two people were murdered on Palmyra while sailing on a yacht. According to eyewitness testimony in the ensuing trial, Malcolm Graham and Eleanor Graham of San Diego were killed, possibly because of their expensive sailing ship Sea Wind and its food supplies by ex-prisoners who settled on the island. The motives for this wild crime and who committed it remain unknown.
In 1980, the remains of Eleanor Graham were discovered by another pair of sailors - Sharon and Robert Jordan. Walking along the shore, Sharon found a skull and bones, which apparently fell from a metal box during the Second World War, which was washed ashore by the waves. It is amazing that Sharon was in this very place and at this time, since the next low tide would forever carry the bones back to the sea. It is believed that Eleanor Graham was either shot or killed with a truncheon, burned with an acetylene torch, dismembered, and placed her remains in a small metal container taken from an old military rescue boat on the island, which was then sunk in the lagoon. Malcolm Graham's body was never found.
In early 1990, Norman Sanders and his team visited the mysterious island. He later recalled: “I did not believe the rumors about what was happening on the island. However, I had to make sure from my own experience that Palmyra is one of the most mysterious places on earth. We approached the island at night. Although I was not on deck, I immediately felt that we were close. A strange longing and loneliness seized me. The day was magnificent - blue ocean, blue sky and gentle sun. However, according to some members of the crew, the mood was such that I wanted to jump overboard. "
People stayed on the island for about a month, although at first they expected to spend much more time there. According to Sanders, during their stay on the island, people from friends turned into bitter enemies. Devices on the mysterious island often failed, or did not work at all. Returning from the voyage, all the crew members found that they were behind the times. In fact, they returned on April 24, although according to their calculations, it was the 25th. The expedition members' watches ran absolutely normally and did not stop. Where the whole day disappeared, it remained a mystery.
Palmyra Atoll. Photo by Ethan Roth
Currently, all the islands of Palmyra Atoll are uninhabited. Only on Cooper Island there are from 5 to 25 people permanently from among the employees of various US government agencies, researchers, representatives of the Nature Conservation Organization and the military. They typically live for a short period in a rotational fashion in an erected semi-temporary barrack located close to the WWII runway. The entire infrastructure of Cooper Island, built during the war years - the runway, roads, temporary berths in the Western Lagoon, posts for monitoring nuclear tests, are currently abandoned and completely unusable.
Palmyra Island ... A heavenly place on Earth, or a killer monster?
At first glance, this is a beautiful place, almost an earthly paradise. Everything is here: beautiful landscapes,wonderful climate, magnificent nature, wonderful beaches, azure sea ... But everything is so simple. What secrets does this island hide from us? 
History of the island of Palmyra.
The history of this atoll island began when a tragic incident in 1798 helped open this atoll 1,500 kilometers south of the Hawaiian Islands, in the very center of the Pacific Ocean. The American ship Betsy hit the reefs here. Sharks ate almost everyone on the ship. Only ten people made it to the shore. Only three were saved. And they talked about the mysterious death of the rest. 
The island was named Palmyra, mapped and forgotten about this story. And four years later, another American ship called "Palmyra" sank here. Then there were the Spaniards. They mapped the underwater reefs so that there would be no more wrecks here. But after mapping the reefs to the map, they could no longer be found. 
During the Second World War, an American garrison was stationed on Palmyra Island. The soldiers said that after a few days on the island, people began to develop an unbridled fear of an unknown danger. It came to suicide and fatal fights. The survivors were happy to leave this “paradise” islet in the equatorial part of the Pacific Ocean.
In the future, there were many who wanted to unravel the mystery of the island of Palmyra, but few survived. And those who remained told all about the same mysterious disappearances and violent (seemingly) deaths. 
Palmyra is considered to be the territory of the United States. They even have island coins (like our jubilee ones). 
Today, there are almost no people who want to visit this beautiful island. And a visit to the island of Palmyra since 2011. permitted only with permission from the US Department of Conservation.
They say that the United States has begun to export radioactive waste here. Many scary, sometimes fabulous, mystical stories continue to appear. But the secret of the island still remains unsolved.
The atoll island Palmyra (Pacific Ocean) is a chain of flat limestone islands arranged in an open ring. Their height does not exceed 2 meters. There are coral reefs around the island chain.
Where is Palmyra Island located? The atoll is located in the northern equatorial Pacific Ocean. Coordinates of the island of Palmyra: 5 ° 52´00´´ north latitude and 162 ° 06´00´´ west longitude. Geographically, Palmyra is located practically in the center of the Pacific Ocean.
The role of the islands in history
The first person who could observe these islands was the captain of the American ship Edmund Fanning in 1798. The ship was heading for Asia and nearly crashed upon meeting the atoll. It was only thanks to the captain's painful foreboding that the ship changed its course in time.
The first visitors to these islands were the passengers of the ship "Palmira", which wrecked off these islands in 1802. Only a part of the team escaped and managed to get out on land. It was they who gave this name to the islands.
On April 15, 1862, Palmyra becomes part of the Kingdom of Hawaii. The islands were ruled by Captains Wilkinson and Bent. Until 1898, the atoll was in the possession of different states, but in 1898 the United States forcibly appropriated the Hawaiian Islands, and with them the Palmyra Atoll passed to them.
Later, in 1900, Palmyra again came under the control of the government of Hawaii. During this period, Great Britain began to claim possession of them. However, in 1911, the US Congress re-adopted the act of appropriating the islands of Palmyra to itself.
The opening of the Pnam Canal served as an impetus for the aggravation of territorial disputes. Great Britain built a station there to service the submarine cable passing through the Pacific Ocean, which became an incentive for the desire to take the islands for itself. However, after the dispatch of a warship to the shores of Palmyra in 1912, this territory was finally assigned to the Americans.
In the same year, the islands were bought by Henry Ernest Cooper, who became their full-fledged owner. In July 1913, scientists visited these islands with him and conducted descriptive research.
In 1922, Cooper sold most of the islands to two American businessmen who started a coconut copra production there. The sons of these businessmen, among whom was the actor Leslie Vincent, remained the owners of the main part of the islands for a long time.
Until 2000, the islands were actively used by the US military for various purposes. The deployment of the military in Palmyra was constant. Since 2000, the islands have been used for scientific and nature conservation purposes. In particular, they are positioned as a natural laboratory for the study of various consequences of global warming and the problem of invasions.
Features of the islands
Palmyra Island in the Pacific Ocean consists of 50 small islands with a total coastline length of 14.5 km. There are two lagoons inside the island half-ring. The area of the island of Palmyra (more precisely, the atoll) is 12 square kilometers, and the land area is 3.9 km 2. The islands are surrounded by a coral reef. The atoll itself looks like a rectangle with a width (north-south) of about 2 km and a length (west-east) of about 6 km. The zone of islands occupies only a part of the reef area, the rest is covered by shallow waters with shallow depths. The depth increases in the lagoons located inside the island half-ring.
The largest islands have their own names. The most eastern is the island of Barren. Near it there are small islands without a name. In the central part of the island group, there is a relatively large (the second largest in Palmyra) Kaula island. The western group of islands includes an island named Glavny and Sandy Island, which is divided into 2 parts. In the northern part (the so-called North Arch) there are islands such as Cooper (the largest in Palmyra), Stryne, Aviation Islands, Wyporville and Kewile, as well as smaller islands.
The eastern group includes the islands: Vostochny, Pelican, Papala. The southern part of the archipelago is formed by such islands as Tanager, Engineering, Morskoy, Bird, Paradise.
In comparative proximity to the atoll (1200 km to the north) are located. Although the Palmyra group of islands is uninhabited, it officially belongs to the possessions of the United States. It is subordinate to the Department of Fisheries and Hunting of this country. Palmyra Atoll is still the subject of territorial disputes: it considers this and other atolls of the Pacific Ocean as its territory.
Palmyra Island. Description
The origin of the atoll is associated with the rise to the surface of an ancient volcano, which was active in the region 3-4 million years ago in the Miocene epoch. As a result, a shallow area was formed, which was inhabited by coral polyps. Gradually, from the products of their vital activity, elevations arose, on which woody plants settled.
All islands are flat or low-lying, which makes them sensitive to sea level fluctuations. They are natural sand mounds compressed by time. Underwater and surface coral reefs are widespread on the coast. The relief of the atoll is very thick, dense and solid.
There is practically no hydrography of the islands. The small size and sandy soil exclude the appearance of any significant watercourses. Therefore, not having a supply of fresh water, you can rely only on rainwater.
Climatic features
The location in the center of the Pacific Ocean and in comparative proximity to the equator determines the even and humid oceanic climate typical of equatorial latitudes. The average annual temperature is + 30 °, and the annual precipitation is 4445 mm. The rains have the character of both short-term and long-lasting downpours. During the year, precipitation and temperature do not change much.
Island vegetation and fauna
The islands are covered with powerful herbaceous and shrubby vegetation. There are also coconut palms and one of the subspecies of the basal tree up to 30 m high. In the animal kingdom, seabirds play the greatest role. Green sea turtles are also common along the shores and sandy spits. Domestic pigs, cats, mice and rats, once introduced by newcomers, live on all islands.
Remains of infrastructure
In general, the islands are considered to be practically uninhabited. On Cooper Island alone, there are from 5 to 25 staff members of US organizations on a permanent basis. Also on Cooper Island there are remnants of military infrastructure. There is also one relic - a crumpled helicopter from the Second World War in the thickets of rhododendron.
It is almost impossible to visit the islands for relaxation by the sea and diving. Separate small groups of extreme tourists occasionally visit the archipelago.
Palmyra is not as hospitable as it seems
At first glance, the islands are the embodiment of earthly paradise (in its tropical version), but those who have been there have a completely different opinion on this matter. Surrounded by the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean, the small archipelago is a very inhospitable place. The weather on the islands can suddenly change with tropical rain and thunderstorms. Many sharks live in the salty sea water, and the fish swimming there are often unsuitable for food because of the toxic substances that are saturated with coastal algae. On the island itself, there are many mosquitoes and poisonous lizards.
Many newcomers complained of an inexplicable sense of fear. Various stories tell that mysterious murders, suicides, fights between members of previously friendly collectives and an insistent desire to leave the island as soon as possible took place on the islands. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Palmyra is still an uninhabited place.
Palmyra - the island of disasters
The atoll has repeatedly become the site of shipwrecks. Now their remains rest at the bottom near the islands. The atoll is also known for its strange plane crashes. In one of these cases, a plane crashed near the island went missing. Despite a thorough search, the car was never found.
Another case is also very unusual: an airplane that took off from the runway in good weather, instead of flying on its course, turned in the air in the opposite direction and then flew in that direction until it disappeared behind the horizon. It was also not possible to find the pilots and the plane.
Another plane crash occurred when the pilot was unable to locate the runway and eventually crashed into the water. The sharks quickly tore him apart, with the result that he could not be saved.
Abnormally high non-combat losses forced the military to cease their activities in the atoll.
Conclusion
Thus, Palmyra is an island of mysteries, mysterious incidents and disasters. An island of changeable weather, coconut trees, shallow coral sea and bright whitish sand. The island has no rivers or streams, and yet it is one of the wettest spots in the world. The bright and externally beautiful island of Palmyra, whose photos beckon and fascinate, is actually very inhospitable. Thus, we can conclude that people are not expected on the island, and its best use is to be a nature reserve and a natural testing ground for various scientific research.
