Holes That Have Taken The Most Human Lives

The term "deadly holes" begs a good, Freudian giggle. But as Mark Twain once said, "the secret source of all humor itself is not joy but sorrow." The holes in question — caves, sinkholes, even wells — can easily turn into death traps. People fall down wells, sinkholes swallow whole buildings, and caving can be one of the deadliest pursuits out there. Spelunkers have to navigate breathtakingly narrow passages, underground streams, subterranean pools of near-freezing water called sumps that can be yards deep, ledges, pits (the list goes on) and do it all in the dark, isolated from the nearest emergency services. Some of these structures, natural or man-made, are literally cases of "you go in and you don't come out."

The following are some holes with a nasty habit for taking human lives — and not just by accident. Stories include murder and anti-Semitism to gang violence and genocide. Here are some holes that have taken the most human lives.

Located in the Yorkshire Dales National Park in northern England, the Mossdale Caverns were first explored in 1941 by spelunker Bob Leakey. According to the park's website, Mossdale tracks over six miles underground, with several passages only a few inches high, making the cavern a challenge even for professional cavers. But all the skill in the world could not prevent disaster when, in 1967, seven spelunkers went in ... right before a downpour.

A retrospective in The Independent describes how the caverns, naturally riven with sumps even on dry days, flooded within minutes. One caver turned back and lived, but the other six were swept away into the deepest recesses. Despite a headline-making recovery effort, the danger was too great; The Independent reports the bodies remain in the cave to this day.

Mossdale permanently highlighted the dangers of spelunking. Today, the Council of Northern Caving Clubs clearly warns "Mossdale Caverns is a seriously flood-prone cave, with passages only a few minutes into the entrance filling to the roof in flood and passages further into the cave sumping with only a small rise in river levels. Mossdale must only be considered following at least two days of dry weather and with an absolute certainty of no rain during your trip."

Settled by the Anglo-Saxons as early as the fifth century, Norwich is one of those English cities in which no matter where an archeologist digs, something will be found. But as the BBC reports, researchers in 2004 were stunned when they uncovered a medieval well containing 17 skeletons. Dating to the 12th or 13th centuries, the well contained the bones of 11 children ranging in ages from 2 to 15, with the rest being adult men and women. According to the BBC, the find baffled scientists until DNA revealed the remains belonged to an extended family of Jews, and a grim chapter in Norwich history came to light.

A follow-up article in the Forward by Renee Ghert-Zand details how Norwich had a large Jewish population by 1135, much of it centered around the well. Ghert-Zand details how these early English Jews were invited by King Stephen to work in banking and lending money, a common economic practice today but one that was then banned by Christianity. Financing-for-profit inevitably led to conflicts between Jews and other communities that culminated in flat-out massacres; as the BBC and Forward note, the bodies in the well, thrown in head-first, are presumed an anti-Semitic ethnic cleansing. A memorial now stands at a Jewish graveyard in the city.

Atlas Obscura describes how the Roman Well of Belgrade, in modern-day Serbia, most likely got its name via a bit of "Glories of Rome" spin-doctoring by officials of the much-later Austro-Hungarian Empire. The piece goes on to say the well was probably built in the early 1700s as a straightforward water source, but other sources say the well is much older and much darker.

For example, Belgrade Live reports the well was already constructed by 1494, the same year 37 traitors to the city were thrown in, left to starve, and then tossed a knife so they could kill and eat each other. Astonishingly, this was not an uncommon practice at the time when you wanted to execute someone slowly. Medieval Europe was dotted with specially made dungeons called oubliettes, all of which amounted to dropping people into a particularly deep hole, forgetting about them, and letting dehydration or hunger do the rest.

But the sinister story of the Roman Well doesn't end there. Balkan Insight recounts how a would-be assassin was thrown in and left to die in 1882, and Atlas Obscura lists an incident in 1954 when a woman was killed and hefted in by her mentally disturbed husband.

The cave of Phnom Sampeau was just one site involved in the Cambodian Genocide, aka the Killing Fields. A study by the University of Minnesota states 1.5 to 3 million people died in an orgy of murder orchestrated by the Khmer Rouge, a Marxist regime in power from 1975 to 1979. As History documents, dictator Pol Pot attempted to create a "master race" by removing intellectuals and other city-dwellers to ill-conceived social engineering projects in the countryside that were, in effect, death sentences. Almost 40% of the 1975 population of 7.5 million was wiped out as enemies of the state or died from starvation, illnesses, or overwork. But officials still had to get rid of the bodies.

Located near the city of Battambang, Phnom Sampeau was perfect. A deep cave with a natural skylight, Atlas Obscura reports that victims were bludgeoned and thrown in, or pushed in directly. It is not recorded how many people died at Phnom Sampeau, but a memorial composed of stacked skulls commemorates the tragedy. Atlas Obscura notes that, eager to move on from the past, locals will highlight the temples and monastery at the site and the cave's latest incarnation as a bat sanctuary and monkey habitat.

An article at ThoughtCo describes how study of the Maya of Central America only became serious research in the early 1900s, and at the time, historians were dead-set on the idea the civilization was composed of peaceful time-worshippers. In 2021, the picture is more ... complicated.

Not far from the magnificent ruins of Chichén Itzá in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula is a flooded sinkhole the maps call the Sacred Cenote, but colloquially is the "Well of Sacrifice." A piece at Ancient Origins records the site as being sacred to Chaac, the Maya god of rain and an extremely important persona to an agrarian society. According to Forbes, dredging revealed the bones of at least 200 individuals of all sexes, but with half being children between the ages of 4 and 6. The article does clarify to say some of the victims were already dead (and even disarticulated) when their remains were thrown into the cenote, but many others were alive. Ancient Origins notes a 72-foot drop to the water, a survivable fall. But the same water that cushioned the landing almost certainly assured death by drowning.

Forbes notes this was not an isolated cult center, either: Mineral analysis of the remains show victims were procured from all over southern modern-day Mexico.

World War II practically wrote the book on atrocity — the ghastly tally of the Nazi death camps include not only 6 million Jews murdered but also 3 million Catholics (via the Catholic News Agency), up to 500,000 Roma, 10,000 homosexuals — the list continues. But the Holocaust is also so overwhelming that many smaller massacres get overlooked, like one at Fosse Ardeatine, or the Ardeatine Caves, in 1944.

The Jewish Virtual Library gives a virtual play-by-play: Just outside Rome, the Fosse Ardeatine, actually a catacomb, became the grave of 335 Italians and Jews in retaliation for an Italian resistance bombing the day before that resulted in the killing of several policemen and bystanders. The attack would later claim 42, but when the death toll for the police hit 33, the reprisal order came. Kill 10 Italian citizens for every one dead policeman.

But, according to the Holocaust Encyclopedia, somebody couldn't do math. Initially, death-row inmates were marked, but there weren't enough so other prisoners were included. That still didn't meet the 330 quota, so random Italians were pulled off the street. However, by the time the Germans reached the Fosse Ardeatine, they had five extra victims. Rather than let five go, the Encyclopedia relates how the Nazis assassinated all 335 in the catacombs and then dynamited the site.