Throughout history, there have been places in the world where people, either singly or in large groups, have vanished without a trace, never to be found again. Here are 15 places known for mysterious disappearances.  Starting with number one below:

1. The Bermuda Triangle

We start with the granddaddy of all mysterious locations, the Bermuda Triangle. This stretch of ocean, spanning from South Florida to Puerto Rico to Bermuda, has been the site of multiple disappearances over the years, including the vanishing of the USS Cyclops with 309 crewmen aboard in 1918. Both planes and ships have gone missing, never to be recovered.

2. The Michigan Triangle

Not as famous as its southern cousin, the Michigan Triangle extends between Michigan and Wisconsin, and has been the location of a number of prominent disappearances. Perhaps the most famous is Northwest Airlines Flight 2501, which in 1950 flowing into the triangle with 58 passengers and never emerged.

3. The Bennington Triangle

Yet another triangle, though this one is landlocked. The Bennington Triangle, located in southwestern Vermont, marks the last known location of five people who went missing between 1945 and 1950. The most bizarre of the five was the vanishing of a man who was riding a moving bus, who disappeared without anyone noticing. The people who vanished ranged in age from an 8 year-old boy to a 74 year-old woman.

4. The Nevada Triangle

Our final triangular entry on the list, the Nevada Triangle marks a 25,000 square mile stretch of desert and mountains in the state of Nevada. This desolate stretch is in the vicinity of the notorious Area 51 military zone, and has been the site of a number of disappearances. The most famous is fairly recent, when famed aviator and adventurer Steve Fossett in 2007. Fossett flew into the triangle in a small plane and vanished without a trace, despite a massive search effort.

5. Roanoke Colony

Stretching back in time to the beginning of European colonization of the New World, Roanoke is one of the earliest recorded mysterious disappearances. The colony was founded by English colonists in 1585. The governor of the colony sailed back to England to get more supplies, but upon concluding their return travel three years later, the colony was abandoned. Only the word ‘CROATOAN’, the name of a tribe of local native Americans, etched into a tree gave any indication as to what might have happened to the colony.

6. The Sargasso Sea

The Sargasso Sea lies in the Atlantic ocean, and is the site of one of the most famous ghost ships in recorded history. The Mary Celeste was discovered in 1872, completely deserted. The ship still carried abundant fuel and food, with no indication as to where the crew went or what happened to them.

7. Lake Superior

By far the deepest of the Great Lakes, Lake Superior has been the location of a number of disappearances over the centuries. In fact, more than 200 ships have sunk beneath the cold surface of Lake Superior, many of which have never been recovered or found.

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8. The South Atlantic Anomaly

The Van Allen radiation belt comes closest to the Earth near the Atlantic Ocean near Brazil. This area is bombarded with protons and energies reaching over 10 million volts. The anomaly has been blamed for the crash of Air France flight 447, in which 228 people died.

9. America’s National Parks

Over the more than 84 million acres of land comprising America’s national parks, more than 1,100 people to travel throug the parks have gone missing in the past 150 years. Many of these people were experienced hikers, yet went mysteriously missing and never were found.

10. Highway 16

Located in British Columbia, Canada, this stretch of highway has been the location of a number of disappearances, mostly young women. The first to go missing was a woman named Monica Ingas, who disappeared in 1975. Since that time, 17 other people have vanished along Highway 16.

11. Lake Anjikuni

Located way up in Nunavut, Canada, a fur trapper stumbled upon a small village near the lake which was completely deserted in 1930. Strangely, many dwellings had pots of food hung over now-cold fires and evidence of chores seemingly abandoned in mid effort. He also found dead dogs which had been tied up starved to death due to neglect. There was no indication as to where the villagers went, or why.

12. Flannan Isles

The Flannan Isles are located off the coast of Scotland, and the location of lighthouse. In 1900, a ship noticed that there were no lights coming from the lighthouse, and sent a crew to investigate. The three lighthouse keepers were gone, and their whereabouts or what happened to them were never discovered.

13. The Devil Sea

Near Japan is a stretch of water called the Devil Sea with a long history of treacherous waters and suspicious disappearances. In 1952, the Japanese government commissioned a team of 31 to sail into the Devil Sea to investigate. That team was never seen or heard from again, vanishing into the Devil Sea.

14. Suvia Bay, Turkey

One of the stranger events in World War I was the disappearance of an entire battalion of English soldiers in Suvia Bay, Turkey. A strange cloud was reported to have shrouded a hillside, and a battalion of English soldiers marched into it and never returned. After the war, the English demanded of the Turkish government the return of what they presumed were POWs, but the Turkish had no record of those soldiers ever being captured.

15. Mesa Verde, Colorado

An ancient people built tremendously complex dwellings carved into the Rocky Mountains more than a thousand years before Europeans colonized the New World. They then abandoned their dwellings for no reason that anyone has been able to determine. Some speculate that the inhabitants returned to a nomadic lifestyle, but why they would abandon their permanent dwellings is unexplained.