Scariest Swimming Pools

There’s nothing more relaxing or refreshing than taking a dip in the pool on a scorching hot day. But not all pools have the same azure appeal! Around the world, some total psychopaths have built their baths teetering on the edge of cliffs, perched on the very tops of skyscrapers, and even dug them deep underground! Let's dive into some of the most terrifying swimming pools around the world!

The Montalcino House Pool

In the quiet hilltop town of Montalcino, Italy, there lies a big empty house made from an imposing façade of old stone. If you dared to step inside, you’d find a swathe of cold grey rock and eerily plain marble features, like a bleak scene plucked out of a horror film. Venturing even further in, you’d eventually discover a mysterious unmarked door. And it’s behind this door, down an ominous set of stairs, that a strange, isolated body of water lies in wait!

This long, underground pool is the very definition of claustrophobia; there’s no natural light, only an eerie artificial glow from beneath the surface, making the narrow, tunnel-like room look more like an underwater crypt than a relaxing pool!

Fortunately, this isn’t the lair of anything sinister. Rather, it’s the work of architects Pignattai and Vossaert and lighting designer Davide Groppi, who worked hard to recover and restore this once abandoned house. Supposedly, the low lighting is designed to invite and welcome people into different parts of the home. But who is it supposed to be inviting to, exactly? Vampires?

The Library Pool

If you love reading books outside in the sunshine, then the Library Resort on the island of Koh Samui, in Thailand, might just be your dream getaway. With a distinctly literary theme, smaller guest rooms are called pages with the larger suites called chapters. But the resort also hosts a more malevolent looking attraction. It looks like someone had a really gruesome accident in this pool, much more serious than peeing in it!

The Library Hotel Koh Samui | Thailand by GayAsiaTraveler

Fortunately, the blood-red color is just a creepily clever illusion. An intricate pattern of orange, yellow, and red mosaic tiles adorn the inside of the swimming pool, making the water within seem like it’s been tinged blood-red! The illusion only works because the depth of the pool is just right. All water has a slight blue tint to it, so, despite the tiles, the pool would actually appear blue like any other if it were much, much deeper.

Azure Swimming Pool In Pripyat, Chernobyl

When the reactor in Chernobyl’s Nuclear Power Plant famously exploded back in 1986, deadly radioactive fallout was flung for miles across Ukraine, Russia, and even reached as far as Canada! Considered the worst nuclear disaster in history, the area surrounding Chernobyl was immediately evacuated. But the levels of radioactive contamination were so fatal that, for the most part, the area’s been left abandoned ever since.

This pool in the nearby town of Pripyat, however, remained open for 12 years after the disaster. But why would anyone hang around in such dangerous conditions for a swim?

Well, Pripyat wasn’t completely abandoned. A team of heroic people, called liquidators, were tasked with decontaminating the town at severe risk to their own health. They worked long, hard hours doing their very best to limit the damage caused by the huge nuclear blast. So, can you really blame them for wanting a relaxing dip in the pool at the end of the day?

Following a health inspection in 1998 the pool was shut down for good. And today, it sits in spooky silence as a sad and scary reminder of the once bustling community that lived here. But after the site was declared safe in 2011, it became something of a dark, alternative tourist attraction. Though you'd doubt these tourists will be bringing their bathing suits along any time soon!

Devil's Pool At Victoria Falls

Before you can reach this next petrifying pool in Zambia, you’ll need to traverse a treacherous rock-strewn path until you come across running water. Then you’ll know you’ve reached the river Zambezi. From here, simply jump in and swim down current towards the massive, crashing Victoria Falls and try not to think about what would happen if you fell off the edge! Though, that might be hard, because the location of this pool is right on the precipice of the waterfall!

The strangely calm area of water is separated from the shocking 328-foot drop below by a thin lip of rock that’s been slowly eroded away over thousands of years. So, it’s no surprise that this place has become known as the Devil’s Pool! Not that that stops thrill-seeking tourists from jumping in without a care in the world.

Personally, I’d be too worried about that lip of rock breaking off, and sending me plummeting down with it! And considering more than 100 million gallons of water rocket over the Falls every minute, it’s just a matter of time before that lip goes hurtling over the edge as well. I don’t think I’d want to be posing for a selfie there when that happened!

Holiday Inn Pool, Shanghai

If you’re scared of heights, you might want to avoid the modern Holiday Inn in Shanghai, which boasts a swimming pool that is definitely not for the faint of heart.

On the 24th floor of the towering building, the pool juts out from the side and hangs over the streets below, which are a dizzying 230 feet down! And if you thought that was scary, it’s also got a glass bottom, so the people below can watch as you desperately try to swim back to safety. Or is that just what I’d be doing?

Of course, the pool really is safe, but it sure doesn’t look like it! The design is cantilevered, which means it’s made from a single long beam that’s only supported at one end. While this sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, it’s actually a strong structure and is often used in bridges! But, even with this knowledge, I still don’t fancy stepping foot in it.

Nemo-33

If somebody mentions the name Nemo to you, you probably start thinking of a friendly talking clownfish, not a terrifying water-filled trench that looks like it descends into the darkest depths of hell. This diving facility, called Nemo-33, doesn’t actually lead to Satan, but it does drop down a death-defying 113ft. That’s about as deep as a 10-story building is high!

Divers come to Nemo-33 because it lets them practice their deep-water diving skills without having to make a long trip out to sea. The relatively shallow upper pool features a circular pit that, if you’re not too scared, you can follow all the way down into the inky blackness below. And at the very bottom there are simulated caves and underwater tunnels that sound like a claustrophobe’s worst nightmare.

Dive Into Belgium's Nemo 33 Deep Water Pool | Travel Channel by Travel Channel

But what does it feel like to be more than 100 feet below the surface of the water? Well, at that daunting depth you have about four times more pressure pushing down on you than you’d usually have on land. This restricts the amount of air your lungs can breathe in, as they’re squeezed by the immense weight of all that water above you. It could be easy to panic!

However, with the right amount of training and experience it’s still a safe diving depth for most people. Though it’s probably a good idea to start out in the shallow section first, you don’t want to throw yourself in at the deep end!

Marina Bay Sands Hotel Infinity Pool

The Skyline of the lavish city of Singapore is a glittering collection of truly spectacular sights. But it’s the Marina Bay Sands Hotel that boasts one of the most impressive, and wettest, attractions around. Sitting proudly on the rooftop, this infinity pool once held the record for being the highest swimming pool in the world!

At a jaw dropping 650 feet high, the pool is perched on the 57th floor, giving swimmers the most amazing view of the city below! What’s more, it stretches almost 500 feet from one side of the $6 billion hotel to the other, that’s almost 3 Olympic swimming pools in length!

However, as impressive as this structure is, it’s also terrifying. Because this once record-breaking pool doesn’t have any rails! Or at least, not any in the traditional sense. There is a protective ditch running around the edge of the pool, but looking over the small barrier at the cityscape below still sends a shiver up my spine!

Marina Bay Sands Singapore Rooftop Pool by firststrike

And like the height wasn’t daunting enough, these hotel guests are swimming up so high that they occasionally witness lightning from their pool-top perch!If that’s not a sign to get out of the pool, then I don’t know what is!

Lightning Infinity Pool Marina Bay Sands by Max Osbon

Hotel Hubertus

At Hotel Hubertus in Italy, visitors can choose to enjoy a relaxing sauna experience, a workout in the gym, or a swim in one of the most terrifying pools in the world! The 82-foot-long marvel juts out from the very top of the hotel, leaving it levitating around 40 ft in the air.

Compared to Shanghai’s sky-high pool, this is hardly off the ground. So, this design isn’t all that scary, or at least it wouldn’t be, if only it weren’t entirely supported by what looks like a few lone tree trunks! Yes, four spindly wooden poles are all that stand in the way of these swimmers becoming a few flattened mancakes. And just to remind swimmers that their fate hangs in the balance of these trees, there’s a glass panel in the bottom so they can look down at the cold, hard ground that’s 40 ft below.

Fancy testing the limits of your bravery? Well, for a whopping $400 a night, you too can slip on a pair of speedos and investigate whether those beams are strong enough to support all the holiday pounds you’ve put on!

Rooftop Pool Collapse

Chilling in the pool can be a highlight of any vacation. But what occurred with one particular pool at a beachfront condo in Brazil one night in April 2021 was far from relaxing.

Just before 10pm, residents of the Parador building heard a big bang, and, rushing to their windows, they were met with a terrifying sight. It turned out, the 75-foot-long pool on the rooftop of the building had collapsed, sending thousands of gallons of water crashing onto the carpark below!

Crazy, right? Luckily, nobody was hurt, and all 270 guests were evacuated from the building and rehoused for free. But some of those people had used the pool mere hours before the floor gave way! Maybe you’re braver than I am, but if pools collapsing is something I now need to worry about, I might give up swimming altogether!

Overflowing China's Dead Sea

Despite its name, China’s Dead Sea resort is far from lifeless. Back in 2013, the country was hit by a heatwave so extreme that Shanghai experienced its hottest July in 140 years. And in Daying County, temperatures soared above 100°F! This led to thousands of locals flocking to the resort in desperate need of a cool, refreshing dip. Giant inflatables in hand, adults and children alike all jumped into the crowded indoor pool, and before long the situation was overflowing, quite literally.

Despite an impressive capacity of 10,000 people, the pool was overwhelmed by the sheer number of hot humans, who totaled about 15,000 before admissions were finally disallowed. There’s no way that pool was filled with just water after the influx of sweltering, sweaty people. Never mind the hygiene though, it’s a miracle everybody escaped with their lives!

With that level of overcrowding, if you slipped under the surface, there’s a chance you might never come back up. I don’t know about you but drowning in a sticky sea of other people’s body fluid is pretty low on my bucket list.

The Queen Mary's Haunted Pool

Resting in Long Beach Harbor, California, lies a ship that, in its heyday, was bigger, faster, and more powerful than the Titanic. The Queen Mary is a colossal cruise ship built way back in 1936 with an impressive history as a World War II vessel! Although, it was this wartime involvement that led to it being the site of at least 49 daunting deaths! And even though the ship was retired more than 50 years ago, it’s far from quiet today.

Docked up as a tourist attraction, as many as 150 spirits supposedly lurk on the ship, and the First-Class swimming pool is one of the hotspots for the ghastly ghouls.

It’s long been devoid of any water, but that doesn’t seem to put them off! Visitors to the ship claim they’ve seen women in 1930s style bathing suits wandering around the poolside, as well as a young girl clutching onto a teddy bear. What’s more, the sounds of splashing have been heard echoing around the dark chamber! I wouldn’t be sticking around to find out, as this place is undeniably creepy whether you believe in phantoms or not. So, I can safely say this is one swimming pool you wouldn’t catch me dead in!

Crocosaurus Cove's Cage Of Death

Do you like the idea of being locked in a tank underwater, encircled by huge, hungry crocodiles? Well, if you do, Crocosaurus Cove in Australia can arrange it for you! Visitors to the reptile park relish in the terror of its main attraction, enticingly called the “Cage of Death”. The cage itself is an acrylic tank that you climb inside, before the super kind park staff lock you in.

Then, you’re lowered into a pool with a colossal crocodile, just in time to watch the 16-foot beast rip and tear its latest meal to shreds. So, you can observe as the crocodile begrudgingly eats the meat it’s been given, all the while eyeing the much tastier morsel floating in the cage nearby!

Thankfully, there have never been any major incidents at the park, but about ten years ago the cage did break and two people were left stuck inside! Luckily, staff responded fast and got them out without any harm. It’s a good job they acted so snappily!

The Great Blue Hole

Although it’s not exactly a pool, this massive, mysterious circle of water off the coast of Belize in Central America has attracted daring divers for years. At almost 1000 feet across and over 400 feet deep, it’s the world’s biggest sinkhole, and has been imaginatively named The Great Blue Hole.

Sinkholes are caused by a collapse in the surface layer of rock, often due to erosion. When the rock collapses, it can unveil underground, and underwater, caverns! Here, the sinkhole descends so deep that sunlight from above can’t reach the inky blackness at the bottom.

But that’s not the scariest thing about this giant hell hole, because there are hundreds, if not thousands of sharks that patrol this area too! Thankfully, the sharks only swim where it’s light, so you probably wouldn’t get a Jaws-style surprise if you decided to venture into the darkness.

But scientists have discovered something far more unsettling than sharks down there in the gloom. Using sonar technology, they mapped the entire underwater pit and found tracks at the very bottom that they can’t identify! So, something has been lurking on the pitch black of the ocean floor, and we have no idea what it is.

Market Square Tower Pool

500 feet above the busy streets of Houston, Texas, people can swim in a pool that’s far away from all the hustle and bustle down below. It actually sounds quite relaxing, if you ignore the fact that the bottom of the pool is completely clear and juts out from the 42nd floor of the residential Market Square Tower! The transparent base is curved, with no hard edges, and makes it seem as if you’re really floating in the sky. I was sure this brave man was about to fall straight off the edge!

Market Square Tower by Eugen Gen

But although it looks like you could fall through the floor at any moment, it’s made from 8-inch-thick acrylic glass, so the chances of an accident happening are incredibly slim. Acrylic glass is stronger than normal glass and transmits light at a similar wavelength to water. That’s why the view through the pool’s bottom is crystal-clear! So, I’d be more worried about suffering a wardrobe malfunction and flashing my birthday suit to the whole world!

Rooftop Infinity Pool With 360-Degree Views

Imagine a swimming pool so gut-wrenchingly high that you could see the whole of London city glittering like a toy town below you. Now imagine this pool makes up the entire rooftop of a skyscraper, with transparent walls and 360-degree views of the city! So you’re getting an idea of the hair-raising concept that’s in store for England’s capital in the next few years.

While this insane infinity pool is only in the planning stage, if built it will be the first ever of its kind. And it’s planned to tower over the cityscape at a whopping 656 feet high, a whole 66 feet taller than the neighboring Gherkin tower! Much like Market Square Tower’s pool, the whole thing will be made from acrylic glass, both the walls and the bottom. So, it’ll look like you’re floating high above the city, with nothing in between you and a 55-story fall.

But hold on a moment, just how are swimmers meant to get in and out of this sky-high swimming pool? According to Compass Pools, the designers, swimmers would enter and exit the pool via a rotating spiral staircase that rises up from the pool floor. This design couldn’t get any crazier if it tried!

Four Seasons Safari Lodge Pool

Across the baking hot plains of Tanzania, in East Africa, a plethora of dangerous animals wander the rolling wilderness. From enormous elephants to roaring lions, it’s a risky place to explore on your own. Knowing that, would you be brave enough to hang out in a pool that directly overlooks one of the animals’ favorite watering holes without any kind of protection?

Well, The Four Seasons Safari Lodge inside Serengeti National Park has just such a pool a mere 25 feet away from a spot the elephants love, with no fences or barriers of any kind! The pool is so close that, if it weren’t for the difference in color, it would be hard to tell where it ends, and the watering hole begins!

Considering crocodiles lurk in the waters of the Serengeti though, I’d be worried about getting too close. Moreover, although rare, leopards and lions prowl the area too, searching for fresh meat. And nothing ruins a day in the pool quite like being eaten alive!

Pulpit Rock Pool

A huge, 2000-foot-tall cliff, a bone-breaking plummet into the freezing cold waters below, and nothing to stop you hurtling off the edge to your icy doom. Does that sound like a good place to build a swimming pool? I don’t think so either, but the people who designed this next monstrosity are confident in their vision!

Pulpit Rock, in Southern Norway, is a tourist attraction in its own right, where people flock just to take in the amazing views of the surrounding Lysefjord. But back in 2019, architectural studio Hariya Atak proposed transforming the rockface to the image below. The structure bolted onto the cliff face itself is actually a five-star hotel, complete with several snazzy balconies that are guaranteed to give a great view of the area.

The crowning jewel though is the long, thin strip of a pool jutting out at the bottom. Or the world’s most death-defying water feature, depending on how you look at it. The entire oblong structure is planned to be completely see-through, giving a heart wrenching view of the chasm below to anyone brave enough to swim in it. Just picture yourself doing a forward stroke over this.

London's Sky Pool

London. The city of Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and a super scary transparent “sky pool”.

This attraction only opened in 2021 and is a joint venture by engineers, aquarium designers and even architects who worked on the Sydney Opera House! That explains the sleek, modern look. But as inviting as that water is, it’s the view through the bottom that people come here for. The clear acrylic floor gives swimmers a perfect view of the 100 ft drop below them, and with clear sides too, the breadth of the view is unparalleled.

Of course, it’s not for everyone, particularly people who suffer from vertigo or common sense. But as long as there are no more than 19 people in it at a time, it’s designers claim it’s just as safe as being on the ground. Does that mean if 20 people go in, the whole thing will come crashing down to earth in a big splash of water and swimsuits? I know it rains a lot in Britain, but that would really surprise anyone unfortunate enough to be standing underneath!

The Pool Of Death, Hawaii

The next time you plan a vacation, I don’t recommend heading over to Kipu Falls, on the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i. This small, tranquil looking waterfall was a popular tourist trap for years. Nowadays though, the area has been blocked off because it leads to a natural pool so dangerous it’s been nicknamed “The Pool of Death”.

The small cove can be reached if you jump from the falls at the right spot, and in good weather it looks like an idyllic place to go for a bathe. 10-foot-tall walls of volcanic rock surround it and block the powerful ocean waves for the most part.

On good days, the pool is calm. But on bad days, when seas are rough, waves can reach humongous heights of 15 feet and come crashing violently over the volcanic walls! In seconds, the cove can turn from heaven to hell for anyone unlucky enough to be caught within.

Dangers of Queen's Bath Kauai by heshamg2005

So, this is one terrifying pool that I can’t recommend to even the bravest thrill seekers out there. If it’s named “The Pool of Death”, it’s probably a good idea to stay away from it.

If you were amazed at the scariest swimming pools, you might want to read about the most amazing pools in the world. Thanks for reading!