17 of the Wildest Real-Life Booby Traps

‘Some jungles in Vietnam still have spike pits, tree traps and explosives’
17 of the Wildest Real-Life Booby Traps

First of all, get your mind out of the gutter, you absolute children. I won’t be having anyone chuckle at the name “booby traps.” Making jokes like, “Don’t you mean a mammogram?” You should be ashamed of yourself. 

The booby trap, whether it be arrows from the wall or a classic rolling boulder, belongs to a category of dangers that we thought were going to be a problem as a kid. We were sure our life would take us in a direction that involved avoiding pressure plates, only to end up in a co-working space where the only traps are small-talk conversations around the seltzer fridge. It’s enough to make you wonder, are there real-life booby traps in the world’s ruins? 

One Redditor posed this same question, and historians, archaeologists and simply self-confident internet users all gave their answers.

hedgster a 4y ago Valley of the kings has a stair well in one of the tombs where they purposely made the stairwell steep and purposely made steps at odd heights to throw someone's balance off allowing them to tumble down the stair well and at the bottom is a deep put so they break a limb and are stuck with no way out.
alexlongfur . 4y ago Edited 4y ago Off the top of my head, I know some tombs in South America have cinnabar sprinkled in them. No clue if anyone has died from it though Edit: TIL y'all are reading this as Cinnabon and not mercury sulfide crystals
ThatScottishBesterd 4y ago Honestly, any booby trap that was still functioning after thousands of years would be of far greater archeological value than whatever artifact Indiana was attempting to steal from the tomb. And yes, booby traps in tombs are totally a thing. Although they generally don't resemble anything you'd see in an Indiana Jones movie.
DaemonDrayke 4y ago Edited 4y ago I was never able to confirm this, but a cultural anthropology professor I was taught by in college used to be a field specialist on sites in Central America. Не was a larger than life kind of dude who lived life to the fullest, you'll see why. Не told us a story how when walking in to what could best be described as a catacomb he got sprayed with a fine dust after he stepped on a pressure plate. Luckily his student and other workers got him before he suffocated. Turns out it was
UrbanLegendd 4y ago Maybe I missed it, but the tomb of china's first emperor fits this category. The one with the terracotta warriors. They never actually got to the dude because of the lake of mercury.
SwimmaLBC 4y ago Oak Island in Canada supposedly has a secret treasure buried deep down. There were many different kinds of traps and stuff that have made digging up the island a nightmare. Several people have gone bankrupt trying to uncover it. There's also tales about a curse. The curse is said to have originated more than a century ago and states that seven men will die in the search for the treasure before it is found. To date, six men have died in their efforts to find the treasure.
Injest_alkahest a 4y ago I've heard a theory that King Tuts tomb and the curse associated with it (sudden mysterious deaths of initial archeologists soon after inspecting the tomb) may have been some form of toxic micro dust, that was laid across and throughout the entire tomb, and when the seal was broken and air flow kicked up the dust, it was inhaled and wreaked havoc on people who came into contact with it. Again, I have zero evidence to back this up, it is something I heard theorized, but also don't underestimate the Egyptians for being able to create
. 4y ago A part of Ancient Egypt had made a huge pit of snakes to protect a tomb before and the snakes bred to where there were King Cobras everywhere. It nearly killed two but medicine and some survival instincts saved them. At least if this book I read it correct but I am not sure.
JackPitman . 4y ago There is a toxic powder in some Egyptian tombs called Hematite Powder. Its very sharp and can kill you if you breath in allot of it. It also is very irritating to the skin.
renniechops . 4y ago Appalachian and NorCal landmine fields around Marijuana grows are definitely a real thing. There are waterproof duffles of cash buried or stashed nearby if that counts.
BeazyDoeslt . 4y ago The first emperor of China is buried in a mound style pyramid full of booby traps and mercury rivers. The gov doesn't want to go in and get rekt, so they forbid anyone from trying to enter.
BlackKnight6660 . 4 4y ago | heard somewhere about some tombs having massive lakes of algae infested waters. something about the waters left them incredibly acidic or something, basically falling in it would cause seriously gruesome injuries.
Private4160 4y ago As an archaeologist I can tell you every site is a booby trap when you account for how drunk students get on a field school. On a more serious note: the biggest dangers to our health are injuries from improper footing, falling material, bad control of tools, sometimes vehicles. More tangibly it's disease from biting insects, some locations wildlife is a factor. The only potentially dangerous stuff to dig up that I've either encountered myself or known people who have is disease from preserved biological remains and unexploded ordinance from past conflicts.
myimmortalstan 4y ago Edited 4y ago There's this story of two hoarder brothers (we'll call them J and К, cause I can't remember their names) who lived in an apartment together. J was disabled, and fully dependent on К for having basic needs met. Because of the sheer amount of stuff they had everywhere, the place was basically booby trapped (they may have placed some traps intentionally, but I don't remember exactly). They were also very reclusive, and seldom left or allowed anyone in. Someone in their building called for a wellness check for one reason for another, and they
kelvinwithac 4y ago . Edited 4y ago Some jungles in Vietnam still have spike pits, tree traps, and explosives. In some instances, there are active pen traps and watch bombs.
Galemianah . 4y ago Other than the fungus that killed the people that found King Tut's tomb, I can't seem to think of any.
4y ago There was an Egyptian tomb where a corridor went downhill by about 60 feet, and then uphill again. The engineers put dead animals and fresh plants etc in there before they sealed it up. And so the decline/depression filled with CO2. It stayed like that for centuries. In modern times, when they unearthed the tomb, they found human skeletons centuries younger than the tomb, where people had died trying to get in.

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