Secret Rooms In Famous Places You Never Knew Existed

Dark corridors. Hidden rooms. Secrets behind the bookshelves. Stories are full of secret rooms and doorways, but real life isn't that great, is it? Turns out, it is, and there are plenty of cool secrets lurking behind the walls of places you've known about forever. Such as ...

Disney World is the most magical place on Earth and, like all magical places, it's full of secrets. Most of these are the sort that ruin the magic — do you really want to see what's underneath those costumes? — but some are amazing, and almost as good as the rest of the park combined. Like Cinderella's secret suite.

Think about that castle. Would you believe there's a full on hotel room up there, complete with stained-glass windows, gold-tinted everything, a light-up jacuzzi, and the single comfiest-looking couch ever made? Plus, it's one you and your family can stay in? For free? Well there is! Sorta. You can't book it, and you can't go visit ... unless a Disney employee picks you out of the crowd to stay there. How it's done is seemingly random, but if you're chosen, you're whisked away to a magical room that's literally at the heart of the Magic Kingdom. Just think, you can take the most magical leak of your life, inside the representation of the happiest place on Earth!

Vatican City is the setting for dozens of espionage capers. It's old, full of mysteries, and depending on who you are, it's the city closest to God. But, like God, it has dozens of secrets. For one, underneath Vatican City there's an entire huge city of the dead — a catacomb that you can visit. Yes, underneath the pope's little city-state, there's a huge necropolis! Buried there, supposedly, is the first ever pope, Peter, probably just milling about there, being dead, as one does.

The necropolis doesn't match up exactly with the Vatican as it is now, but there's a huge intersection, enough that if you visit and look down, you can take comfort in knowing that you're walking on someone's grave, maybe even one of Jesus' disciples. So ... wipe your feet first. Just in case.

Where's the coolest place you could imagine living? For a lot of people, it'd be Paris, the city of lights. It's gorgeous, romantic, and filled with history. Also it's got that sick architectural masterpiece, the Eiffel Tower, in the middle of it. Well, what if we told you that at one point, someone actually lived in the Tower, looking down over all of Paris, in one of the most envied apartments in the world?

It's true! At the top of the Eiffel Tower is a secret apartment, only ever lived in by one person: the man who created the Eiffel Tower, Gustave Eiffel. He had a small apartment up there that people basically offered their souls for, but no matter how much wealth or power the person wielded, Gustave turned them down. If you built your own home a thousand feet higher than everybody built theirs, you wouldn't give it up either.

That's not to say he was a miser with the space — he frequently hosted others there, including other famous geniuses, like Thomas Edison. You still can't rent it, but nowadays you can at least visit the apartment, making you ten thousand times cooler and luckier than a bunch of rich, dead French people. Congrats!

Picture this: Nicolas Cage, on his next big adventure to find the history of America, uncovers a secret room hidden behind Mount Rushmore! HA, how outlandish — Nicolas Cage isn't real! But the secret room behind Mt. Rushmore? Oh, that's definitely real.

Behind the head of Abraham Lincoln is a chamber designed to hold the history of America. It's now locked out of sight and, unfortunately, too hard and treacherous to reach by foot, so no tourists can get to it. But inside that chamber is where the creator of Mount Rushmore began documenting the entire history of the United States, dying before he finished. After that, others came in and finished it, sealing it afterwards to keep it safe for future visitors, and definitely not because the creator of Mount Rushmore hid a dark secret in those walls. Definitely not that.

Although, who knows what secrets are back there? If you're reading this, National Treasure producers, we've got your next movie right here!

In Washington Square Park, in New York, there is a huge arc. You know this — most people do. But what you didn't know is that there's a secret attic in it ... and a way onto the roof, even!

Getting there is almost like a fairy tale adventure. First, you need to find a door — a small door, probably smaller than you are. Once in, there's a long, narrow tunnel. At the end, you find some stairs. Climb a small, spiral staircase — one that looks like it's out of a gothic horror novel — to an attic. In the small, dark attic, you'll find a hatch, made partially of bricks (remnants from the original opening) and from there, you can climb out and onto the roof. From there, you can see the One World Trade Center, the Empire State Building, and the park. It's a beautiful view that was host to at least one party that didn't invite you.

Unfortunately, there's almost no chance of you actually getting up there. Aside from it being locked, and the staircase being an Escherian nightmare, the roof isn't designed to support people's weight — it is merely there for maintenance. But next time you go to Washington Square Park, keep an eye out for the door.

Theme parks are full of mysteries and secret rooms, but most of those are built for the crew to walk around unseen, to maintain the mystery. In other words, almost all of the secret rooms you can uncover at Universal Studios are pretty boring, filled with workers or equipment. But then there's the secret room at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Inside the Potter section, there is a castle — Hogwarts, obviously. Inside Hogwarts there's a fast paced pseudo-rollercoaster ride called Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. Now, a lot of people throw up after riding fast-paced thrill rides, but you can't exactly have people puking all over school grounds, so Universal made a secret room for those who feel sick after taking the ride. It's where you can go, cool down, and release the hounds, as it were. The staff will (supposedly) even provide you with a pair of gym clothes from the Hogwarts school, so you're not walking around with the stink of sick all over you. So next time you head on over to Universal, make sure to eat a bunch of chili dogs first, so you too can visit this secret room. Just think of it as an unofficial Room of Requirement that only has one specific purpose.

Some buildings have secret passageways. Some have secret stairwells or cellars. Some have secret rooms and chambers and attics. Then there's the Empire State Building, which is is vast and majestic — it isn't any old building. No secret rooms would suffice, so instead it has an entire secret floor.

Yep, the entire 103rd floor of the Empire State Building is kept secret and hidden. It's a small room, running around the very top of the building. All that comes between you and a long, long fall, is a small railing that barely goes up to most people's knees. It offers stunning sights and views, but unfortunately, almost no one can go up there ... except for celebrities. A bunch of celebrities have been out there before, but unfortunately no common folk. So if you were waffling on whether or not to sell your soul for a bit of fame, now you have one more reason to dial up the devil and make a deal!

The Pyramids are one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and even they have secret rooms. Wait, the Pyramids, you ask? Aren't the Pyramids basically just giant secret rooms anyway? What gives?

Well, apparently there are even more secret rooms than previously thought. See, recently scientists decided to start scanning the Pyramids, using what we can only assume is magic technology that enables them to see through the pyramids and map their insides. Okay, it actually uses particles shot through the Pyramid and then measures what they interact with and ... that does sounds like magic, doesn't it?

In the Pyramid of Khufu, there's a secret chamber over four hundred feet tall, that was just discovered. It's the largest discovered chamber in any of the Egyptian pyramids! This isn't the only recent Egyptian discovery, either, as scientists have found hidden burial chambers before, and other dark secrets. Who knows, maybe one day we really will find an ancient pyramid underneath the Arctic?