Rajasthan's Karni Mata Temple is completely overrun by over twenty thousand sacred black rats that are fed, worshipped, and fiercely protected by devoted locals and traveling pilgrims.

A closer look

Rajasthan's Karni Mata Temple is completely overrun by over twenty thousand sacred black rats that are fed, worshipped, and fiercely protected by devoted locals and traveling pilgrims. According to intense local religious beliefs, these scurrying rodents are the reincarnated souls of ancient storytellers, meaning tourists are expected to take off their shoes and carefully walk barefoot through a temple literally coated in rat droppings. If you accidentally step on and kill one of the sacred creatures, you are strictly required to replace it with a solid silver rat statue as an expensive form of divine penance. It takes a truly phenomenal amount of cultural open-mindedness to travel halfway across the world just to voluntarily enter a dark, enclosed building swarming with the exact same pests that normally shut down a city health department, making this a profoundly testing experience that definitely isn't featured in the glossy brochures!