The Bizarre World of Religious Theme Parks 

I love the how the Jewish theme park has a big ole tower for "linking God and man, heaven and earth". That didn't work out so well for the last people who tried that

The hell walkthroughs actually look like something my kid self would have enjoyed, albeit probably not in the way my parents would have intended.

If I won the lottery, I would 100% make a Theravadin Buddhist theme park in Florida. I'd give it a really pretentious name too, like Central Florida Sadhu and Recreational Gardens, and its nickname would be Buddhaland, and the Sleeping Beauty's Castle centerpiece would be a stupa based on Lumbini. And there'd be a dark ride about Buddhist Hell and a ferris wheel to represent the Wheel of Dhamma. And Buddhist monks would live in an actual temple on the grounds with a wooded area for their rains retreats, and stores where you can buy food and toiletries to donate to them for good kamma. And then I'd go all Howard Hughes in the last decade.

I'm Jewish, and that Jewish Disnelyand is atrocious, but hilarious. It's what a lot of our more traditional people would call idolatry, while people in my generation think it looks like a joke from The Simpsons lmfao

It seems the Evangelical Movement has desired to literally have their own Disneyland/Disney World experience. Heritage USA was probably the closest in side to the original Disneyland and the Holy Land Experience was the most modern attempt.

Love to see someone talking about religious oddities while making it clear that "religion" and "Christianity" are not synonymous, and there are plenty of other belief systems out there, even when the focus leans towards the church. edit: THE SHABBAT RIDE _I AM WEEPING_ lmao

It’s one thing to have a museum to educate people about religious beliefs, it’s another to have a whole theme park that requires admission. That just sits wrong with me…

I went to the park/temple in India in December 2017! My mom and I had no idea what we were getting into. We thought we were just going to a temple and religious site much like many others that we had visited on that trip. Not at all! it was the middle of the week and there were tons of people there all ages and we kept looking at each other in complete disbelief that we ended up at some sort of theme park while we thought we were going to, ostensibly, a church. After riding the boat ride, we got off and met up with my grandmother at a different side of the park. She asked how it was and we had to explain that it was kind of like going on “It’s a small world” at Disneyland, but, instead, it was all about India. “It’s an India world!” is what we nicknamed it! There was a whole section about all of the religions that have come out of India all of the technological advancements over the past 10,000 years or so that have come out of India. It was really interesting, honestly! However, the way that the English language sections read gave a propagandistic vibe. As a trip to a temple: not at all what I was expecting and felt like I had entered a bit of a brainwashing attraction. As a park: super cool.

When I was in college in the 80s, my parents who were otherwise intelligent and discerning people gave several thousand dollars to Jim and Tammy Bakker. I'm talking about low-to-mid five figures. Granted they were both in their late sixties and were more religious the older they got, I was still just astonished. Anyone who was alive then and an adult could easily see that the Bakkers were shameless charlatans and ingratiating clowns. In the words of Neil Peart of Rush, "That fool on television, getting paid to play the fool". (from The Big Money). My siblings and I spoke with my father at length about this, and he broke down and admitted how ashamed he was of this, because the Jim & Tammy money-making enterprise were now hounding my parents night and day with phone calls and registered letters trying to milk them for more money. They actually had a man show up at their house on two different occasions trying to get inside and talk about their "seeds of faith". We had to file for a restraining order against PTL to stop them contacting our parents. But it didn't stop other people from doing the same. PTL had sold my parents' contact information along with a huge list of other suckers to other fundraising organizations, so we had to have their phone number changed twice, and pay a service to cull their mail of solicitations for donations.

The "Rollercoaster" actually looks really relaxing. I kinda wish more theme parks would have a slow rollercoaster with good views. Seems great for little kids and elderly as well, since it's not so extreme.

I live in Arkansas and while I've never seen the play, I've seen Christ of the Ozarks a few times. It looks reallllyyy bad, lol, as a Christian I wish theyd tear it down and make a better one. It looks like someone tried to design Christ the Redeemer in Roblox. Also, I'm not sure where you read that it's the second tallest Jesus statue in the world (maybe it was when it was constructed), but that isn't the case any more. There are a lotttt of big Jesus statues

Fascinating stuff! That Chinese Hell walk-through is amazing and I have a new travel goal. It's interesting how religion themes have gone hand-in-hand with "amusement" since the beginning. Most of the early theme parks in 1900s Coney Island had some form of religious walk-through or cyclorama, with several focusing on the Book of Revelation, which I'm sure made for a spectacle. It also allowed the owners to claim that their parks were actually spiritually uplifting, an important consideration given Coney Island's seedy reputation at the time.

I went to Akshardham in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, expecting to get bored out of my mind inside a giant temple. But there was literally a full-fledged amusement park inside, with a roller coaster, a water slide and so much more. As a thoosie / theme park enthusiast, it easily became my favorite temple.

Thank you for straight-up calling Falwell what he is, and not pulling a punch that he so richly deserves.

Your videos are always top notch, and this has been a pleasure. Growing up along Route 66 and visiting kitschy roadside attractions in the Ozarks in the 70s, I adore your taste for primitive animatronics.

I've never been there in person, just seen two video tours, but the Ken Ham Ark creeps me the hell out. I've seen videos of torture museums and the slavery museum, I've seen photos from those hell parks, I've seen videos from different religious attractions. The Ken Ham Noah's Ark is the only one that fills me with such utter dread and anxiety. Like the slavery and torture ones make me feel ill and make me sad, but the Ham Ark makes me like... viscerally unnerved, and I don't know why. I feel like I would have a full on panic attack if I was actually there in person. Other religious attractions I've seen videos of, no problem. Some of them are creepy, but that damn Ark is the only one that makes me feel just incredibly creeped out, like if you were riding a horse and the horse got spooked and ran off and you felt there was SOMETHING nearby but you never saw WHAT. That's how I feel about that Ark.

I have been to the one in Vietnam and yeah I honestly can't tell you much either. The rides are basically fair rides and the best attraction honestly was the snow area. When I went it was off season on a weekday so not many people were there and some rides and attractions weren't even open. I didn't even know there were gators. The temples were beautiful were my mom spent the majority of the time and some had rocks were you had to go over the water to get to.

They call it Jacob's Ladder. I call it the Wobbly Babel.

I would like to see a Pagan theme park or would that be a Renaisannce fair

Nauvoo, IL is being developed as a historical theme town for Mormonism. No rides yet though!

God I love the architecture and aesthetic of the Indian and East Asian theme parks, like the Christian theme parks are so milquetoast in how they look while the Indian and East Asian ones are so extravagant and colorful; looking at it makes me want to go there and learn about the mythology and religion of those regions, which is something a religious theme park should do. Plus they just look sick as hell.

Great video! Would love to see a breakdown on Praiseland, which controversially had to close due to a gas leak.

That Taiwanese '18 levels of Hell' attraction has likely inspired many imitations for various parks across Asia, including the two in Saigon, Vietnam.

Oh lord... PTL. I remember that place! Leading up to Christmas, PTL (home of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker) would do this huge Christmas lights thing where people from all across North Carolina, and some of the surrounding states would come to see the lights. The entire theme park/camping area/ recording studio was bedecked with lights. Really neat. I do have a rather funny story about that though. A year or two before PTL ran into legal troubles, my parents decided we'd head up to there to see the lights. The line to get in to see them was bumper to bumper traffic all the way out to the highway, and somewhat beyond that. We must have waited a good hour or so before we entered the park proper and started driving around. Now, one thing to note, there weren't really any signs saying just WHERE you should go. Rather you tended to follow the car in front of you and hope that they didn't lead you astray. At some point, maybe halfway through our time there, my father took a wrong turn. I forget exactly WHY he turned, or what caused him to do so, but we ended up going off road in our van. It didn't take long to realize we'd driven into the camping area, so he turned around and drove back to the road and we slowly (about 1mph) started going along as if nothing had ever happened. Behind us was bedlam. Cars had dutifully followed him off into the camping area and were now weaving their way between pine trees, through camping spots, and several were getting stuck in the dirt or mud. My father realized what he'd done, and started laughing at watching that long line of cars just wandering off on some random dirt road into the dark. After we got home, the next day, there was a local news report about how PTL had needed to close the christmas show early for the next couple days while they put better signs and barriers up, due to some forty or fifty cars having minor accidents at the park.

Thanks for covering all sorts of theme parks! I would have never heard of most of these places without your videos

As an Israeli I recognized the actor playing the grandpa immediately and the cringe level only rose the longer I watched. The last mention I've seen of this Pla'im atrocity is from 2021 saying they're really going to try to pitch it to the government, and with the current bozos in control I worry it's actually going to happen. Things move slower than a snail here though so don't expect it before, like, 2033, and it will look terrible.

I totally forgot about the Jewish park (I live in Israel and saw the pitch at the time). You're right it'll probably never be built, but now I wonder whether they planned to keep it closed on Shabbat, because that'll be a death sentence to any park. We have very few secular holidays, and I can't imagine a Shabbat observing park can work at any capacity... We did have a small attraction, something between Splash Mountain and It's a Small world. It had very outdated animatronics, and it played out scenes from the Bible. I think it closed down years ago, and it was really nothing to write home about, but I have fond memories of it. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5h9pDSTAzPA.html

Even though it’s not a theme park, the Holy City of the Wichitas is an… interesting religious park for lack of better words. It’s basically a replication of Israel from biblical times stranded in the middle of the Oklahoma plains. I visited a few summers ago, and all I can say that it’s definitely seen better days. The most remarkable part about it was how many people were there, and the state-of-the-art bathrooms despite the rest of the place looking like an abandoned village that didn’t survive the Dust Bowl.

I used to work at the Great Passion Play growing up, and I’m very happy to say that they don’t hold the beliefs as the founder. Most of the people who work or volunteer there are from the nearby church I used to go to, and everyone is really chill and nice. I got to “herd” (Chase) the sheep that ran across the stage, my brother was a Roman guard, my dad was a disciple, and my mom was a crowd person and one of the first people you see. I even made friends with the guy at the barn, which ment I got to hang out with the animals. It doesn’t make much money, but I think most people have other jobs since its only open on the weekends. Also, one of the Christian artists that they show in the museum, is named Jack E. Dawson. *Jack Dawson* 😅I wonder if that’s just an artist name

The way people talk about Disney, you'd think it was a religious park too! In the name of the Walt, the Mouse, and the Fab Five, Oh Boy! 😆

Just here to comment for the algorithm. I'm a big fan of defunct land but haven't really found another channel that scratches that itch, but this one does it! Excellent video!

With the Indian theme park, I wonder if you can do a run-down on other theme parks that are meant to summarize countries or regions. Disney's America would have been this and California Adventure is arguably this for California. I know there are examples of these from China, Indonesia, Sweden, Norway, and others.

Would love to go on the ride depicting the Egyptian afterlife.

I live maybe an hour and a half away from eureka springs AR and love visiting. It's a trip entering the town and being greeted with The Great Passion Play (most of the time looking like an abandoned liminal space) and then right afterwards being met with the extremely LGBTQ+ friendly downtown. There's usual a fair amount of heavily vandalized passion play signs on your way and it's pretty funny. Idk just the thought that something like the Passion Play exists is wild. The giant God statue is really cool and pretty though

The Jewish theme park seems like something straight out of The Righteous Gemstones.

Public places for spiritual festivals and spectacles are a generally very normal thing throughout human civilization, I understand that there is a degree of commodification going on here, but it really is a shame seeing the people in the replies pathologizing what should be healthy behavior.

As a Jewish person, I literally looked at this video and thought “no way there would be a Jewish one. Our culture would NOT work well as a theme park. What would they make it about, Shabbat and scholarship? And then it happened

as a long-time themepark enthusiast, weird and wacky parks - the ones that lack household notoriety and are usually just amalgamations of whatever theming the owners can get their hands on - are my favourites. religion seems to have always had it's place in themeparks, as it does in every human experience or art. this was a very insightful and fun watch, all your videos are!

Good video, Poseidon. Most of the parks you showcased in the video were odd, but charming. The proposed (and probably cancelled) plans for PLA-IM might take the cake for being the most bizarre and outlandish proposals for a religious theme park. While the Jacobs ladder observation tower makes sense, the People of the Book rollercoaster is very puzzling to say the least. In the foreground, there appears to be a wooden coaster with PTC trains, but in the background there appears to be a lift hill structure similar to I-305. I'm going to assume the coaster would have been a smaller scale GCI wooden coaster. The shabbat ride appears to be a log flume, with automobile themed boats taking riders through scenes representing the hustle and bustle of everyday modern life, with the splashdown as the climax of the ride. The park also appears to have had plans for a ferris wheel, with an unknown theme.

This was very much unexpected but very enjoyable and informative. Granted understandably religion is such a touchy subject; but a theme park and/or attraction about different beliefs and practices in one park would not be a bad idea. While it would be interesting to see a religious theme park that tastefully focuses on the numerous faiths around the world; how would someone pull something like that off is a whole other matter.

I think that water park in Vietnam would be awesome to go to! Also the next time I’m in Arkansas I’ll have to check out that Christian park/play 😂

I feel like a cultural theme park is possible, but based on some of these parks...it is sort of a toss up if a religious themed theme park is remotely a good idea. I mean for educational purposes is a fantastic idea, but an amusement park is mostly for amusement...I'm not certain what how much of most religions can be translated into amusement without being....ugh.... awkward.

29:11 "Grace: The Pro-Life Doll" made me spit out my drink

Jacobs Ladder seems an aweful lot like the Tower of Bable, lol

25:48 is that the Virgin Mary-go-Round?

Ironically the Hell parks look like they'd be a fun escape from the current world reality 😅

TBH the theme park with Hell seems way more interesting than just yet another Jesus re-enactment

here in Utah we have a place known as the Gilgal Sculpture Gardens, which is certainly an interesting place to say the least, while most of it is pretty normal, it's Utah, and you can't have Utah without some callback to mormonism of course, so what do they decide to do, they make the very prolific Joseph Sphinx, literally Joseph Smith's head on a Sphinx

I grew up in Singapore and Haw Par Villa was the first theme park I distinctly remember. In the 90s, there was a dark boat ride that you rode into a dragon. Inside you saw the 18 stages of hell and you exit the dragon with a pretty sweet log plume. It was so hokey but wonderful. This is still the most memorable dark ride I have ever ridden.

What an interesting video, with so much great research! The Heritage USA story is fascinating and so sad. RIP Tammy Faye❤

Taiwon’s hell scape walkthrough sounds similar to what the protagonists go through in the Korean films “Along With the Gods: the Two Worlds” and its sequel: “AwtG: the Last 49 Days.” Essentially an Asian Purgatory before the church erased it from their literature (along with Limbo). The films were based off a hugely popular Korean web toon; as the theaters were packed when the films were released. Like previous Marvel-movie packed. Worth a watch if you can convince your Netflix account that you’re in Korea or Japan.

I went to the Tiger Balm Garden in Singapore back in 1978. A friend and I were wandering the grounds, marveling at all the bizarre imagery, when a local approached us and started explaining the stories and myths behind the imagery. Afterward, he expected us to give him some cash, which we did, as he was very knowledgeable and spent a fair amount of time with us.

One thing you might have missed is that the grandfather seen in the commercial is actually Yehoram Gaon, who is a former pop star (who wrote and performed some of the most popular songs in Israel’s history), actor (performing in two of Israel’s most popular films (Kazablan and Operation Thunderbolt), and a social activist who fought for economic rights for Sephardic (descendants of Jews who were exiled from Spain) and Mizrahi (descendants of older Jewish communities in the Middle East) Jews

Seeing the title, I was instantly reminded of the Noah’s Ark walkthrough in Kennywood. Most of it is just walking through dark hallways, all of the animatronics/figures are old and tattered, and the same two notes play on repeat the entire time. Pennsylvania may be known for its haunted attractions, but none of them have unsettled me nearly as much as that freaking Ark. Oh, and did I also mention that everything just feels weirdly sticky?

11:28 the was a Motion Simulator Ride in Porta Adventura in Spain with this exact same plot just replace a Tablet with a Gameboy. I do not know rides name but it was clearly just Dubbed into Spanish and was filmed in US.

I feel a little weird combining religion and theme parks. I love to go to theme parks and have some alcohol and get to feeling good and then ride a badass roller coaster and scream the F word like I'm about to die. I don't think that would go over well at a religious park. LOL

As someone who lives in Arkansas (and is a Jew), you have piqued my interest in visiting Eureka Springs, just to see the state of the park

As an atheist, those Asian theme parks look pretty awesome. I do generally find religion fascinating as long as it's not being forced on anyone (and no, I'm not going to convert, despite finding it fascinating. I came from an Evangelical family so been there, done that.)

A couple years ago I was on a trip to my grandparent's, but an oil tanker of all things had crashed in a national park and spilled oil into the river, and all roads leading into and out of the park were closed, including the route I needed. If I recall, my phone was out of service, so I just followed a sign that said it led to a detour route. I ended up getting lost and stumbled upon Field of the Woods, a Christian theme park that seems like it just sneaked out of nowhere. I stopped to ask directions and the place was totally empty except for the employees. The employees were extremely helpful and a good old boy who I guess just came there to chat with his friend who worked there took the time out of his day to lead me all the way back to the high way.

Religious theme parks are only slightly more funny than they are scary.

oh, this is right up my alley! can't wait to watch this later, thank you!

I'm glad the algorithm tossed this my way, it was a fun experience seeing so many unique parks This was a top notch mini-doc all the way through!

I remember the DRAMA of PTL. I even used to watch the show + the "fund raising" I was actually 20 yrs. old when it happened. The # of ppl Heritage pulled in was roughly that of Knott's Berry Farm. Though it was not a prolonged period of time it was impressive none the less. The New Deli one has some impressive AA figures. Noah's Ark ones look fascinating as well. Jerry Falwell ride down the slide was the "butt" of many comedians jokes esp. late night. Thanks for the video. Even with a "religious" overlay, it would still boil down to some sort of capitalism. Everyone cannot volunteer to build/staff/maintain an endeavor.

Sort of an unrelated observation, but the Buddhist park in Vietnam is a testament to how terrible large, bombastic modeled structures look in theme parks. That type of tacky architecture automatically destroys any park's aesthetic appeal. If Mainstreet USA taught us anything, it's that themed environments need to show sensitivity to those details and be pleasant to walk in. I want to go to the New Dehli park because of its breathtaking setting and buildings, not because there's a hulking Elephant or Dragon head can I walk in.

I’m Vietnamese and I didn’t think I’d see Suoi Tien in this video lmao. I’ve never really thought about it as a “religious theme park”. Buddhism just plays a very influential role in our culture. I used to go there with my family when I was a kid and the hell ride traumatized me lol. Looking back, I find a lot of the architecture very tacky and in like, an uncanny valley kind of way I guess?

I was almost expecting PLAM to announce a tower of babel ride. This almost seems almost like nationalist indoctrination in the theme park.

Batu Caves in KL Malaysia has an amazing walk thru attraction giving the story of.... some hindu religious story i didn't understand but it was so beautiful. all these life sized figurines inside a naturally formed cave system with a river running thru it, it's really very beautiful. I've gone twice now. have you heard about this?

There should be a footnote for Dollywood as well. Though not entirely religious, religion is intricately tied to it. They have religious shows, music, themes, and even a whole church that has services on Sunday morning.

Lol, I remember living in Northern Thailand about 30 years ago and my friends and I went to a garden park featuring demons torturing people.

I can only laugh imagining what it'd be like if my church did something like these parks. Here in Utah, we have This Is The Place heritage park, which is meant to recreate what Utah was like in the mid 19th century - though it obviously has a strong connection to our church, it's mostly historical. Our church also has a set recreating Jerusalem in Goshen Utah, but it's for filming videos (and we've let the Chosen do filming there) not for public access. But yeah, although I see nothing wrong with a fun amusement park, I think it's rather distracting mixing roller coasters and spiritual things.

I love chinese hell it's so interesting and the imagery is so vivid. I remember walking through Haw Par Villa's hell area as a kid and was so frightened by the imagery I had to cover my face with my mom's shirt. It felt so palpably alive I couldn't even look at it properly until I was much older

If a church has "build a theme park" money, We really gotta start taxing them!

1) PTL=pass the loot (my father was a Christian TV engineer for a while in the early eighties, and that was the joke around the studio). 2) Been to Tiger Balm Gardens numerous times, most recently in 2014 (it is now a public park). While the Gates of Hell is most renowned, it contains lots of non-religious/philosophical scenery. Kind of sadly, I was almost the only visitor there on that last visit. It has its own station on the excellent Singapore subway.

The fact that they have Jesus wear a modern tallit at 6:46 is so f'ing offensive to us Jews*. Christians love to use our sacred objects to play dress-up. A tallit wasn't used in Jesus' day, and certainly not the kind with stripes. Plus if they wanted to be "accurate," all the other disciples would be wearing one since they're supposedly also Jewish. Christianity evolved from Judaism, but from a much earlier form of the Jewish religion that stopped existing for the most part by 153 CE. *Yes I'm aware there's Jews who will pop in and say "Ackshully, I'M NOT offended!" Ok, great? But a lot of us ARE, and this is a damaging practice Christians do. It's akin to cultural appropriation.

I live in the Smoky Mountains and there was once a dark ride in Pigeon Forge called " A boat ride through hell". I never visited this attraction but I've always been fascinated by it and I do recall seeing an old sign for it back in the Eighties. I have always imagined it was something like the boat ride in the movie version of "Land of the Lost." I have never seen any actual photos of the ride. Christus Gardens was a Christian themed wax museum in Gatlinburg TN. and perhaps a bit ironically, it was located near Ripley's Museum of the Supernatural, which was mostly a collection of artifacts from one of the founders of Wicca.

God fu*king damit, I just wanted an under hour long video shitting on Disney and now I'm on never ending spiral of learning about theme parks more then I thought I would in my lifetime. Here's my likes, sub and have a nice day!

Seeing the Great Passion Play nearly gave me whiplash. Never expected to see a place I've been on any kind of video like this. I mostly remember it as an alright experience, although you are correct in saying that it was quite dramatized

I love love love the idea for this. I love your other videos too but the idea of the religious theme parks has always been fascinating to me. Do parks/theme parks created by religious weirdos/ just weirdos count ? I'm sure everyone has seen Pee-wee's Big Adventure. I'm sure everyone remembers when he meets the waitress and they go to that place with the two big dinosaurs. That is a real location. . My friend and I travel cross-country when we were eighteen. When we were coming into LA on highway 10 from Arizona we saw the haunt Dinos from the freeway and we're like, " no way?!?!? The big adventure 🦕🦖? The best part is this 🦕 display is about the guy who built it it. Everyone in his town was trying to stop him from building these two dinosaurs. But he was determined. the town No! and he said, " I'm going to build my 🦖🦕. In the gift shop there's this plaque. And on the plaque is a picture of the man standing in front of the dinosaurs, arms crossed. And it says some information about the construction and the pushback from the town. And it ends with a quote from the dinosaur guy which says something to ( this isn't verbatim but pretty close )" I don't know anybody or why anybody would hate dinosaurs" 😂.. And that quote of his became something we said all the time to people. Just be standing around and then just look over somebody and say, " I just don't understand why people can hate 🦖🦕🦖🦕" 😂😆 I wrote this comment late last night and they were errors. So I deleted it and posted it again. Really, great channel. Great video here too, again 😂😊

Just FYI... Jim Baker is still on TV, promoting God and the end of the world. For some reason, it's OK to rip people off, lie, cheat, and commit assault... if your a TELEVANGELIST!! I'll never understand religion...

Hey, I always love watching your stuff, seriously some of my favorite content on youtube! My family were big theme park people when I was growing up, and we've been to a few unique ones (including the Ark Experience in Ohio). BUT, have you heard of the Precious Moments theme park in Missouri? I've heard it isn't what it used to be, but in the 90s it was the absolute strangest place I've ever been, with its unsettling full-size doll people!

Heritage USA was massive when my parents were teens. I’m from the area and I grew up hearing stories about my parents going to the park and being life guards. Up until a few years ago the castle and some buildings were still there.

The theme parks from east Asia are fascinating, one thing you might want to consider for next time is getting someone from the region and religion of the park to get further insight as I think that would be super fascinating!

Suoi Tien describes itself as a 'Cultural Park' and while a form of Chinese-influenced Buddhism is part of that experience, a lot of what is featured there is also inspired by non-Buddhist Vietnamese creation myths, like the giant faces overlooking the waterpark areas.

Soui Tien is amazing. I really enjoy that park.

I admit, I am typing this before watching the video out of excitement, but I am so glad someone talked about Heritage USA. It was definitly before my time but I live in the town that it originally stood in, there is even still a massive abandoned hotel that still stands and is a frequent hangout for urban explorers although more recently security has tightened. I drive by it regularly and next to It a PTL church still stands operational and while I haven't been inside, every time I drive close I can see camera equipment and security guards all throughout the church no matter what time of day and if I stay too long they begin to walk towards my car. If you ever wanted to do a more in depth video on the park I am fascinated by it and would love to help if you needed it.

I wonder if Le Puy du Fou, in France, would fall within your parameters for a Christian Theme Park. It's a park with mostly live shows and walk-through attractions, based on the history of the area but with a strong christian bias (e.g. christian martyrs freeing themselves in the Roman era show, or a miracle saving the village from the Vikings) It now has a branch in Spain too. Fun video, thank you!

Love the Tiger Balm park in Singapore, best LSD hallucinations i had being completely sober.Chinese mythology is....WILD.

I know this is a late comment, but the places in Italy reminded me of a place that is not really a theme park, though they do tours and stuff. Have a look at The Shrine of the Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend, Iowa.

I grew up in Fort Mill, SC. We moved in the early 2000s and the hollow structures of the water park were still there. They have since demolished it but the huge apartment building still stands. It’s such a hazard at this point. It hasn’t been maintained or lived in since it was abandoned. They have talked about tearing down the building since I moved to SC, 20 years ago. It’s so funny because Fort Mill has developed so much within the past 5 years, including building new homes. They have built townhouse and apartment buildings around the decaying building. 😂 The Main Street strip is still up and running and is now a small chruch.

Here in Orlando Florida, we had one HolyLand. You can still see it but it's not pretty anymore and is pretty much dead. I remember we would drive by it and seeing the mural of Jesus. The stadium or whatever it was, was so pretty. It was gold and had mirrors. It was actually pretty. I think it's now shut down and doesn't look good anymore.

in Buddhism water is linked to purity, celebration, and cleansing. It's used in many festivals that in modern times have turned into more of a party atmosphere as younger generations lose the faith, but enjoy the reason to celebrate. That's what I would guess the water park in Vietnam is about. Man, I love SE Asia.

It's weird when you see something you drive past every day on a RU-vid channel you watch. I drive padt that "park" in yucca Valley everyday, and thought it was just the dudes front yard

I got to see a Buddhist hell walk through display outside of Hiroshima when I studied abroad in Japan, it was really fascinating

My parents came SO COLSE to buying a time-share something or other at Heritage USA. As my dad put it (to me, a child), "It seems like a lot of money, but it's for a good cause, and it will be in our family forever! You'll be able to bring your kids here!" Mmmhmm. If an 8-year-old kid can tll you're being exploited....

Since moving to Singapore, I have been to Haw Par Villa several times. I have wanted to visit Noah’s Ark in Hong Kong but never had the chance as I am usually their for work and going to either Macau, HKDL or Ocean Park when not eating street food or shopping. Wish I made it to the one in Connecticut, having lived in Massachusetts, most of my life. Thanks for creating another, interesting video, overall. Am disappointed, however, in your negative anti-Christian editorial, when I feel you should have focused more-son on just the history Parks. Cheers!

So, turns out that the Great Passion Play is still going on and still going strong. They have their website and the fact that it is enough stuff that is still going on to this day.

Very interesting. Good work. I have at time wondered about going to a Noah's Ark attraction for my bucket list. I remember the Heritage Park and the following scandal. It was sad and disappointing.

Where did you get all the Heritage usa footage? Great work!!

My definition of Hell on Earth would be a day spent at an Evangelist theme park celebrating all things Christian Consumerism completed by the subterranean section representing Hell itself - a non stop performance or concert by rock band Iron Maiden c/w silly animatronic devils & monsters … 🙄🏴❤️👍🐢

I don't know which amazes me more the people who come up with to fleece the public in the name of a god or the people willing to be fleeced