(Check out our complete collection of Urban Exploration Tips, Tricks and Guides.)
[Abandoned Factory via Noctophotographer on Flickr]
Ever wonder what is inside that dark tunnel or deserted structure you pass on your way to work every day? There are a vast number of spooky and surreal abandoned buildings that populate even the densest countries, states and cities. Organized into helpful categories here are thirty must-bookmark resources for would-be urban explorers around the world. In addition to those listed below (right-click on the screenshots to jump), sites like DarkRoastedBlend and LookAtThis have entire categories dedicated to abandoned places and vehicles also worth exploring.
[Introduction to Urban Exploration - The Best Sites to Start With]
Opacity is a great place to start developing a taste for the allure of abandonments. Tom Kirsch, the site’s creator and primary photographer, has traveled the world photographing deserted buildings. Some of the images are enhanced and retouched for effect and the results are very compelling. Not all of the locations are named to protect the integrity of the abandonments but for visual inspiration the site is unparalleled.
Infiltration is one of the oldest and most respected urban exploration websites around. The site’s founder has since passed away but back issues of their zine are still available for purchase as well as images and stories from past explorations and on-site forums. The site’s creator also wrote one of the definitive books on urban exploration - purchase at your own risk!
28 Days Later is definitely one of the most active urban exploration forums on the web and is focused mainly on British building infiltration. Explorations are divided into category by building type including tall structures, military installations, recreational facilities, underground sites and international (non-UK) sites. Many explorers upload stories as well as images of their adventures at various urban and rural locations.
UER is another very useful urbex forum that is structured somewhat differently from 28 Days Later. There is a single dedicated section for photography with other sections relating to tools and tutorials, new urban explorers, general urban exploration information and terms and locations related to urbex. Best of all: UER has threads based on geographical location to help people connect and share urbex info regionally.
Flickr has many collectives dedicated to different kinds of abandonment imagery, including the above-linked Urban Abandonments group. The group consists of over 200 members and over 2,000 images and shows a broad range of photographic possibilities in color as well as black-and-white, retouched and shot as-is, that demonstrate the various approaches different explorers take to shooting their subjects.
Wikipedia is of course a good place to start looking for information on many subjects but has a particularly well-rounded article on urban exploration. A number of useful books are listed as well as the appearances of abandonments in prominent films and television. Also included are links to related subjects like caving, parkour and ghost towns as well as various urbex categories like draining and exploring active buildings.
[Urban Exploration Websites Organized by Continent and Country]
Europe: Urban Travel has an incredibly well-organized database of their adventures in building infiltration and photography from all over mainland Europe at dozens of locations. You can browse by building type or country and dig back through years of archived images. This is definitely a site to visit and revisit. There is also a very active Flickr group dedicated to European Urban Exploration.
United Kingdom: Urbex UK has been featured in a number of national and international publications as an outstanding collection of urban explorations and building infiltrations that feature rich images, stories and other background information including maps and building plans.
Australia: Sleepy City is an ever-evolving collection of one man’s adventures in urban exploration around the world but in particular his encounters with interesting abandonments in his home country of Australia. His main focus is on buildings but he also covers abandoned cars, subways, sewers, bridges and more.
Russia: Abandoned dot RU features very raw, rough-and-ready images from various unfinished and abandoned building sites located around Russia. There is little attempt to glorify or even explain these ruins - viewers are given a full tour and it is at visitor discretion to assess the meaning of each location.
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Great Related WebUrbanist Articles:
7 Abandoned Cities and Towns of the World
Check out these urban abandonments of the post-modern world.
Abandoned Airfields, Airports and Aircraft
Nothing lasts forever. Abandoned relics of air transport are proof of that. Unused hulking planes and enormous runways are sometimes just left and forgotten.
(Sub)Urban Abandonments: Deserted Missle Silos and More
Here are some fascinating examples of deserted silos one can visit and even purchase!
78 Comments
May 18th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Another excellent offering!
I have been doing this all of my life. I had little idea that urban exploration was so widespread.
This week, a friend of mine and I are going to look for a secret door in a tree that leads into the underground tunnels of Savannah, Georgia. I am a tour guide and one of my customers who works for the phone company clued me in on this, but couldn’t give much information except the general area where it is supposed to be.
Wish us luck!
May 19th, 2008 at 12:02 am
Thanks for the mention. :)
28 Days later has now stopped updating due to differences in opinions of the guys who ran it but the pages remain archived. Most of the users have jumped ship to Derelict Places.
I’ve also turned my hand to a couple of abandoned asylums recently which can be seen on my photo blog…
St Mary’s Asylum, Stannington and Cherry Knowle Hospital (Sunderland Borough Asylum)
May 19th, 2008 at 8:50 am
Hey, thanks for the plug!
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May 19th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Great info!
Thanks for the link….
Gr,
Bart
May 19th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
http://www.abandoned-places.com/
that ones worth to checkout aswell.
May 19th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
http://www.undergroundozarks.com/
Lots of stuff for Missouri and the surrounding area. Even though the main page hasn’t been updated in a while, the forums are very active.
May 19th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
UE fans can now get their own DVD of the recent documentary film “Urban Explorers: Into the Darkness” by Melody Gilbert. Check it out here:
http://www.urbanexplorersfilm.com
May 19th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
hey thanks for the shout out to flurbex!
http://www.earthintruder.com is a public gallery full of abandoned florida locations. a personal fave of mine.
nomeus
May 20th, 2008 at 3:21 am
Thanks for the flurbex plug
May 20th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Thanks for the plug for Flurbex.
May 21st, 2008 at 8:34 am
wow someone used my image on the net:) very cool. it’s the first one too. i’m impressed. have a look at my other work, i wondered why that image got so many comments and faves today.
thanks
Chris
May 21st, 2008 at 9:07 am
Great stuff i will add to my home page,also love all the photos :)
keep up all the good work
May 23rd, 2008 at 6:43 am
Excellent selection!
May 27th, 2008 at 12:16 am
Don’t forget http://www.urbexforum.com and my own http://www.urbex.nl
June 2nd, 2008 at 4:25 pm
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‘All Your Base Are Belong To Us’ . . . rather literally I’d say old chap.
June 11th, 2008 at 10:52 am
by the way it’s Noctographer….
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website: http:www.theotherside.be
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October 21st, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Hi, great set of links- will put some of them up on my site too- http://www.michaeljohngrist.com/ruins-gallery/ - which is about urbex in Japan, or ‘haikyo’ as they call it there.
It’s pretty big. I’ve got some theme parks, hospitals, racecourse grandstands, WW2 tunnels, and defunct US military bases.
Cheers,
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Check out The Industrial Decay Network. The have a weekly blog thats updated every Monday with some of the best Industrial Photography out there. Photographers from all over the world.
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December 6th, 2008 at 10:36 am
You really missed a gem with Underground Ozarks. It should have made this list.
December 10th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
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December 22nd, 2008 at 3:11 pm
check out this site
http://www.barelythereireland.com
its a new irish urban exploration site, they have some good pictures and a forum too
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