(Check out our complete collection of 100+ Abandoned Buildings, Places and Property.)
There are many reasons why cities are abandoned; some, like the ghost towns of the American West, have become tourist destinations while others have been condemned or simply forgotten. These 20 abandoned cities of the world share an eerie, haunted quality that is part of what makes them so fascinating. For more amazing abandoned places by region visit the WebUrbanist abandonments archive.
1. The Kowloon Walled City was located just outside Hong Kong, China during British rule. A former watchpost to protect the area against pirates, it was occupied by Japan during World War II and subsequently taken over by squatters after Japan’s surrender. Neither Britain nor China wanted responsibility for it, so it became its own lawless city.
Its population flourished for decades, with residents building labyrinthine corridors above the street level, which was clogged with trash. The buildings grew so tall that sunlight couldn’t reach the bottom levels and the entire city had to be illuminated with fluorescent lights. It was a place where brothels, casinos, opium dens, cocaine parlors, food courts serving dog meat and secret factories ran unmolested by authorities. It was finally torn down in 1993 after a mutual decision was made by British and Chinese authorities, who had finally grown wary of the unsanitary, anarchic city and its out-of-control population.
2. The small village of Oradour-sur-Glane, France, is the setting of unspeakable horror. During World War II, 642 residents were massacred by German soldiers as punishment for the French Resistance. The Germans had initially intended to target nearby Oradour-sur-Vayres and mistakenly invaded Oradour-sur-Glane on June 10th 1944. According to a survivor’s account, the men were herded into barns where they were shot in the legs so they would die more slowly. The women and children, who had been held in a church, all perished when their attempt to escape was met by machine-gun fire. The village was razed by the Germans afterward. Its ruins still stand today as a memorial to the dead and a reminder of the events that took place.
3. Kolmanskop is a small town located a few miles inland from the port of Laderitz in Namibia. Windswept sand has made its way into nearly every building in the town, which was once a diamond mining town and abandoned in 1956 as diamond demand declined and richer sources of diamonds were discovered in other areas. Its only residents are now birds, hyenas and other animals.
4. Humberstone, Chile was a booming town from the 1920s until the early 40s, enjoying the wealth and prosperity that came from mining and processing nitrate, also known as saltpeter. Once synthetic saltpeter was invented, the town began to decline and experienced a slow outpouring of residents until it finally lay empty in 1961. Since then, the blowing sand from surrounding deserts has made its way into the remaining buildings, which still house machinery and furniture. The town has been named a World Heritage Site and will likely be preserved as a historical monument.
5. Wittenoom, Australia was once home to 20,000 people in its mining heyday. The asbestos mining town effectively shut down after the health risks of asbestos became clear in the 60s, and 1,000 residents died of asbestos-related illnesses. The remaining residents left, aside from the 8 people who still live there today. The city is littered with the blue fibers of asbestos, which can be seen in the bottom left photo above.
6. Only 30 minutes from the south side of Chicago lies Gary, Indiana, established as a company town for U.S. Steel in 1906. When the steel industry took a downturn in the 60s, the town became depressed and has never recovered. Gary, which has oft received the dubious honor of the murder capital of the U.S., is beginning to see signs of revitalization and is still home to thousands of people, but by the looks of its downtown area you’d never know it.
7. Ruby, Arizona is one of the best preserved ghost towns in Arizona, but you can only gain access to it by helping in the restoration effort. It was founded as a mining camp, producing mostly copper, lead and zinc. At its peak in the mid 30s, Ruby’s population reached 1,200. The population diminished after the mine was closed in the 50s. The few buildings that remain include the jail, a schoolhouse, mine offices and a handful of homes.
8. The eerie city of Agdam, Azerbaijan was once a thriving city of 150,000 people. It was lost in 1993 during the Nagorno Karabakh war; though the city was never the setting of combat, it fell victim to vandalism while occupied by Armenians. The buildings are gutted and empty, with only the graffiti-covered mosque remaining intact. Agdam residents have moved to other areas of Azerbaijan, as well as into Iran.
9. Bodie State Historic Park in California is one of the many gold-mining ghost towns in the American West. The town of Bodie once had 10,000 residents during the gold rush; the last of its residents left during the 50s and 60s. Only a small part of the town still stands today, but what remains has been well preserved. Interiors remain as they were when Bodie became a National Historic Site in 1962, with goods stacked on the shelves. Bodie is now frequented by tourists, but its ghost town atmosphere is intact - there are no commercial facilities in the area.
10. Located south of Indore in the state of Madhya Pradesh, Mandu was once the capital city of a northern Indian Muslim state and has lain abandoned for over 400 years. The ancient city takes up a large plateau just above the Narmada River and is home to a dazzling array of ruins, including a royal palace and a mosque. The Nil Kanth Palace is an important pilgrimage point for devotees of the Hindu goddess Shiva. Today, the city’s only residents are gypsy tribes who live on the hilltop plateau.
Page 2: 10 More Abandoned Towns and Cities
Also see natural phenomena, green oddities & environmental wonders on WebEcoist and view amazing architecture, incredible interiors & fantastic furniture on Dornob
Pages: 1 2
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123 Comments
July 6th, 2008 at 9:33 am
Nice post, thanks.
July 6th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Fascinating article. Would love to see more of those, actually.
July 6th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Very nice post. I think Hashima island aka. Gunkanjima should be inclueded.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashima_Island
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/saiga/y.....bnail.html
July 6th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Love this post. Would love to hear more about Kowloon. Very interesting.
July 6th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Interesting pictures…Very informative. thanks!
July 6th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
No Chernobyl?
July 6th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
South Pass City, Wyoming should have been included.
July 6th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Excellent post, excellent write up, very interesting! Thanks!
July 6th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Excelente registro fotográfico
July 6th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Wow, Historic Park CA looks nice. Can someone shiow up and just move in?
http://www.FireMe.To/udi
July 6th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
CHERNOBYL?!?!
July 6th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
Was hoping to see Centralia, PA:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.....nnsylvania
July 6th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
thanks! i loved the info
July 6th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Sorry, but your post about Gary, Indiana is a little inaccurate. The city is far from abandoned and is home to nearly 100,000 people. There are parts of the downtown that are abandoned, but it’s not the whole place, and it’s being redeveloped.
July 6th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Where the HELL is Chernobyl?! It should be #1!
July 6th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Centralia, PA is another one that could fit this article, though much of the town has been leveled.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.....nnsylvania
July 6th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Aside from Chernobyl, [as Vesa suggested] Gunkanjima is lesser known than Chernobyl, but is far more interesting as far as most of these abandoned cities go. There are also many abandoned towns all over Japan that are mostly intact with most of the furniture still in the buildings as well as anything from restaurants that were left immediately with dirty dishes left on tables and in sinks, to abandoned hospitals with piles of corroded chemicals, to mining facilities with belongings left in lockers and hard helmets littering the ground. Some of the places in this article are devoid of the haunting feeling of true loss.
http://kiokuya-haikyo.versus.jp/index.html
July 6th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
How about Famagusta, Cyprus?
July 6th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
I live in Eureka, MO (literally right across the highway from what was once Times Beach) and I have to say I don’t think it really deserves to be on here. The residences were demolished as soon as the dioxin was found, and right after it was all burned off they transformed it into Route 66 State Park. There weren’t any abandoned buildings standing for very long, and now it’s a really nice park. Really, Times Beach is just not that interesting of a place.
July 7th, 2008 at 12:09 am
What fabulous photos. It’s so weird to think that whole communities have sometimes moved simultaneously like that. Fascinating article - thanks very much!
July 7th, 2008 at 12:53 am
Am I the only one who finds the layout on these articles rather difficult - having to go past all the pictures to find out what the pictures actually are?
Couldn’t we have
Title
Pictures
Description
… or has this been done to death previously?
July 7th, 2008 at 3:05 am
Very nice Blog, It’s nice to know that there’s kind of blog like this collecting abandoned cities pictures.
July 7th, 2008 at 5:24 am
These are some pretty amazing photos. I was actually thinking the other day about how many cities there must be around the world that are completely abandoned. They would be some great places to film a sci-fi movie. Thanks for shringm these photos are amazing. You could also include the mayan city of Tulum (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=tulum&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi). It was completely abandoned and no one knows why.
July 7th, 2008 at 6:55 am
Nice post, though I do feel I have to mention that the picture with the rusted car claimed to be by Lüderitz in Namibia is wrong. That car is located in Solitare, a tiny village 200km southwest from Windhoek. It’s famous amoung tourists because it is a strategically important place to gas up and pick up supplies. It outside decoration consists of many old rusted car wrecks, the one in the picture among them.
Lüderitz however is another 400km away.
July 7th, 2008 at 7:25 am
Great Post!! I have been both to humberstone (which is far bigger than the picture shows) and deception island, and really can’t wait to go see some of the other places….
Cheers!
July 7th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Nice story .first time I saw this picture..very interesting
Thanks
July 7th, 2008 at 8:45 am
Nobody wants to hear about the real famous places, such as Chernobyl. That’s like a ghost documentary that places the same tired ghost stories as every other documentary in existence. New is still good.
July 7th, 2008 at 8:48 am
I would like to correct historical facts about Kayakoy in Turkey. The Greek inhabitants are not forced away unilaterally. There was an internationally signed “population exchange treatise” between Greece and Turkey after the Greek invaison. The absence of water sources in this region explains why it is not occupied by new settlers. Historically the town depended in rain water. But the climate… it is not the same actually…
July 7th, 2008 at 9:31 am
What about Prypiat, next to Chernobyl?
Talk about a ghost town… with a twist
July 7th, 2008 at 9:58 am
The articles about abandonments are my favourite on here. This one was particularly great as there were several I had never heard of. I’d love to visit as many of these places as possible one day. I do agree that Gunkanjima was a glaring omission though, that’s probably one of the most fascinating abandoned communities in the world. Also the pod village in Taiwan, i forget its name.
July 7th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Great post.
Another one: in Sardinia, Gairo vecchia
http://www.google.com/search?c.....ro+vecchia
some photos:
http://flickr.com/photos/coloru/2083671784/
http://www.paradisola.it/foto-.....sp?iCat=80
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gratius/2361049255/
July 7th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Since you’ve included two Italian locations, I suggest also Castelnuovo de’ Sabbioni. It’s an abandoned village in Tuscany up on a little hill near Arezzo… The weird is that there are quizzes painted on the walls outside some houses…
July 7th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Another one:
Sewell, Chile
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewell%2C_Chile
July 7th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
For those who said Chernobyl, it’s not entirely empty. There are still a small number of residents who reside in Chernobyl.
The town of Pripyat is actually closer to the reactor and was completely abandoned at the time of the accident.
Pripyat is the true ghost town, not Chernobyl.
July 7th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
If you think Gary, Indiana is bad, you should see Cairo, Illinois.
July 8th, 2008 at 3:40 am
Kayakoy was abonded during the exchange of greek habitants who lived in turkey with the turkish habitants who lived in greece.
and it was not greek indepence war it was “the turkish independence” war. there is still people living just about five minutes to town and it is now considered as a touristic place and everybody can visit.
July 8th, 2008 at 6:16 am
One of my favorites was the town of Quaban, which was abandoned and flooded when the Quaban dam was built to create the Quaban reservoir. They literally abandoned the town and let it be flooded.
More here:
http://www.westfordcomp.com/quabbin/
July 8th, 2008 at 6:52 am
I would like to second the commenter who said that the layout of this article is confusing — and add that the layout on ALL WebUrbanist articles is confusing. I enjoy the content and great pics in all the articles, but I don’t understand why the title/entry in these lists doesn’t come before the pictures. Over and over, I see a picture, then scroll down to see what it is, then scroll up again to see the pictures, then scroll down to read the description. Then I see another pictures and think it’s related to what I’ve just read because there’s no separation or header… only to find it’s the next item, only it’s not marked. It’s a basic usability issue.
July 8th, 2008 at 7:03 am
Fantástic and too relax!
July 8th, 2008 at 7:47 am
In Chile there is a mining ghost town called Sewell.
You could see it here: http://www.sewell.cl/english/index1.php
July 9th, 2008 at 3:36 am
great story.. but one thing to correct.. there no such thing as greek war of independence it is Turkish War of Independence..
July 9th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Nice blog and nice post. Thanks and hello from Mexico.
July 10th, 2008 at 3:09 am
very blog blog and nice post great
July 10th, 2008 at 5:17 am
Since a bunch of people have mentioned Pripyat (which I was also kind of expecting in this great (! thanks!) list), let me just post the link that most likely, everybody knows already anyway ;)
http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chapter11.html (and following pages)
July 10th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Bokor Hill station, near Kampot, Cambodia. Used to be a posh town up in the hills for the French, with a hotel, casino, church, soem houses. They left in the 60s during one of the many wars in that region. Pretty amazing and spooky place!
July 11th, 2008 at 4:12 am
Truly wonderfull pictures, it’s amazing to to see that there are still places that have been completely abandoned. When living your normal life you don’t often realize things like this. I knew there were abandoned communities, but it’s amazing to see the pictures and hear the story behind them.
Great blog!
July 11th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
I’m surprised Pyongyang wasn’t here.
July 12th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Even if these places are deserted and mysterious, the history behind them makes the trip worth it.
July 14th, 2008 at 5:35 am
Perhaps, you would interested in another abandoned city, Villa Lago Epecuén, in Argentina. It was abandoned because human activity (rivers detour) caused an flood and permanent level risinf of Lake Epecuén. You can see some photographs at http://www.taringa.net/posts/i.....-agua.html
July 15th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
agreed (with someone above) you need to add Centralia, PA, it has a crazier story that most of these.
July 17th, 2008 at 2:02 am
Wonderful! I’d love to see a follow-up article — I bet there are lots more of these all over the world.
July 18th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Hey everyone commenting about Chernobyl, Pripyat, Centralia etc. - those aren’t on this list because it’s a follow up to several previous articles we’ve done on abandoned cities :) You can find them here: http://weburbanist.com/categor.....ts/page/3/
August 2nd, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Thanks !
September 18th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
a wonderful collection! i think they’re awesome places for fashion photo shoots.
December 25th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Gary, Indiana!?! WTF. There is still . . . what? 100,000 people that still live there. One glaring omission is Prypiat, Ukraine, site of the chernobyl disaster.
January 6th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Nice read. Thanks for this site. I wish I was nearer to any one of these. Except maybe that Asbestos Villiage of Death. Maybe I’ll get ot photograph them one day.
January 16th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Having been to Bodie State Historic Park which was eerily fascinating, I would hope that this becomes a model of how to preserve these abandoned towns.
These towns are great time capsules and should be preserved much like Bodie.
If you have a chance to go to Bodie don’t pass it up as it gives you a real feeling of the old west.
January 30th, 2009 at 6:10 am
Is missing Chernobyl and Centralia
March 16th, 2009 at 11:09 am
Thank! interesting story.
March 29th, 2009 at 8:32 am
yeah… i can believe their is no Chernobyl on this list! That is probably the best ghost, abandoned cities ever…
June 20th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Quit whining about Chernobyl, most know about it already… I think this was extremely interesting! :)
June 21st, 2009 at 11:14 pm
it is informative but no information about famous cities like angkor(combodia),chichen itza(mexico),pompeii ,troy ,ur(iraq)
July 12th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
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