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. For more deserted towns and other derelict places check out our collection of 100+ Abandoned Buildings, Places and Property.

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.

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20 Abandoned Cities And Towns

The former Soviet Union has a complicated history that is told in part through some of its deserted infrastructure. From mining towns to oil-rig cities, many of these structures, towns and areas were abandoned suddenly and thus provide a kind of snapshot of Soviet life frozen in time. Others tell stories of economic and political upheaval and even nuclear events. From oil rig cities and deserted industrial towns to dazzling island fortresses and once-luxurious estates of the Soviet elite here are seven more amazing Soviet abandonments. For more Soviet abandonments (from gruesome gulags to submarine bases) check out part one of this series.

Abandoned Island Fortress: Fort Alexander sits abandoned on a man-made island off the shore of St. Petersburg. Constructed in the 1800s, the fort has over 100 cannon ports providing 360-degree defense. After the Crimean War it was initially used as a military storehouse before being converted by the Soviets into a dangerous plague research center due to its physical isolation from the mainland. The fort is now deserted and most of its interior objects have been stripped and metal has been melted down for other uses. Even now, however, visitors coming by boat (or snowmobile) are advised to wear a respirator and rubber boots.

Abandoned Sea City: In 1949 the world changed forever as oil was struck for the first time in the sea off the coast of Azerbaijan. Before long the first oil platform was built around this site but that wasn’t all: dorms, schools, stores and other structures were all built up around this rig forming a virtual city on the water. Ships were brought out and sunk to form the basis of a series of man-made islands. Connected by a network of bridges and other structures this community has dwindled and is now all but deserted with buildings falling back into the sea.

Abandoned Mine Complex: Unlike other Soviet mines in the Kyshtym region the ones in the photographs above at least aren’t radioactive. The ones shown here date back to the days of the Gulags and have been abandoned since the 1960s. A cooling tank explosion around that time contaminated almost 20 square miles around this and other local mines and caused the evacuation of nearly 300,000 residents. This incident was long hidden by the Soviet government before a scientist leaked the information in 1980. Other intrepid urban explorers, however, have braved even the nearby radioactive mines at their own risk.

Abandoned Industrial Town: Pyramiden is a classic model Soviet small blue-collar coal-mining town with a long history that was quickly and suddenly snuffed out. In the early 1990s it was concluded that Pyramiden was no longer profitable and its citizens were given a few short hours to pack and leave. Much like Chernobyl the result has been sad but fascinating: virtually everything was left behind from house plants to books on library shelves. Though there are plans to potentially renovate this ghost town for now it provides a picture of local life two decades ago.

Abandoned Soviet Estate: There are many abandoned estates scattered throughout Russia that are simply too remote to warrant restoration. As photographer Jason Grant points out, though, these are provide in many ways a more real experience of history for those who visit and photograph them. This particular estate in Belogorka survived the revolution and was only moderately damaged by a bomb in WWII. It was subsequently used as a scientific research institute and is now strewn with bottles and chemicals from these last tenants.

Abandoned Transportation: Throughout Russia and the former Soviet Union one can find a vast number of abandoned air, sea and land vehicles that have simply been left to rust rather than repurposed or recycled. In other parts of the world one would imagine they could find other uses for giant ships, disused fighter jets and entire train networks but here these things seem to fall through the cracks. Figures next to the planes and boats shown above bring home the enormous scale of these abandoned relics of Soviet transportation.

Other Abandoned Areas: The region known as Abkhazia is a semi-independent zone within Georgia in which a great deal of transportation and other infrastructure has been deserted in recent decades due to a lack of funds. Shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union the region came into conflict with the rest of Georgia as Georgians pushed toward independence from Russia. Today, Russia issues passports for Abkhazians, pays their retirement pensions and provides citizenship to many of the people. Nonetheless, since the fall of the USSR the local budgets have not been enough to maintain many buildings and train networks as illustrated by the images above.

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Have you ever wondered what really happened to that mall in The Blues Brothers or where Tarkovsky filmed those jarring and surrealistic scenes in Stalker? While many urban abandonments are left alone or the occasional subject of urban exploration, some remarkable buildings and complexes have become famous (or infamous) after being used as film sets for cult classics or contemporary major motion pictures. Here are five films that made use of deserted buildings ranging from suburban malls and insane asylums to an unfinished nuclear reactor. To learn more or see larger original images click the movie-titled links below each film clip.

The Blues Brothers: Did you ever wonder if they really destroyed a mall to make one of the most famous scenes in this film? As it turns out, the infamous mall car chase scene did in fact wreak havoc on what remained the (yes, recently deserted) Dixie Square Mall. Fans of the film may enjoy the above video clip which shows the chase scene moment by moment from the movie reenacted in a real vintage police car, in the same mall and with the same camera shots (now fully deserted and falling apart). For more images of this abandoned mall visit DeadMalls.

12 Monkeys: This retrofuturistic film was shot across a number of prominent locations from mansions and power plants in Baltimore, Maryland to jails and convention centers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvia. One of its more eerie settings, however, was the Westport Power Generation Station. This site was used to create some of the more chilling interior shots set in the post-apocalyptic future from which the movie’s protagonist originates. Even from these seemingly benign shots it is easy to see how they could create the steampunkish settings required for the film. [Article update: other power station locations used in the filming of 12 Monkeys can be found here, here and here. Thanks Dave!]

The Abyss: The underwater scenes in this gripping over-two-hour science-fiction thriller were filmed at the Cherokee Nuclear Power Plant in South Carolina. Millions of gallons of water were brought in to fill existing unfinished structures on the site and The Abyss thus broke the record for the largest underwater movie set in the world. The power plant was never completed but the complex contained a turbine pit and incomplete containment vessel were used as primary and secondary sets and on-site warehouses for interior shots. For more images of this amazing movie set and a larger version of the one above check out HistoricDecay.

Session 9: This 2001 horror movie was shot almost entirely in the abandoned rooms and halls of the deserted Danvers State Hospital. In an unusual twist, the film’s overt premise is the remodeling of this real-life asylum rather than pretending the building is some other structure for the purposes of the movie. While many of the details are, of course, changed for cinema the building did provide a remarkably appropriate setting for the dramatic action of the film. The Danvers State Hospital is also rumored to be the inspiration for H.P. Lovecraft’s own Arkham hospital which, in turn, was the inspiration for the Akrham Asylum. Despite increased security many deserted-building urban explorers found their way into this abandoned building complex after the film popularized the site. During the demolition of many of the older buildings and construction of new buildings on the site in 2006 a mysterious fire laid waste to much of the complex and disabled an on-site web camera filming the grounds. For more images and information you can visit Opacity (the source of the bottom two images displayed above).

Stalker: This infamous Tarkovsky film is notorious not only for its impact on cinema but also for the strange and sad stories surrounding its filming. The movie was shot primarily in and around Tallinn, Estonia near chemical factories, power plants and other dangerous locations. Dreadful allergic reactions by the crew and Tarkovsky’s own cancer were blamed on the poisonous liquids pouring downstream from these nearby structures. When the film crew returned to Moscow much of the film was found to be improperly developed and the Soviet government, which frowned on the theistic undertones of Tarkovsky’s work, was suspect of having a hand in mishandling the film. Many Russian urban explorers and abandoned building hobbyists actually call themselves “stalkers” or variants of the word as a kind of tribute to the film and its setting, many of which have since been demolished. Know of other abandoned buildings used in films? Contact us with information for a follow-up article and we’ll thank you with a link! Also, thanks to Cineleet for helping compile this first collection of amazing abandonments from films.

[Image used with Permission of Photographer Ben Willmore]

Much of America’s little-remembered history can be found in largely unknown structures scattered across the United States, some of which are silently falling apart. Many of these have amazing claims to fame and set records in their time – the world’s first auto assembly line or the largest brewery in the US – while others represent outdated building types that recall decades past or even generations before our time. Also be sure to check out parts one and two of this series, and see more under 100+ Abandoned Buildings, Places and Property.

Abandoned Beer Brewery Complex

Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Once the largest brewer in America, the Pabst Brewery was opened in the mid-1800s and closed its doors over a century and a half later in the mid-1990s. Over the course of its existence the complex bottled millions of barrels’ worth of beer. For some time the city considered demolishing all associated structures though a compromise was reached and funding was found so renovation for new uses has begun on some of them.

Abandoned Mental Institution for Children

Waltham, Massachusetts: Perhaps the only thing more disturbing than the many abandoned insane asylums spread across the United States are those scattered few asylums dedicated to children. The Gaebler Children’s Center was opened in the 1950s as a place to separate children from adults in the mental health system. As mental hospitals closed down homelessness and incarceration increased in adult populations so too has this closure led to increased juvenile detention.

Abandoned Factory Town Housing Residences

Whittier, Alaska: The Buckner Building was once the largest building in all of Alaska and housed virtually the entire population of the area. In the 1960s an earthquake rendered it unsafe to occupy and it has been abandoned ever since. So why not demolish it? It is quite simply more effort than it would be worth: the only way to remove the debris would be by a very limited-capacity tunnel or by sea.

First Automobile Mass-Production Facility

Highland Park, Michigan: A little-known building on the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan, was once home the to the first automobile production facility in the world to feature an assembly line. Ford’s claim to fame began in the Highland Park Ford Plant in the early 1900s in this revolutionary building that now sits essentially abandoned. Currently the structure is used to house assorted documents and artifacts.

Abandoned Military Academy Complex

Augusta, Virginia: Founded at the end of the Confederacy in 1865, the Augusta Military Academy (originally the Augusta Male Academy) remained open for nearly one hundred years before closing its doors forever in 1954. The building remains relatively intact and was even used for an episode of Fear on MTV though the name of the school was changed to deter ghost hunters and urban explorers.

Abandoned Drive-In Movie Theater

Hartford, Connecticut: There is nothing like the demise of an entire building type to usher in a new form of ubiquitous urban abandonment – and the Hartford Drive-Through movie theater is no exception. With the slow decline of such establishments few have found ways to reuse large rural parking lots with small and awkward associated buildings and big outdoor screens so many, like this one, simply sit deserted.

Abandoned Church and Boarding School

Torresdale, Pennsylvania: Eden Hall was once a proud French Gothic Revival church developed in the mid-1800s as part of an early boarding school complex including classrooms, dormitories, a library and a gymnasium – most of which were destroyed in a fire in the late 1970s. Unlike other abandonments featured here this deserted building was unfortunately recently destroyed by fire just a few years back.

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(Check out our complete collection of 100+ Abandoned Buildings, Places and Property.)

The European Union may appear on the surface to be a unified body but underneath each member country retains a unique and complex history. The rich stories of individual European nations can be read in part through the amazing abandoned buildings found across the continent. It is truly remarkable how intact some of these structures are even after centuries. From Finland to France, Belgium to Denmark and Poland to England here are seven amazing abandonments from all over Europe.

German Military and Hospital Complex

Berlin, Germany has been at the center of European history in many regards, most recently as the divided core of Germany before East and West reunification. This abandoned complex located in Beelitz (just outside of Berlin) dates back to the 19th century and was used by the Germans as a military hospital through the second World War. From the 1940s on it was continuously occupied and used as a military hospital by the Russians complete with a surgery, psychiatric ward and rifle range before being abandoned in the 1990s. During its years of operation, famous (or infamous) patients included Adolf Hitler and former East German leader Erich Honecker.

Belgian Beautiful Castle and Cathedral

Mesen, Belgium is the smallest town in Belgium with fewer than 1,000 residents. However, it is the home of one of the most beautiful abandoned castles one could imagine, built, rebuilt, modified and expanded from the 1500s onward. This gorgeous structure evolved from a defensive fortress to a boarding school over time before being abandoned in the middle of the 20th century. It has has decayed by natural means with very little outside interference or vandalism and conjures picturesque images of beautiful deserted buildings. Nonetheless, it is under threat of destruction. It seems that only in Europe, where such buildings are more abundant, could such a lovely structure be considered common enough to not necessarily warrant rehabilitation.

Danish Deserted Refrigeration Factory Complex

Copenhagen, Denmark has developed a rich tradition of industrial production in part due to its geography. Flanked on virtually all sides by water, it is no wonder this country has spawned many facilities like the refrigeration factory featured above. These pictures show the internal story of desertion, fire and other internal tales as well as the future plans for redevelopment on the site. Adjacent condos (shown in the last image) represent the likely direction of this abandoned property as waterfront real estate continues to replace old industrial uses.

English Abandoned Water Pumping Station

Ryhope, England is home to an abandoned water pumping station that almost seems like a retrofuturistic structure straight out of a cyberpunk novel. This deserted structure is a monument to the Victorian era of industrialization, dating back to the middle of the 19th Century. It was an important step in the modernization of clean water distribution in an era where urban densification and disease went hand in hand. Though the station is no longer in active use all of the machinery still works, a true testament to the capabilities of Victorian English engineers.

Finnish Abandoned Match Factory

Tempere, Finland is one of many places that saw considerable growth and prosperity during the industrial revolution. With a thriving Finnish timber industry came the matchstick factory featured above. Built between world wars, the factory was in continuous use until the mid-1970s at which point it switched industries with the times, become (among other things) an automobile plant for a period of time. Since being entirely abandoned the main building and surrounding structures have become hangouts for local teens as evidenced in the images above.

Polish Abandoned Chemical Factory Complex

Warsaw, Poland has had a long and trying history of war and strife. It is perhaps no wonder that even in the heart of a relatively prosperous Polish city one can still find a vast abandoned factory complex. This series of deserted structures began as an electric lamp production facility in the 1920s before being converted to construct radios for submarines by the Germans during World War II. It reverted to its old function after the war but was poorly managed and eventually abandoned altogether, with remnant containers of chemicals and other assorted scientific equipment left behind as a testament to its earlier uses.

French Abandoned Metro Station and Lines

Paris, France is notorious of late-running Metro trains due to frequent worker strikes – but perhaps less well known for its numerous abandoned Metro stations. Urban explorers manage to find their ways into some of these abandoned subway tunnels while others have been converted to new uses including (appropriately enough) official homeless shelters. Some of the tunnels can even be visited privately late at night in groups led by sanctioned rail-expert tour guides.

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