Abandoned Places In The World
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Credits: Photo by 9709151@N04 on Flickr
Credits: Photo by Curreyuk on Flickr
Credits: Photo by 9709151 on Flickr
Credits: Photo by Curreyuk on Flickr
Credits: Photo by Curreyuk on Flickr
Credits: Photo by Curreyuk on Flickr
Kolmanskuppe, Namibia
Kolmannskuppe is a ghost town in southern Namibia. It was a small mining village and is now a popular tourist destination run by the joint firm NAMDEB (Namibia-De Beers).
It developed after the discovery of diamonds in the area in 1908, to provide shelter for workers from the harsh environment of the Namib Desert. The village was built like a German town, with facilities like a hospital, ballroom, power station, school, skittle-alley, theater and sport-hall, casino, ice factory and the first x-ray-station in the southern hemisphere.
The town declined after World War I as diamond prices crashed, and operations moved to Oranjemund. It was abandoned in 1956 but has since been partly restored. The geological forces of the desert mean that tourists can now walk through houses knee-deep in sand.
Credits: Photo by Tobiasasser on Flickr
Credits: Photo by Tobiasasser on Flickr
Credits: Photo by 12464238@N08 on Flickr
Credits: Photo by Tobiasasser on Flickr
Credits: Photo by Calips96 on Flickr
Credits: Photo by Geoftheref on Flickr
Credits: Photo by Geoftheref on Flickr
Humberstone, Chile
In 1872, the Guillermo Wendell Nitrate Extraction Company founded the saltpeter works of Santa Laura in the same year the “Peru Nitrate Company” was founded. Both works grew quickly, becoming busy towns characterized by lovely buildings in the English style.
The economic model collapsed during the Great Depression of 1929 because of the development of the synthesis of ammonia, which led to the industrial production of fertilizers. Both works were abandoned in 1960 and in 1970, after becoming ghost towns, they were declared national monuments and opened to tourism. In 2005 they were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Credits: Photo by Dulconte on Flickr
Credits: Photo by Seballek on Flickr
Credits: Photo by Patorojas on Flickr
Credits: Photo by Rianvanu on Flickr
Credits: Photo by Monky on Flickr
Credits: Photo by Aotarola on Flickr
Wittenoom, Australia
Wittenoom is a locality in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. During the 1950s, Wittenoom was the Pilbara’s biggest town, but was shut down in 1966 due to health concerns from asbestos mining at the nearby Wittenoom Gorge.
Today it is a ghost town with approximately eight residents who receive no government services. The town’s name was removed from official maps and the roads leading to contaminated areas are likely to be closed.
Credits: Photo by Intervene on Flickr
Credits: Photo by Intervene on Flickr
Credits: Photo by Velden on Flickr
Credits: Photo by Velden on Flickr
Credits: Photo by Velden on Flickr
Written by Anastasia on June 17th, 2009
September 3rd, 2009 at 7:32 am
What about creating touristic places at those places
September 4th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
This is a very interesting topic.
Your pictures are very beautiful.
I love it. Thumbs up for this.
September 6th, 2009 at 11:56 am
I found very interesting these posts
very cool
because it brings a feeling that the world ended
September 6th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Thank you for donig this. I love photography and i love abandoned places. I couldn’t imagine leaving behind some of the stuff and places that get left behind. thanks again.
September 6th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
Beautiful photos. They convey well the eerie solitude of these abandoned places. I have been to Centralia, PA, USA before. The smoke rising up through the ground, the few remaining houses/buildings and the decrepit roadways leave one with the feeling that they have entered another world.
September 9th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Excellent “travel” via your web site. Used Google Maps and Wikipedia to round-out information on each site.
Have bookmarked “Abandoned Places in the World” and the main page, http://www.dirjournal.com, under my Travel folder for future visits.
Thanks for providing these wonderful pictures and information!
September 10th, 2009 at 7:50 am
Great article. I work with a photographer called Dan Dobowitz and edited one of his books on Wastelands – flick through to his work on Ellis Island here: http://www.civicworks.net/books/01-wastelands-2000-2006/ .
He has a fantastic series on Italy’s facist modernist ruins as well (just a fascinating piece of history) here: http://www.civicworks.net/books/03-fascismo-abbandonato—english/
September 12th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
[...] http://www.dirjournal.com/info/abandoned-places-in-the-world/ Tagged and categorized as: Non classé | TrackBack URI [...]
September 18th, 2009 at 11:10 am
well shit i just hate how yall surfering………8)
September 21st, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Should turn half these places into paintball fields.
September 21st, 2009 at 10:57 pm
these are some of the most beautiful places, and would love to visit on day.
September 24th, 2009 at 3:31 am
Wonderful pictures, a bit creepy, but very beautiful. Especially the italian villages. Sad stories behind some unfortunatelly, but a nice try to make sth nice from sth bad as an abandoned city.
September 29th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
This is very very rare post. Not many a times does one get to see such pics. Great job.
October 10th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Surprised that St Kilda is not here. A remote Scottish island off the West coast was inhabited until the 1920s when all the people were evacuated due to starvation. A lot of the young men were killed during WW1 and the people left were unable to sustain their crofting economy. There are pictures available showing the evacuation and resulting empty crofts.
October 12th, 2009 at 8:40 am
It’s a shame about Varosha,Cyprus.This ghost town should be handed back to it’s former residents,so that it can be restored back to it’s former glory.It should have people holidaying,living and working there,not laying derelict and abandoned like it has for the past 35 years. It is pointless keeping this city empty,fill it with life.
October 18th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Really enjoyed this nice work
October 21st, 2009 at 12:42 am
this is a remarkable collection. perfect angles and soul. thank you for this.
October 25th, 2009 at 2:20 am
Although most of these stories are intriguing & eerie, I particularly like the underground mine fire because that to me is extraordinary considering fire that burns underground.
October 28th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Very beautiful places. I only saw Pripyat before, I didn’t know there are other so abandoned places. I wish to see at least one of them.
November 4th, 2009 at 11:38 am
wow. thanks.. I am a fan of ghost towns but I am constricted to the US. due to financial concerns.
November 6th, 2009 at 12:05 am
beautiful pictures–good find and nice write up
November 6th, 2009 at 12:16 am
I didn’t see a single ghost.
I want my money back.
November 6th, 2009 at 12:40 am
check out gilman, co – an awesome abandoned mining town
November 6th, 2009 at 1:32 am
Fantastic! Incredible posting and thanks so much for it. I’m a 40 year real estate professional who sells real estate all across the US at auction, was telling someone this evening that we are now seeing so many abandoned buildings and even developments that we were going to have more modern day ghost towns and their reply was no once you build something there will always be people there. I can’t wait to show them these photos.
November 6th, 2009 at 2:04 am
Love the pics, Ghost Towns are my grandson’s favourit picture. He will love them,
Thanks
Ismael
November 6th, 2009 at 5:38 am
In 1969, for a period of several months, I was the officer-in-charge of the Hong Kong Police Force ’s Kowloon Walled City Patrol Unit. The enclave’s legal status lay in a grey area, as it had been excluded from the Sino-British treaty ceding the Kowloon Peninsula to the Brits, and policing was only at a token level; hence the abundance of illicit activities, though “cocaine parlours” were certainly not among them. Heroin divans, to the contrary, were plentiful. The area was also renowned for its unregistered dental clinics, many of which were shockingly brutal and unhygienic, operated by quack dentists. While on patrol, it was not uncommon to have a pot of excrement dumped on one from above. Suffice to say, that period of my service was not a highlight of my police career!
November 6th, 2009 at 5:53 am
[...] Ghost Towns By Petar, on November 6th, 2009 Ghost towns. [...]
November 6th, 2009 at 10:23 am
publish some photos of
oklahoma,US,towns abandoned on Interstate35
November 6th, 2009 at 11:13 am
[...] TOWNS: First up is a link to the most desolate and abandoned cities around the [...]
November 6th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Someone has to shoot a movie in these places.
November 6th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
the japanese pics at the top remind me of the video game Fallout 3
November 6th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
What, nothing on Detroit?
November 6th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
[...] these amazing shots of abandoned places around the world, very apocalyptic/Mad Max style. See more HERE [...]
November 6th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
Wow awesome finds…look like maps from first person shooter games were modeled after these.
November 6th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
[...] -Abandoned buildings website? -I’m a bad influence for sharing this … other posts by MDJr [...]
November 6th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
What a great site. I started discovering ghost towns throughout Texas and the Western United States as a motorcycle rider and have been to over 100. Now I guess I have a new, more expensive goal…
November 6th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
[...] Here is a link to a great photojournal of ghost towns around the world. Only one mentioned in this thread, Bodie, is on the list. Very melancholy. [...]
November 6th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
[...] Abandoned Places In The World __________________ [...]
November 7th, 2009 at 12:18 am
Prefigures global wasteland following series of high-altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) attacks devastating urban agglomerations. By end of current 1.8-million year Pleistocene Era some 12-million years hence, traces of human efflorescence will be limited to deep-cut highway excavations networking blob-like, knobbly mounds.
Extradite Soetoro!
November 7th, 2009 at 1:17 am
Check out http://www.gwalia.org.au
An Australian gold mining town once home to approx 4000 people including US president Herbert Hoover. Now about 25 people and 40 buildings remain.
November 7th, 2009 at 2:39 am
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November 7th, 2009 at 8:53 am
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November 7th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Nice photos, and cool topic. Too bad you left out Detroit.
November 7th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
San Zhi, were GOLDEN NINJA WARRIOR’s finaI fight takes pIace!
November 7th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
I can confirm what Honkytowner said of the Kowloon Walled City. I was a Patrol Sub-unit Commander in Kowloon City Division of the RHKP in 1974. Each Sub-unit had a dedicated Walled City patrol of a Sergeant and 2 or 3 Constables. I recall an escaping opium smoker landing on my head during an early winter morning raid on a divan but no turds! The park is a huge improvement!
November 8th, 2009 at 2:30 am
I wonder what these cities will look like in 3000 years.
November 8th, 2009 at 7:29 am
Get out!! this is my place…….. I am watching you
November 8th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
[...] Posted by j_k_k Here is a link to a great photojournal of ghost towns around the world. Only one mentioned in this thread, Bodie, [...]
November 8th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
it’s interesting to see how some of these monument-like, abandoned habitats started off as utopias. And now diminished into forgotten wastelands and forsaken memories – a somewhat dystopia.
how living spaces are conjured up, by design function or other circumstance, it is truly amazing to see how these habitats unfolded then. How was each individual’s experience in each of this different environments? All of which had their distinct unique qualities!
and in revealing them now, we definitely perceive them differently. They serve different purpose/functions now (i.e. tourist hot spots, a historian’s field trip destination, etc).
My question is – should these landscapes be lost with their belonging memories or do we rethink how to harness and utilise these somewhat extraordinary habits/environments again?
Or could all of this inspire an architecture designed to serve its function purposefully and dies out literally as demand diminishes – fading into the blowing winds like a memory wantinng to be forgot.
November 9th, 2009 at 10:05 am
Came across ths website quite by accident and was surprised to see the town, or, Ghost Town, where I grew up, on your list. Centralia, PA. Despite the fire, it was a wonderful place to grow up. Very closely knit community. A decent place to live and raise children. Thanks for the posting.
November 9th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Anyone else notice that COD4 modern warfare definitely used the same building in chernobyl?
November 9th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
Check out Times Beach (Missouri), abandoned due to dioxin contamination in about 1990.
November 10th, 2009 at 10:12 am
John Cramer Says:
November 9th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Anyone else notice that COD4 modern warfare definitely used the same building in chernobyl?
Yeah I did, the big wheel is pretty much tke same.
November 11th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
Just when you think all of the planet is filled with people it’s nice to know that everything belongs to the earth in the end. The larger towns that are abandoned are really creepy. It would be a good ghost hunt. Thank you for taking these photos for those of us who may never get to visit these sights.
November 20th, 2009 at 12:25 am
Thankyou for all these fascinating photos. I’m partcularly well aquainted with Varosha, since my sister is a journalist who lives in Cyprus, and I’ve visited it (as close as is possible without getting shot!) several times. How on earth did you manage to take some of those photos without getting hauled off in the back of a Turkish army van?!Dear, fascinating old place- it never changes. I’ve met several of my sister’s colleagues who have been inside the place to do special features about it, and many of the tales about it remaining exactly as it was left, really are true. Whilst the Turkish Army did indeed loot it extensively following the invasion of ‘74, it’s so big (about the size of Worcester) that they couldn’t possibly appropriate all the contents of all it’s buildings. Hundreds of homes remain full of their owner’s things- shops still stock 1974 goods- hotel restaurants are still laid for breakfast- pubs & bars remain stocked with old brands like Dubonnet, Double Diamond and Worthington E (the Turks wouldn’t touch alcohol, being Muslims) with the jukeboxes loaded with tracks by Deep Purple, Redbone and Santana- and lovely old ’60s & early ’70s cars (by now classics, all of ‘em) remain waiting in their garages. Drunken UN squaddies have done some damage with vandalism, though things have been tightened up now considerably.
My hope is that eventually, it too will become protected by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Many abandoned cities & towns quickly decay, becoming just a jumble of walls and rotting timber, but Varosha is almost unique in that it’s so complete and has survived so well (Pripyat in Ukraine being the only other place to compare with it). I think the Mediterranean climate has a lot to do with it, plus the fact that unlike most examples of foreign beach resort architecture, it was actually very well built and remains pretty solid.
Meanwhile, there she basks in the Cypriot sun, guarding her treasures for future generations. Re. the photograph featuring the beach umbrellas, the tall building to the far right of the picture has the bizarre name of the Twiga Tower, and is one of Varosha’s smaller and cheaper hotels. Of quite outstanding ugliness, it deserves to be preserved for it’s very hideosity alone- many of it’s rooms remain in a good state of decoration, as can be seen from outside, and some even still have glass in their windows. Just in front of it is it’s small, kidney-shaped swimming pool, which when I last saw it was occupied by a large blue plastic barrel!
A note to readers: tempting though it is to think of having a good old explore of Varosha, DONT- it’s VERY dangerous to do so. The area remains technically held by the Turkish military, and although it is actually patrolled by the UN for most of the time, the Turks guard it’s integrity very jealously. On neither side of the divide are you allowed to take photos, though the Greeks tolerate observation through binoculars. The Turks don’t even allow that, and whilst an incursion in the Greek half would just result in ejection and a loud telling-off by UN guards, entry from the Turkish sector could result in arrest, detention, or even being shot at on sight. The only persons allowed in are Turkish and UN personnel, visiting dignitaries, or journalists under special escort.
In addition, many of the buildings are now infested with vermin, and poisonous snakes have adopted parts of it as a breeding ground- thus the potential for disease is considerable.
November 23rd, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Oradour-sur-Glane, France Your last picture is near Limoges north west
about 30 km
I,ve been there,
too bad you only show one picture.
the new town of oradour was rebuilt beside the old town
the french left it this way
as a memorial to the dead
The Germans destroyed it in ww2
in retaliation for killing some germans in an other
area
This town was off the beaten track
this in the book 10 great atrocities of man
November 23rd, 2009 at 5:38 pm
http://www.scrapbookpages.com/oradour-sur-glane/Story/OfficialStory.html
i should have looked this up before my last comment sorry
this is about the last picture.
December 2nd, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Thank you,
very interesting article
December 9th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Some of those pictures are amazing. gives you a real feel of it all. Thanks very interesting!
December 10th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
If you want to read more about Centralia, Pa, and the underground mine fire that turned it into a ghost town, check out my new book, Fire Underground: The Ongoing Tragedy of the Centralia Mine Fire (Globe Pequot Press, 2009). Available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, and Borders, as well as other fine online booksellers and not a few brick & mortar stores.
December 12th, 2009 at 12:32 am
Hey David
Many thanks for posting that info about your book, I’m putting that on my wish list with Amazon right now. ” All I want for Christmas is a few good books”. I’m a WV native and find stories about the coal fields very interesting and look foward to reading yours.
December 19th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
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January 2nd, 2010 at 11:45 pm
Excellent List!
January 3rd, 2010 at 11:50 am
OOOOOhhhh!!!!!AWESOME PICS!!WELL DONE!GREAT!
January 3rd, 2010 at 7:06 pm
[...] Link 2 : Abandoned Places in the World [...]
January 10th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Hello lovers of abandoned places, here are some more pix & leads : http://snaporaz.posterous.com/tag/abandonedplaces
January 11th, 2010 at 9:39 pm
Nice photos and this is very rare but interesting topic.. Perhaps some of us never know there’re places like this.
January 16th, 2010 at 5:37 am
the author says “following the discovery of gold in 1859.” i cannot let that pass, as the san francisco 49ers are named because gold was discovered in california in 1849.
January 20th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
It’s not just the places, but the feeling that these ruins are left standing with so many stories trapped within its walls, waiting to get out. Amazing pics.
January 23rd, 2010 at 11:15 am
Wow – I stumbled on this blog after returning from Marrakech and looking for somewhere interesting but QUIET to visit – I had no idea there were so many abandoned towns all over the world, truely fascinating and quite sad to see. Money, greed and lack of respect for fellow humans seams to be the main culprit.
This has given me a morbid curiosity to see some of these places, and yet I want to leave well alone at the same time.
You have found some fab images.
Kath – UK
January 24th, 2010 at 10:57 am
[...] weitere Links: pripyat.com Bildersets – Russland Detroit abandoned-places-in-the-world [...]
January 30th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
amazing pics of some amazing places, i have recently visited an abandoned military hosptital (the cambridge hospital) in aldershot hants uk, very interesting and would highly recomend paying a visit.
January 31st, 2010 at 12:27 pm
i thought it was very well done i like what u do hope to see more again
February 9th, 2010 at 2:36 am
[...] out this abandoned places website: Abandoned Places In The World [...]
February 25th, 2010 at 7:59 am
really enjoyed this amazing stuff
March 11th, 2010 at 8:24 pm
Neat!