Craco, Italy

Craco is an abandoned commune and medieval village located in the Region of Basilicata and the Province of Matera in Italy. About 40 kilometres (25 mi) inland from the Gulf of Taranto at the instep of the “boot” of Italy. It is typical of the hill towns of the region with mildly undulating shapes and the lands surrounding it sown with wheat. It was abandoned in 1963 due to recurring earthquakes.
Craco was built on a very steep summit for defensive reasons, giving it a stark and striking appearance and distinguishing it from the surrounding land which is characterized by soft shapes. The centre, built on the highest side of the town, faces a ridge which runs steeply to the southwest where newer buildings exist. The town sits atop a 400 metres (1,300 ft)-high cliff that overlooks the Cavone River valley. Throughout the area are many vegetation-less mounds called calanchi formed by intensive erosion.[Source]


Bodie, California


Bodie is a ghost town in the Bodie Hills east of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in Mono County, California, United States, about 75 miles (121 km) southeast of Lake Tahoe. It is located 12 mi (19 km) east-southeast of Bridgeport,at an elevation of 8379 feet (2554 m). As Bodie Historic District, the U.S. Department of the Interior recognizes it as a National Historic Landmark. Also registered as a California Historical Landmark,the ghost town officially became Bodie State Historic Park in 1962, and receives about 200,000 visitors yearly. Starting in 2012, Bodie is administered by the Bodie Foundation, which uses the tagline Protecting Bodie's Future by Preserving Its Past.[Source]

Centralia, Pennsylvania
Centralia is a borough and a near ghost town in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, United States. Its population has dwindled from over 1,000 residents in 1981 to 10 in 2010, as a result of a mine fire burning beneath the borough since 1962. Centralia is one of the least-populated municipalities in Pennsylvania.
Centralia is part of the Bloomsburg-Berwick micropolitan area. The borough is completely surrounded by Conyngham Township.
All properties in the borough were claimed under eminent domain by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1992 (and all buildings therein were condemned), and Centralia's ZIP code was revoked by the Postal Service in 2002.A few residents continue to reside there in spite of the failure of a lawsuit to reverse the eminent domain claim.[Source]

Craco, Italy

Craco is an abandoned commune and medieval village located in the Region of Basilicata and the Province of Matera in Italy. About 40 kilometres (25 mi) inland from the Gulf of Taranto at the instep of the “boot” of Italy. It is typical of the hill towns of the region with mildly undulating shapes and the lands surrounding it sown with wheat. It was abandoned in 1963 due to recurring earthquakes.
Craco was built on a very steep summit for defensive reasons, giving it a stark and striking appearance and distinguishing it from the surrounding land which is characterized by soft shapes. The centre, built on the highest side of the town, faces a ridge which runs steeply to the southwest where newer buildings exist. The town sits atop a 400 metres (1,300 ft)-high cliff that overlooks the Cavone River valley. Throughout the area are many vegetation-less mounds called calanchi formed by intensive erosion.[Source]

Gunkanjima, Japan


Hashima Island (??; meaning Border Island) is one among 505 uninhabited islands in the Nagasaki Prefecture of Japan about 15 kilometers from Nagasaki itself. It is also known as “Gunkan-jima” or Battleship Island thanks to its high sea walls. It began in 1890 when a company called Mitsubishi bought the island and began a project to retrieve coal from the bottom of the sea. This attracted much attention, and in 1916 they were forced to build Japan’s first large concrete building on the island. A block of apartments that would both accommodate the seas of workers and protect them from hurricanes.In 1959, population had swelled, and boasted a density of 835 people per hectare for the whole island (1,391 per hectare for the residential district) – one of the highest population densities ever recorded worldwide. As petroleum replaced coal in Japan in the 1960′s, coal mines began shutting down all over the country, and Hashima’s mines were no exception. In 1974 Mitsubishi officially announced the closing of the mine, and today it is empty and bare, with travel currently prohibited. The island was the location for the 2003 film ‘Battle Royale II’ and inspired the final level of popular Asian videogame ‘Killer7′.[Source]

Katoli World, Taiwan

Katoli World is situated in the Dakeng Scenic area just outside of Taichung, Taiwan. Opened in the mid eighties, it enjoyed moderate success as one of the few theme parks on the island of Taiwan to host a rollercoaster (two). The park was closed after a massive earthquake on September 21st, 1999. Thousands of people were killed during the quake but nobody inside the park as it struck after opening hours. Large areas of the park were destroyed and it was forced to close. A place once vivid with young laughter is now slowly turning to rust.[Source]

Pripyat, Ukraine

Pripyat is an abandoned city in northern Ukraine, near the border with Belarus.Named for the nearby Pripyat River, Pripyat was founded on 4 February 1970, the ninth nuclear city in the Soviet Union, to house workers for the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. It was officially proclaimed a city in 1979, and had grown to a population of roughly 49,000 before being vacated a few days after the 26 April 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
Though Pripyat is located within the administrative district of Ivankiv Raion, the abandoned city now has a special status within the larger Kiev Oblast (province), being administered directly from Kiev. Pripyat is also supervised by Ukraine's Ministry of Emergencies, which manages activities for the entire Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.[Source]

San Zhi, Taiwan


More of a modern choice this time. Below is an abandoned City in the North of Taiwan. In the area of ‘San Zhi’, this futuristic pod village was initially built as a luxury vacation retreat for the rich. However, after numerous fatal accidents during construction, production was halted. A combination of lack of money and lack of willingness meant that work was stopped permanently, and the alien like structures remain as if in remembrance of those lost. Indeed, rumors in the surrounding area suggest that the City is now haunted by the ghosts of those who died.After this the whole thing received the cover-up treatment. And the Government, who commissioned the site in the first place was keen to distance itself from the bizarre happenings. Thanks to this, there are no named architects. The project may never be restarted thanks to the growing legend, and there would be no value in re-developing the area for other purpose. Maybe simply because destroying homes of lonely spirits is a bad thing to do.[Source]

Varosha, Cyprus

Varosha is a quarter in the Cypriot city of Famagusta. It is located within Northern Cyprus. Prior to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, it was the modern tourist area of Famagusta. Its inhabitants fled during the invasion, and it has remained abandoned ever since.
In the 1970s, Famagusta was the number one tourist destination in Cyprus. To cater to the increasing number of tourists, many new high-rise buildings and hotels were constructed. During its heyday the Varosha quarter of Famagusta was not only the number one tourist destination in Cyprus, but between 1970 and 1974 it was one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, and was a favourite destination of wealthy, rich and famous stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Raquel Welch and Brigitte Bardot.[Source]

Yashima, Japan


Yashima is an imposing plateau to the northeast of Takamatsu, the second largest city on Shikoku – which is one of Japan’s major islands. This plateau stretches out to sea, and can be seen in the fifth photo below. It is the site of a famous battle that took place on 22nd March 1185 during the Genpei War. The top of Yashima hosts the Yashima Temple, which is a well-known Shikoku pilgrimage. This is about the only thing that does draw crowds to this strangely neglected geographical anomaly, but it wasn’t always so.During an upsurge in mid-eighties’ Japanese economy, the people of Takamatsu decided that the plateau was an excellent place to encourage tourism, so took to pouring money into developing this sacred land. Six hotels were built, along with many parks and trails – even an aquarium. Though somewhere along the line people realized that Yashima plateau wasn’t so such an attractive opportunity, especially with views of the nearby rock quarry. Visitor numbers then dropped as millions of Yen were lost on inflated real-estate deals. All the hotels and shops were forced to shut down, as was the cable car that at one point transported many to Yashima’s heights.[Source]

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