If it seems to you that there is nothing more terrible than Dracula's castle in the world, then you read a lot and travel little. The island of dolls, the cemetery of hanging coffins, the forest of suicides - ELLE has selected the TOP 10 scariest places in the world, visiting which can not only expand your horizons, but also deprive you of sleep.
Nazca is the name of a city and a desert plateau in southern Peru. A tiny city with a population of 27 thousand people is constantly teeming with tourists. Some want to look at the mysterious drawings left on dry desert soil, others want to visit the Chauchilla cemetery. Spread out in the suburbs of Nazca, this necropolis is literally open to visitors. Imagine large pits paved with sticks in which the dead sit. The amazing technology of embalming kept the bodies - at least the bones - in perfect order. Among the inhabitants of Chauchilla, there are many who can boast of magnificent hairstyles - despite the fact that the last dead man was buried here 11 centuries ago.
The city on the banks of the river of the same name stands two kilometers from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Until April 27, 1986, it was a rapidly developing atomic city, all the inhabitants of which were somehow related to nuclear power plants. Immediately after the terrible accident at the station, almost fifty thousand of its population was evacuated and the city turned into a monument. Or rather, a memorial. So it stands empty for more than thirty years, becoming a creepy open-air museum. Residential buildings, a hospital, kindergartens and schools, playgrounds, a Ferris wheel - everything remains. And not a single soul.
The Echo Valley in the Philippines is full of rocks. Coffins hang close to each other on them. The locals are convinced that the higher the body of the deceased is located, the faster he will be in heaven. Forcing them to bury the bodies is useless. The tradition of burying the dead in the air has existed for more than two thousand years, and how and on what the coffins are attached, the locals do not tell - this is a secret.
There are many islands in the suburbs of Mexico City, the most famous of course is La Isla de las Muñecas, the Island of the Dolls. In the fifties of the last century, a young man named Julian Barrera witnessed the death of a child, a girl, who drowned near this island. Barrera kept her doll for himself, and from that moment the spirit of the deceased began to appear to him. To appease the spirit, Julian began to hang old dolls found in the garbage heaps on the island. And in the end, he settled on this island. In 2001, after his death (Barrera, like that same girl, drowned near the island), enthusiasts, his relatives, continued the work. There are a lot of dolls here and together they look very creepy.
The real name of the mansion located in Transylvania is Bran, but it is known, of course, as the castle of Dracula, Count Vlad the Fourth, who received the nickname the Piercer because of his love for impaling his subjects. The castle, built on the edge of the abyss, is one hundred percent the embodiment of the Gothic style: gloomy decoration, howling sounds (the cause of which is the chimney, which begins to hum in strong winds). The main attraction of the castle is Dracula's bedroom with a huge bed, it is here, according to legend, that the owner preferred to drink the blood of his victims. The “house” looks very well-groomed, for which thanks to Francis Ford Coppola, who invested in the reconstruction of the castle when he filmed his adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel there.
In the Czech village of Lukova, the church of St. George (St. George) has been standing since the 14th century. It was empty in 1968, after a fire broke out during the funeral service and the roof collapsed. A few years ago, the sculptor Yakov Hadrava, preparing to submit his thesis, decided to turn the church into a platform for his experiments. And he populated the empty building with human statues, whose heads are covered under the covers. The sight is mesmerizing and scary. The teachers, by the way, were also imbued with Jacob's diploma - in such an original form - they accepted.
The famous Mount Fuji is known not only in itself: at its foot lies Aokigahara, a dense forest full of rocky caves. Aokigahara is incredibly quiet and very, very gloomy. Already in ancient times, the forest was considered a place of "residence" of monsters and ghosts. And it was here that the inhabitants brought and left their loved ones whom they could not feed - the infirm old people and children. The dark reputation of Aokigahara with might and main attracts people who are inclined to take their own lives there. Over the past 60 years, the bodies of more than five hundred suicides have been found in the forest - in this sense, Aokigahara is second only to the famous Golden Gate Bridge.
Not surprisingly, the "Suicide Forest" is crammed full of signs urging would-be suicides to come to their senses. The Japanese believe that once they enter Aokigahara, they cannot leave it. Therefore, it is visited only by rescuers who are looking for those who want to commit suicide, and daredevil tourists.
They buried here for four centuries in a row, until the end of the 18th century. There was little space, a lot of bodies. As a result, more than 100,000 dead people found shelter in a small area. So that everyone had enough space, the old tombstones were covered with earth and new ones were immediately put up. Thus, 12 layers of graves were accumulated. Over time, some layers due to the sagging earth crawled out into the light of day, running into later ones, and the cemetery became like a crowd at rush hour in public transport.
Here it is, South American Gothic in all its glory. The Manchak swamp is located near New Orleans and is called nothing more than a swamp of ghosts. Slaves fled here from their masters, but none of them got out of here - they were all eaten by giant crocodiles. The spirits of the dead and those same crocodiles are the main ingredients in the eerie menu of Manchak, a place that attracts tourists so much. Excursions are actively led in the swamp, both during the day and at night.
Built in Portugal in the 16th century, the chapel is filled with the remains of monks: in total, more than five thousand people rest there. Bones, skulls are everywhere, wherever you look. And the inscription on the roof of the building - "Better the day of death than the birthday" - sets in an optimistic mood.
Ghost towns are scattered all over the planet and silently keep their secrets. The creations of human hands, abandoned by people, stand empty and silent for decades. They are not destroyed, they are simply abandoned - at one point people left them due to insurmountable reasons. The reason for this could be the threat of a natural cataclysm, technological disaster, war or economic crisis.
This list contains the most famous ghost towns in the world!
1 Pripyat, Ukraine
Perhaps the most famous ghost town is Pripyat. This city in Ukraine is relatively young - it was built in 1970. In 1986, about 50 thousand people lived there, the first park was opened, and the infrastructure was actively developed. And one day - April 26, 1986, the city was evacuated due to the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Until now, this city is full of radiation, so excursions and groups of stalkers enter its territory only occasionally.
2 Gunkanjima, Japan
Hashima Island in the East China Sea, nicknamed Gunkanjima (cruiser), at the beginning of the 19th century was an ordinary rock near Nagasaki. Coal was discovered there, so the Japanese artificially built the island and began to develop the deposit. The city was the most densely populated place on the entire planet - on an area of 0.063 square meters. m. lived more than 5 thousand people! The peak of activity was reached in the middle of the 20th century, and in 1974 the mines were completely closed, and the city became a ghost.
3 Kolmanskop, Namibia
The history of this city began in 1908, when one of the railway workers discovered diamonds in the southern part of the Namib Desert. The deposit was handed over to August Strauch, who built a German town on this site with a hospital, schools and a stadium. But the diamond reserves dried up after a couple of years, and people faced terrible conditions. The city was constantly bombarded with sandstorms, there was no water and communication with the world. In 1954, the last inhabitants left the city, and it was left standing in the middle of the desert.
4 Famagusta, Cyprus
In the 1970s, the city of Famagusta was the tourist center of Cyprus. It was especially famous, it housed many hotels and hotels that were visited by celebrities from all over the world. In 1975, the Turkish army invaded Famagusta and drove the Greeks out of their homes. The Varosha quarter has become a ghost town, because according to the UN resolution of 1984, only its residents can return to it. At the moment, this huge tourist area of the city is slowly being absorbed by nature.
5 Kilamba, Angola
Cities don't always become ghosts because they've been abandoned. Some cities were never settled, for example, the huge city of Nova Cidid de Kilamba near the capital of Angola. It is designed for 500,000 people, and more than $3 billion has been spent on construction. In 2012, the city slowly began to be populated, but in fact it still remains a ghost. Among the inhabitants of Angola, there are few representatives of the middle class who could afford such expensive housing. At the moment, there is only one school in which people carry children from afar.
6 Tawarga, Libya
A ghost town in Libya was abandoned by the locals in 2011 due to the genocide. The rebels began a real persecution of the indigenous peoples of Tavarga, which was once founded by the descendants of black slaves. In addition, this city was under the patronage of the Gaddafi regime, so the rebels ruthlessly destroyed the population - 1,300 people are still considered missing. Nearly 30,000 people have left the city and still cannot return to their homes. The Libyan government cannot provide them with security and protection from bullying.
7 Kayakoy, Turkey
The Turkish village of Kayakoy has a rich history, but that hasn't stopped it from becoming a ghost. It was founded in the 19th century by the Greek community and had a developed infrastructure. But in the 1920s, the Greeks were forced to leave the places belonging to the Turks, so the villagers just left overnight. In addition, in 1957 strongest earthquake destroyed the last islands of civilization in Kayakoy.
8 Sanzhi, Taiwan
This city can hardly be called a ghost, since in 2008 it was decided to demolish it. Unfortunately, it belongs to those buildings where people have never settled. In 1975, it was decided to build an unusual complex of houses in the form of UFO saucers. They were built from fiberglass and concrete, taking into account the latest technology. However, in the 1980s, when the complex was almost completed, a crisis began in Asia, which led to a freeze on construction. The alien houses were abandoned, and Taiwan decided to demolish them in order to build a park on this site.
9 Oradour-sur-Glane, France
This village in France received the title of a martyr city. Today, it still stands as a silent reminder of the atrocities of the war, and a new town of the same name has been built nearby. Oradour in 1944 was inhabited by French partisans who captured a German officer. In retaliation, the SS killed all the inhabitants of the village - 205 children, 240 women and 197 men. Since then, the city has been a memorial center.
10 Kadykchan, Russia
One of the most famous abandoned cities in Russia is Kadykchan. It is located in the Magadan region, and was completely abandoned by people in the early 2000s. The city was built in the middle of the 20th century near a coal deposit, but after an explosion in 1996, the mine was closed. The residents of the village began to be slowly resettled, and in 2001 the houses were completely disconnected from electricity.
Paris is not only in France, but also in China, however, it is very small. The construction of the city of Tianducheng began in 2007, then in China there was a fashion for copies of European sights. There is the Eiffel Tower, three times smaller than the original, the Arc de Triomphe and the Park of Versailles. However, housing here is so expensive that the city has practically remained a ghost - despite the splendor, no one lives in Tianducheng.
All these cities are completely deserted, so they gradually fall into disrepair, and nature wins back its territory, covering the gray buildings with stormy greenery.
The abandoned cities of Russia, which are outside of modern reality, appeared on the map of the country in the course of political, economic and geological transformations. How many there are, no one knows yet.
How can they be interesting?
The ghost towns of Russia have become the basis for founding a new layer of a kind of apocalyptic culture. It arose at the turn of the millennium, which was largely facilitated by the ever-increasing popularity of the subject and the end of the world. Nowadays, the abandoned cities of Russia are attracting more and more adventurers, photographers, filmmakers and writers. In such dark places creative people hope to find inspiration of an unusual nature.
Extreme tourism is also becoming very popular. Standard sights, about which everything is already known, do not arouse such interest among avid travelers. The modern tourist is more of a researcher than a passive observer. In addition, the opportunity to share what they see with the help of the World Wide Web gives incredible satisfaction to everyone who wants to stand apart from the "gray mass".
Kadykchan
Listing the abandoned villages of Russia, the first thing they remember is this particular settlement. It is the most famous of all such places in the Magadan region. The population of Kadykchan began to decline rapidly in 1996, when an explosion occurred at a local mine. Almost six thousand people left this settlement. A few years later, the only boiler house in the village ceased to operate, after which it became simply impossible to live there.
Carpets and dishes remained in the houses, cars in garages, toys in kindergartens.
Halmer-Yu
Describing the dead cities of Russia, it is impossible not to mention this settlement. The abandoned place is in abolished in 1996. Coal was mined on the territory of Khalmer-Yu. In 1994, just over four thousand people lived there.
With the transition of the country to a market economy, the question of the expediency of the existence of the city was raised. The government of the Russian Federation decided to stop the work of the mine, and two years later - in 1995 - to completely liquidate Halmer-Yu. It was not possible to carry out the process, guided by world standards. The reason is that it required a lot of money. As a result, local residents were evicted with the support of OMON. The security forces simply kicked out the doors and forcibly herded people onto the trains to Vorkuta. Not all citizens were provided with apartments.
Currently, the territory of Khalmer-Yu plays the role of a military training ground.
Old Gubakha
Among the main attractions of this settlement is the Mariinskaya Cave, located four hundred meters from the now empty reinforced concrete plant. Currently, Staraya Gubakha, like many other ghost towns in Russia, is at the mercy of nature. Everything is overgrown with trees, shrubs and grass - buildings, roads, and the central square. The following buildings are of particular interest to adventurers: the cultural and business center, the NKVD building and the hospital.
Industrial
This one is located on the territory of the Komi Republic. In 2007, it was inhabited by four hundred people. The now abandoned settlement began to fall into disrepair after an explosion at a local mine. This sad event happened in 1998.
The gloomy houses that once served as camp barracks stand all alone today. It's especially scary in Industrial at night, when the wind is blowing through the empty buildings. The ashes of the houses leave an indelible impression (some of them were burned under the supervision of firefighters during the liquidation of the village, others were deliberately destroyed).
Anniversary
Most of the able-bodied men - residents of this village - worked at the mine called "Shumikhinskaya". It was abolished in 1998 by decision of the management. All employees were out of work. The miners banged their helmets at the local administration in Gremyachinsk for three months, but the protests did not lead to anything.
In the winter of 1999, the village's heating system was defrosted. People were forced to leave their homes.
The appalling condition of the village buildings is connected with the catastrophe of heat supply. Water penetrated into the masonry of empty houses, which naturally froze in the cold season. With the onset of spring, the walls began to rapidly collapse. At present, the buildings look like after an earthquake or bombing. Marauders are not asleep at the same time: they are constantly taking out the surviving materials from Yubileiny.
Iultin
This settlement was once the center of tin mining in Chukotka. Due to the unfavorable climate, living conditions there were extremely difficult. Since 1994, the resettlement of Iultin began. It is noteworthy that people left this place in a great hurry, as if an emergency evacuation was being carried out. That is why this place, like many other dead cities in Russia, attracts fans to stare at the inhabited empty apartments. Naturally, marauders often visit Iultin.
Colendo
This settlement is located on the territory of the Okha district of the Sakhalin region. This is one of the most famous oil and gas fields. Local wells produced as much black gold as the entire Okha oil field.
The development plan for the working settlement of Kolendo was approved in 1963, but the life of this settlement was short-lived - just over thirty years. In 1996, due to the earthquake in Neftegorsk, people began to be relocated. There is not a soul in Kolendo now.
Nizhneyansk
Many abandoned cities and villages in Russia are available for visiting, which can not be said about Nizhneyansk. This settlement is located beyond the Arctic Circle. Even the most ardent fans of extreme travel do not dare to visit this empty village - it is too far away. That is why people are increasingly talking about Nizhneyansk to verify the veracity of which the majority are unable to. The notorious daredevils who visited this place claim that they have not seen anything worse. Nizhneyansk - ready-made scenery for chilling horror films. Gray blocky two-story buildings stretch into long gloomy streets. Silhouettes periodically appear in windows with broken glass. Or maybe it's just rags, disturbed by cold winds?
fin whale
Some abandoned cities in Russia were top-secret objects in the past. So Finval is just an invented name. The real name of the bay, which became the habitat of the officers of the Navy, is Bechevinskaya. A four-story dormitory (popularly referred to as a "chudilnik"), two three-story houses with officers' apartments and a store were erected on its territory. In addition, barracks, headquarters, a galley, a diesel substation, a garage, a boiler room and a warehouse have been built.
The garrison was disbanded in 1996. Now there are no soldiers in Finval. Only bears and foxes roam the desert streets.
Alykel
Many abandoned cities in Russia were the residence of the military. Among them is Alykel. After the withdrawal of the air squadron, he simply died out. There is very little information about the city. Collecting data is incredibly difficult due to the closed nature of this place. At present, there are preserved on its territory multi-story houses and airport.
Neftegorsk
The city occupies a special sad place in the list of "Abandoned Cities of Russia". Photos of this settlement on Sakhalin overnight spread all over the world. And for what reason? The fact is that at one in the morning on the twenty-eighth of May 1995 there happened powerful earthquake(ten points), which resulted in the death of more than two thousand people. Just one push turned dozens of houses into a shapeless pile of building materials. Rescuers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations did everything possible to release the survivors. Hours of silence were arranged periodically, since it was not so easy to hear the groans of the victims. Of course, there were also marauders, rummaging through piles of household items and clothing in search of anything of value.
The surviving oil mountaineers received free housing in other cities and financial assistance. Young people were given the opportunity to study at any university in the country for free.
Now on the site of Neftegorsk there is only a dead field, all that remains of the once prosperous city of oilmen.
Conclusion
The abandoned cities of Russia, the list of which is updated from time to time, can tell a lot of interesting things about the history of the state and its citizens. Unfortunately, marauders mercilessly destroy the original spirit of such places. When visiting ghost towns, be respectful of such an unusual historical heritage.
A few words about abandoned cities
There are a lot of abandoned places in the world. It can be not only abandoned towns or villages, but also entire cities and metropolitan areas. There are many reasons why people leave their habitats, but the main reasons are danger and economic factors. The largest number of abandoned towns and villages is, of course, on the territory of the former USSR and the USA.
Nowadays, visiting such abandoned places is becoming more and more popular. Tourists come from all over the world to listen to the ringing silence of such strange and at the same time interesting places. For example, I have never been to any of these places, as many of you, I think. Therefore, it will be interesting to see first-hand hot photos. Some say that ghosts live in abandoned cities, and these stories are especially relevant for Pripyat, where so many people died.
In any case, here is something to look at:
Abandoned town-island Gunkanjima, Japan
Hanshima Island, also called Gunkanjima (in Warship Lane), is one of the 505 uninhabited islands in Nagasaki Prefecture, 15 kilometers from the city. The island was inhabited from 1887 to 1974, and there was also coal mining.
Mitsubishi bought the island in 1890 and started a project to mine coal from the bottom of the sea. They built the first large concrete building in Japan, an apartment building to house their growing workforce and protect them from typhoons.
When oil replaced coal in 1960, all coal mines in Japan began to close en masse, and the Hashim mine was no exception. Mitsubishi officially announced the closure of its mine in 1974, so the island of Gunkanjima became a ghost town. After 20 lonely years, Hashima Island received its first tourists on April 22, 2009, who still travel there to view the ruins.
San Zhi, Taiwan
San Zhi is an abandoned resort on the northern coast of Taiwan. It was built in the early 1980s, but construction on the futuristic resort came to a halt after a series of fatal accidents. Although the resort never opened, it still attracts tourists. Strange buildings now work as a tourist attraction. The colors of the buildings depend on their location. Green in the west, pink in the east, blue in the south, and white in the north.
Pripyat, Ukraine
Pripyat is an abandoned city in the exclusion zone in northern Ukraine. The city was founded in 1970 for the workers of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and was abandoned in 1986 due to an accident. The population of the city was about 50 thousand people. The city was evacuated in two days.
The city and the Exclusion Zone are now surrounded by a fence and the police, but it is not so difficult to obtain the necessary documents to visit the zone. Tourists are attracted to this place by the fact that it has not been touched by vandalism and since the accident everything has remained as it was, this beautiful place for filming programs, for example, footage from Pripyat can be seen in the battle of psychics online. The doors of all buildings are open to reduce the risk to visitors, and a dedicated guide can help you visit all the places you want in this abandoned city. The city of Chernobyl is located a few kilometers from Pripyat, where there are several hotels that are often used by tourists.
Kadykchan, Russia
Kadykchan is a ghost town that was built during World War II for coal mine workers and their families. In 1996, 6 people died in a mine explosion. After that, the mines were closed. Twelve thousand people were evacuated to neighboring areas, leaving the city empty and silent.
Centralia, Pennsylvania, USA
Centralia is a ghost town in Pennsylvania, USA. The population of the abandoned city has decreased from a thousand to 9 people. The reason for this devastation of the city is uncontrolled underground fires.
According to eyewitnesses of those events, in 1962, the administration of Centralia hired five firefighters to clear the city's garbage dump. The landfill was located next to the coal mines. The firemen set fire to the rubbish, allowed it to burn a little, and extinguished it. They have been doing this job for several years now. But the fire could not be extinguished completely, and gradually it spread to the mine and an underground fire began. The fire lasted several years, and in 1979, when the owner of a gas station was checking his underground tanks, he discovered that the temperature of gasoline had reached 78 degrees.
In 1984, Congress appropriated $42 million to evacuate the city. All but a few people left, turning Centralia into one of the many abandoned cities.
Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong
Kowloon is one of the districts of the city of Hong Kong. By the end of 1970 Kowloon Fortress began to grow. Square buildings were built one on one, thousands of modifications were made without the participation of architects and engineers, until the whole city became a monolith. Labyrinths of corridors run through the whole city. People move through roofs and special passages, as they can no longer walk the streets (if you can call them that), because they are littered with garbage. The lower floors are lit with fluorescent lamps, as sunlight can no longer get inside. During the construction, there were only two rules: electricity must be conducted in such a way as to avoid fire, and buildings must not be higher than 14 floors, due to the nearby airport.
By early 1980, Kowloon Walled City reached a population density of 35,000. The city is known for its huge number of brothels, casinos, cocaine parlors, opium, dog meat establishments and secret factories.
Yet Kowloon has become an abandoned city, but not for long. In 1984, the Hong Kong government decided to demolish the Kowloon walled city and resettle all residents. By that time, the population of the city was about 50 thousand people per 26,000 m², which made it the most populous city on earth.
After the demolition, a park was built on the site of the city, which began to be built in 1994. Perhaps the most grandiose ghost town on earth.
At the beginning of the journey:
City model:
The same park
Oradour-sur-Glane, France
Oradour-sur-Glane is an abandoned city in western France. The village was destroyed in June 1944 when 642 inhabitants were killed by the German Waffen-SS. A new village was rebuilt after the war not far from the original one. Old Oradour-sur-Glane is now an abandoned town and memorial.
Continuation of the list of abandoned settlements and objects on the FORUM,
where you can post your interesting material yourself, or discuss any topic in the appropriate section.
February 4, 1970 is considered the beginning of the construction of the city. The dormitory No. 1, the building of the construction department, the dining room No. 1 were laid down, the installation of the temporary settlement "Lesnoy" began. April 14, 1972 by Decree of the Presidium Supreme Council Ukrainian SSR Pripyat was given a name - in honor of the river on which it was built - Pripyat. Well, the status of the city of Pripyat acquired in 1979. On August 15, 1972, in a solemn ceremony, the first cubic meter of concrete was laid in the base of the main building of the power plant... Along with the commissioning of the first facilities at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the first houses were built. In the mid-1980s, about 48,000 people lived in prosperous Pripyat. Every year, the number of Pripyat residents increased by more than one and a half thousand people, of which almost half were newborns.
"Attention attention! Dear comrades! The city council of people's deputies reports that in connection with the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the city of Pripyat, an unfavorable radiation situation is developing.
Party and Soviet bodies, military units are accepted necessary measures. However, in order to ensure the complete safety of people, and, first of all, children, it becomes necessary to temporarily evacuate city residents to settlements in the Kyiv region. To do this, today, on the twenty-seventh of April, starting from fourteen zero zero hours, buses will be served to each residential building, accompanied by police officers and representatives of the city executive committee.
It is recommended to take with you documents, essential things, as well as, in the first case, food. The heads of enterprises and institutions determined the circle of employees who remain in place to ensure the normal functioning of the city's enterprises. All residential buildings for the period of evacuation will be guarded by police officers.
Comrades, when temporarily leaving your home, please do not forget to close the windows, turn off electrical and gas appliances, turn off the water taps. We ask you to keep calm, orderliness and order during the temporary evacuation.”
Such a message was heard by the inhabitants of the city of Pripyat on April 27, 1986. Now it is a ghost town with a population of 0, but with the possibility of a full tour. Walk along the dead city”, a visit to the Polesie hotel, a school, a kindergarten, once residential buildings and even a three-course dinner. In online stores it is possible to buy everything from stickers to devices for measuring radiation. A webcam will be installed soon, fundraising is actively going on online.
This young city, and it became a city only since 1979, was a major transport hub, construction was actively going on in Pripyat. They built the cinema "Prometheus", the house of culture "Energetik", the hotel "Polesye", the palace of pioneers, sports complexes, shopping centers, a park of culture, with its Ferris wheel. The city was exemplary, foreign delegations were brought here to show how the Soviet people live. It seemed that everything was just beginning, like other young cities of the Soviet Union ...
But Pripyat was unable to continue its history along with those who lived in it, built it, raised children and was simply proud of their city. After the evacuation, the marauders stole everything that was possible, only the pianos remained in the houses, because of their weight, and the beds were not touched in kindergartens, probably because of the strong “background” of iron. The city is overgrown with greenery. It is especially unusual to see this at the stadium, where trees grow right from the treadmill, breaking through the asphalt.
Today, about 300 people live in the Zone. These are "self-settlers", those who returned to their native land. These are mainly elderly people, for whom adaptation to new conditions and environment is very difficult. They are engaged in subsistence farming and a mobile shop comes to them 1-2 times a week.
Every year, up to several thousand people come here from April 26 to May 9. Among them are former residents and participants in the consequences of the liquidation of the accident. They come here to meet friends, colleagues, to commemorate those whom they will never see again.
As a result of the Chernobyl disaster, for the first time in Ukraine, people were evacuated and resettled from contaminated territories, completely freed from the population of some small towns, as well as large, medium and small rural settlements. In total during 1986 - 1991. 163 thousand people were evacuated from the mandatory resettlement zone, including in 1990-1991. - 13658 people and 58.7 thousand people of voluntary migrants from all zones of influence of the Chernobyl disaster.
This beautiful and promising city turned out to be the youngest “ghost town”…
The most famous of the abandoned villages of the Magadan region. Kadykchan (according to folk Even legends - "Death Valley", and according to the toponymic dictionary of the North-East of the USSR - "Little Gorge") - an urban-type settlement in the Susuman district of the Magadan region, 65 km northwest of the city of Susuman in the Ayan-Yuryakh river basin (a tributary of the Kolyma). The population according to the 2002 census is 875 inhabitants, according to unofficial estimates for 2006 - 791 people. As of January 1986 - 10270 people.
The settlement at one time was the location of one of the Kolyma camps of the Gulag.
Kadykchan is a river, the left tributary of the Arkagala River in its lower reaches. For the first time the name Kadykchan appeared on the map of B.I. Vronsky in 1936, when his party was conducting research in the basin of the Emtygei and Khudzhak rivers. The village was built after the highest quality coal was found in 1943 at a depth of 400 meters. As a result, the Arkagalinskaya CHPP operated at the Kadykchansky coal and supplied electricity to 2/3 of the Magadan Region.
Nearly 6,000 people in Kadykchan began to rapidly thaw after an explosion at a mine in 1996, when it was decided to close the village. A few years later, the only local boiler house was defrosted, after which it became impossible to live in Kadykchan. By this time, there were about 400 people living in Kadykchan who refused to leave, and there had been no infrastructure for several years.
The awarding of the status of unpromising status to the village of Kadykchan and the resettlement of its inhabitants was announced on the basis of the law of the Magadan Region No. 32403 dated April 4, 2003.
According to the former Kadykchan resident V.S. Poletaev, “the Kadykchans were not evacuated in 10 days, but they dispersed on their own. Secondly, Kadykchan was closed not because it was thawed, but on orders from above, as an unprofitable settlement."
Now - an abandoned mining "ghost town". There are books and furniture in the houses, cars in the garages, children's pots in the toilets. On the square near the cinema there is a bust of V.I. Lenin.
Ostroglyady village, Bragin district, Gomel region. Looted by marauders.
It is located just 1 km from the highway Khoiniki-Bragin. Settled in 1986 after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
The ruins of the lord's estate have been preserved - an outbuilding in which the lord's servants lived. Three pansky alleys: kind of like oak, linden and hornbeam. The collapsed columns indicate that the manor was built in the style of classicism.
The descendants of Ostroglyad residents periodically come to the local cemetery. Some of them don't even live in Belarus anymore. By the way, people were buried here even after 1986.
The city of Chernobyl-2 is located to the northwest of the small Polesye city of Chernobyl, but it cannot be found on any topographic map. Exploring the maps, you will most likely find the designation of a boarding house for children, or dotted lines of forest roads at the location of the city, but not the designations of urban and technical buildings. The USSR knew how to hide a secret, especially if it was a military secret.
Only with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant did it become known about the existence of a small town (military garrison) in the Polissya forests, which was engaged in ... "space espionage". In the seventies of the last century, the military created unique radar systems that made it possible to track ballistic missile launches from the territories (military bases and submarines) of a potential enemy. The created radar was named - over-the-horizon radar station (ZGRLS). With the colossal dimensions of the masts and receiving antennas, the ZGRLS required a large human resource- about 1000 military men were on combat duty at this facility. A small town was created for the military and their families, with one street, which bore (is) the name of Kurchatov.
The decision to create an over-the-horizon radar system Duga No. 1 (near the city of Chernobyl) was made on the basis of government decrees of January 18, 1972 and April 14, 1975. Already in 1976, the main radar unit ZGRLS Chernobyl-2 was installed. The general designer of the ZG radar in Chernobyl-2 was the Research Institute for Long-Range Radio Communications (NIIDAR). Franz Kuzminsky was the chief designer and inspirer of the ZGRLS idea. The first tests of the radar by the State Commission were carried out in 1979. As the experts themselves note, "... in the process of preparing ... tests, a number of practical problems had to be solved, caused by the fact that an absolutely new, unique, unparalleled tool was introduced ...". According to some sources, “... during the tests, launches of ballistic missiles and launch vehicles from the US Eastern Missile Range were detected, the adequacy of the models was checked based on the results of detection of incident launches of US ballistic missiles and launch vehicles, which confirmed the correctness of the chosen model representations.” At the same time, the shortcomings of the system were also found, which consisted in the lack of a qualitative definition of single targets and small groups of targets. The high-quality work of the ZGRLS was achieved only for the conditions of massive strikes of ballistic missiles of a potential enemy. Despite some functional limitations, in 1982 the ZGLRS in Chernobyl-2, according to the Government Decree (dated May 31, 1982), was put into trial operation.
With the start of operation of the complexes, additional problems arose. It turns out that part of the operating frequency range of the radar systems coincided with the systems of civil aviation and the fishing fleet of European countries. The USSR received an official appeal from Western countries that the created systems significantly affect the safety of aviation and maritime navigation. The USSR made concessions and stopped using operating frequencies. Immediately before the designers was given the task of eliminating the shortcomings of the radar. Scientists and designers solved the problem, and after modernization, in 1985, the system began to pass the State acceptance. After the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986, the ZG radar was removed from combat duty, and the equipment was mothballed. The military and civilian population was evacuated from the zone of radioactive contamination. When the leadership and the military of the USSR realized the scale of the ecological catastrophe, it was decided (in 1987) to export valuable equipment and systems to the city of Komsomolsk. So the unique object that provided the space shield of the Soviet state ceased to function, and the city and urban infrastructure were forgotten and abandoned.
Off the west coast of Japan is a dead island (Gankajima, Gunkajima or Gunkanjima, also called Hashima or Hasima), which was barely known even to the Japanese. In Nagasaki Prefecture, it was listed as one of the uninhabited islands. For a long time it was nothing more than a small reef.
In 1810, the accidental discovery of coal drastically changed the fate of this reef. Mitsubishi bought Gankajima and began mining coal from the bottom of the sea. The work required significant labor costs and manpower. Construction began, people arrived to live and work here. Thanks to the coal industry, housing estates began to expand continuously. Residential complexes were built, and much more durable than on the mainland, in order to protect against the tsunami. By the middle of the 20th century, the population density on the island was 835 people per hectare, one of the highest population densities in the world. The reef became an artificial island with a diameter of about one kilometer (three-quarters of a mile) in perimeter, with a population of 5,300.
Rising above the ocean, a maze of residential buildings and industrial facilities appeared, built together. From the ocean, the silhouette of the island resembled a ship of the line - it was called Gunkanjima. It is like a fortress that has grown out of the sea, surrounded by high walls. The island gave the impression of a small kingdom. Its inhabitants boasted, "There is nothing in the world that we do not have here." They were right. They really had everything within their miniature kingdom - except for the cemetery. But, the irony of this was soon proven. The island was already doomed to turn into a huge cemetery.
Over time, coal was replaced by oil, and the coal fields began to close. In 1974, one of the most populous islands in the world became completely deserted. Mitsubishi has officially announced the closure of the field. The city looked as if all its inhabitants had suddenly disappeared overnight. The island was devastated, but the spirit of the people who left it remained. In the buildings, there is a lot of evidence of human activity. The strange atmosphere evokes the feeling that the island fell asleep when the inhabitants left it.
Currently, visiting the island is prohibited. The exception was the filming of the movie "Royal Battle" on the island.
The city got its name from the Detroit River (fr. le détroit du Lac Érie), which means the strait of Lake Erie, connecting Lake Huron with Lake Erie. In the XVII-XVIII centuries. the strait meant not only the current Detroit River, but also Lake St. Clair and the river of the same name. Traveling up the Detroit River on the ship La Salle, Catholic priest Louis Hennepin noted that the north bank was ideal for a settlement. Here, in 1701, Antoine Laumet de La Mothe-Cadillac (Fr. Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac) founded Fort Detroit (Fr. Ponchartrain du Detroit) with a group of 51 French Canadians. By 1765, the white population of Detroit was 800, which put it on a par with the largest French settlements in America at that time, Montreal and St. Louis. However, in 1760, both Montreal and Detroit were surrendered to the British and became part of the British colonial empire. Having become masters, the British reduced the name of the fort to Detroit.
In 1763, the fort was besieged by the rebellious Indians of the leader Pontiac. Being forced to soften its policy in the occupied territories, the British government in the same year forbade the English colonists to establish new settlements west of the Appalachian mountains, which, in turn, caused discontent among the large population of the British colonies proper and became one of the causes of the American Revolution. After the revolution, Detroit remained a Canadian town for a long time and passed to the United States only in 1796. In 1805, most of Detroit burned down in a fire. From 1805 to 1847 Detroit was the capital of the territory and then the new state of Michigan. During this time, its population increased greatly. In 1812, it was again occupied by the British during the Anglo-American War (1812-1814), a year later it was recaptured by the Americans and received city status in 1815. On the eve of the Civil War, Detroit was one of the key points of the "underground railroad", on which runaway black slaves made their way from the United States to Canada. For some time, the future president, and then Lieutenant Ulysses Grant, lived here, and during the war, many citizens volunteered to join the army of northerners. George Armstrong Custer formed them into the famous "Michigan Brigade".
Many of the city's buildings and mansions were built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when Detroit entered the Gilded Age. At the time, it was called the "Paris of the West" for its luxurious architecture and Washington Boulevard, brightly lit by Edison bulbs. Its favorable location on the waterway of the Great Lakes system has made the city a major transportation hub. The basis of the urban economy in the middle of the XIX century. was shipbuilding. At the end of the same century, the advent of automobiles inspired Henry Ford to create his own model and the Ford Motor Company (1904). The factories of Ford, Duran, the Dodge brothers (see Dodge), Packard and Chrysler turned Detroit into the automobile capital of the world.
During Prohibition, smugglers used the river to transport liquor from Canada. In the 1930s, with the advent of labor unions, Detroit became the scene of a struggle between the auto workers' union and employers. In particular, such leaders as Hoffa and James Riddle came to the fore. In the 1940s, one of the first American highways, the M-8, passed through the city, and thanks to the economic boom of the Second World War, Detroit earned the nickname "the arsenal of democracy." The rapid economic growth of the first half of the 20th century was accompanied by an influx of population from the southern states (mostly blacks) and Europe, which led to racial unrest and open rebellion in 1943.
In the 50s of the XX century, Detroit remained the automobile capital of the United States, at that time promoting a program of cheap and public cars at the state level. The largest automobile factories in the country (Ford, General Motors, Chrysler) were concentrated in Detroit, and the city experienced a boom in its development - it literally flourished, becoming one of the richest cities North America. Since the mid-1940s, with the development of the auto industry, a large number of private cars have appeared in the city. Constant traffic jams and lack of parking spaces became an increasingly acute problem. At the same time, the need to purchase a personal car is promoted, public transport seems to be unprestigious - it is "transport for the poor." On the other hand, the public transport system is not developing, tram and trolleybus lines are being liquidated. This forces residents to switch to cheaper cars. As a result, the number of cars in the city is growing rapidly, and the old urban structure does not meet the requirements of the city of motorists. The authorities are trying to solve the problem by demolishing historic buildings in the city center to build parking lots.
By the beginning of the 21st century, in Detroit, the former automobile capital of the United States, the white population is about 10% and lives concentrated in the southern part of the city and in the suburbs.
Detroit was recognized as the most disadvantaged city in the United States. In addition to high crime, the environment is bad here, and in terms of unemployment there, this city ranks second in the United States. According to Forbes, since 1950 the population has decreased by a third, to 950,000 people. According to forecasts, at least until 2030, it will continue to decrease. Most spooky views Detroit can be seen in Eminem's "Beautiful" video.
Khalmer-Yu - a former urban-type settlement (ghost town) in the Komi Republic, was subordinate to the Mining District Council of the city of Vorkuta. It was abolished in 1996. It was connected by an access railway track about 60 km long with the railway station on Metallistov Square in Vorkuta. Coal was mined (Pechora coal basin).
Population 7.1 thousand people (1959); 7.7 thousand people (1963); 4.1 thousand people (1994).
"Khalmer-Yu" in translation from Nenets means "River in the valley of death." There is also such a translation option as "Dead River". The Nenets nomadic reindeer herders considered Khalmer-Yu a sacred place where they brought their dead for burial. Khal-Valley, Mer-Death, Yu-River (translated from Nenets) Working seams on the Khalmer-Yu River were discovered in the summer of 1942 by the party of geologist G. A. Ivanov. Coal from the new deposit was grade K, the most valuable for coke production. At the site of the future settlement, it was decided to leave a group of workers to determine the parameters of the deposit. However, bad weather in late autumn and early winter cut the group off from Vorkuta. Several attempts were made to locate the group and rescue the people. In late autumn, an attempt was made to deliver food on deer. Fourteen out of a hundred deer returned to Vorkuta, the rest died on the way. Yagel turned out to be frozen in the ice, and the deer died from starvation. It was not possible to detect two small tents from airplanes. In January, a ski detachment went out in search of a detachment. A group of workers was found in a state of extreme exhaustion and was transported to Vorkuta.
It was decided to continue exploration of the new deposit, and in the spring of 1943 the work was headed by the laureate State Prize USSR G. G. Bogdanovich. During the summer, the necessary material base was created, by the autumn about 250 people lived. A radio station, a canteen, a bakery, a bathhouse were operating, and the necessary food supply was abandoned for the winter. Eight drilling crews simultaneously passed three deep pits. And to provide the village with fuel, an exploration and expedition adit was laid on the other side of the river.
The mine began its work in 1957, its average daily production was 250 tons.
With the transition of the new Russia to a market economy, the question arose of the expediency of the existence of Halmer-Yu. On December 25, 1993, the government of the Russian Federation adopted a resolution on the liquidation of the mine. In the autumn of 1995, it was planned to complete the liquidation of the village, and the government tried to carry out the process according to world standards, which required huge financial and material resources. As a result, OMON forces were used during the eviction. Doors were kicked in, people were forcibly driven into wagons and taken to Vorkuta. New housing has not yet been provided to people, some have received unfinished apartments. Their resettlement in hostels and hotels in Vorkuta made people hostages of the promises of the authorities, which few people believed.
Now the territory of the village is used as a military training ground under the code name "Pemboi". August 17, 2005 during the exercises strategic aviation A Tu-160 bomber carrying Russian President Vladimir Putin launched three missiles at former home culture of Khalmer-Yu village
Kowloon, or Kowloon, sometimes Kowloon, means "Nine Dragons" - the peninsular part of the urban area of Hong Kong (not including the New Territories). Consists of the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. The eastern border of Kowloon runs along the Lei Yu Mun Strait, the western border - through Mei Fu San Chyun and Stonecutters Island, the eastern border - through the Tate Pyramid and the Lion Stone, and the south - along Victoria Bay. The population of Kowloon (2000 data) is 2 million 71 thousand people. The population density is 44 thousand people / km². The area of the peninsula is about 47 km². Together with Hong Kong Island, its population makes up 47% of the population of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
A nightmare place! .. Here you could shoot gloomy thrillers, fantastic action films, bloody horror films, or at least melodramas about the torments of the urban poor - but not comedies. For a decade and a half there has been nothing like this here: everything is blooming and green. However, old memories and yellowing photographs do not let you forget about the scary past of this area.
Oradour-sur-Glane (fr. Oradour-sur-Glane) is a village in France in the department of Haute-Vienne (Limousin). The population is 2,025 inhabitants (1999).
Modern Oradour-sur-Glan was built away from the village of the same name, destroyed by German soldiers during the Second World War.
The village of Oradur in 1944 turned into a ghost - the Nazis shot and burned 642 of its inhabitants in one day, and then set fire to the village itself. Among the dead were 207 children and 245 women.
Those terrible events of 65 years ago will not be forgotten by the burned church, ashes, wells that have become cemeteries.
Soldiers of the 2nd SS Panzer Division "Reich" under the command of General Heinz Lammerding, on their way from Toulouse to the Normandy front, surrounded Oradour on 10 June. Under the pretext of checking documents, they herded the inhabitants to the market square and demanded that the fugitives be handed over to them, including residents of Alsace and Lorraine, who allegedly hid in the village from the German authorities. The head of the administration refused to give them up, deciding to sacrifice himself and, if necessary, his family. However, the Nazis did not manage to do this. They herded the men into barns and machine-gunned them. The bodies were covered with straw and burned. The soldiers locked the women and children in the church. First, asphyxiating gas was let into the building, and then the church was set on fire. Five men and one woman survived.
By such measures, the Nazis discouraged the French from cooperating with the Resistance fighters, who supported the Allies who opened a second front in Normandy.
The massacre in Oradour-sur-Glane, which never resisted the invaders, became a symbol of Nazi barbarism. The ruins of the village were included in the list of historical monuments of France in 1945, and a new one was later built near the old Oradour.
Several participants in the massacre - seven Germans and 14 Alsatians, 13 of whom were recruited into the Wehrmacht by force - appeared on January 12, 1953 before a military court in Bordeaux. The court sentenced two of them to death, which was later commuted, and to forced labor.
A month later, the French parliament, under pressure from Alsace deputies, passed a law that granted amnesty to 13 Frenchmen who acted "against their will." The act angered relatives of the victims of the Oradour massacre, and for more than 20 years official representatives of the state were not invited to memorial ceremonies.
On the northern coast of the island of Taiwan, not far from Taipei (the state capital), stands the ghost town of San Zhi. Back in the early eighties of the last century, a group of companies under the patronage of the state began the construction of an ultramodern city.
As planned, the city of San Zhi was to become a haven for the capital's rich. No funds were spared for the construction, and very quickly futuristic plate houses appeared on the coast, which were supposed to be the height of engineering. However, instead of the world fame of the city of the future, the city of San Zhi was desolated and notorious as a ghost town.
Local archives testify that during the construction process there were several accidents with human casualties, and eyewitnesses claim that accidents occurred almost every day.
The population of Taiwan is quite superstitious and bad rumors quickly began to circulate about the city of San Zhi.
The construction was completed, even a grand opening was held, but there were no people who wanted to buy real estate in the city, and tourists were extremely reluctant to come.
Developers tried to change the situation, to carry out large-scale promotions, but very soon San Zhi fell into disrepair, and then completely turned into a restricted area.
Local residents unanimously claim that this place is cursed and the city is full of ghosts. Several times the government took the initiative to demolish all the buildings, but each time such a proposal came across a civil protest.
The fact is that the locals sincerely believe that the city has become a haven for lost souls, and to deprive ghosts of a haven means serious troubles for themselves and their entire family.
So the resort town of San Zhi stood on the shore, gradually collapsing.
By order of the Taipei County government, the city was classified as a dangerous architectural structure, and an order was issued for its demolition. Demolition began on December 29, 2008. It was planned that by the Chinese New Year, around the beginning of February 2009, the city should be demolished.
In the first half of the 18th century, the Karabakh Khan Panahali ordered to build a residential complex for himself - an imaret from white stone. This imaret for a long time served as a kind of reference point for the inhabitants of nearby villages. Aghdam - “bright, sunlit, white house”
Aghdam was founded in the 18th century and received the status of a city in 1828. Population in 1989 - 28 thousand people, currently uninhabited. It is located 26 km from Stepanakert, 365 km from Baku. Before the Karabakh war of 1991-1994. in the city there were a butter and cheese factory, a winery (Production Association for the processing of grapes - the Aghdam brandy factory), a canning and machine-building factories, a metal products factory, and a railway station.
During the Karabakh war, Aghdam became the scene of fierce battles. In the period from 1992 to 1993, Azerbaijani artillery periodically shelled Stepanakert from the territory of Aghdam. In early June 1993, the Armenian armed forces, in order to suppress the enemy's firing points, launched an attack on Aghdam.
The first assault began on June 12, but was repulsed. According to Armenian sources, the first assault on Aghdam was a distraction and was carried out by the forces of the Martuni defensive detachment. Then the Armenian Lieutenant Colonel Monte Melkonyan died.
On June 15, the second assault on Aghdam was undertaken. After the failure, the Armenian formations switched all their forces to the capture of Mardakert, after the capture of which they again proceeded to storm Agdam.
On July 3, the third assault began, and on July 14, the fourth. The assault involved 6,000 soldiers, a Mi-24 squadron, and about 60 tanks. The defense of Aghdam was held by the 708th brigade of the NAA, numbering 6,000 people. Despite the stubborn defense, the garrison of the city was put in a difficult position due to the protracted internal political crisis that unfolded in Baku. The personnel were exhausted by many days of fighting and experienced a lack of reinforcements, a shortage of ammunition. During the fighting, the defenders lost about half of the personnel. By July 5, the city was practically surrounded by Karabakh Armenians, who subjected it to intense shelling from artillery and Grad installations. As a result, on the night of July 23-24, after 42 days of continuous hostilities, the units of the Aghdam brigade were forced to leave the city and retreat to the northern and eastern directions of the villages of Goytepe and Zankishaly-Afatli. The city fell.
The former Azerbaijani city of Aghdam is all Soviet Union knew thanks to the famous brand of port wine that was produced here. Now it is in the full sense of the word "former city". Everything was destroyed except for the large mosque in the city center. Now not only is port wine not produced here, there is simply no one here. Occasionally, a truck moves along the deserted streets, among the rubble from the remains of building materials and fittings. the only economic activity, which is carried out in the city by residents of the surrounding regions of Nagorno-Karabakh, is the dismantling of the remains of buildings for building materials that may still be useful for construction.
Under the jurisdiction of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which has controlled the settlement since July 23, 1993, it is located in the Askeran region of the NKR, according to the jurisdiction of Azerbaijan, it is the administrative center of the Aghdam region of Azerbaijan, part of which, according to the UN Security Council resolution, is considered occupied by Armenian forces.
The city is located in the north of the United States, in the state of Indiana, a southeastern suburb of Chicago, located on the southern shore of Lake Michigan. Birthplace of the King of Pop Michael Jackson. Founded in 1906 by the US Steel Trust. Together with the adjoining points of East Chicago, Indiana Harbor, and others, it forms the largest center of the US iron and steel industry; 100,000 people are employed in industry, including up to 80,000 in metallurgy and related industries (coke chemistry, production of building materials, metalworking).
In 1960, the city reached its peak population of 178,320 residents, but over time, unemployment, crime, and more forced residents to leave the city.
Gary began to acquire the status of a dysfunctional city. The immediate suburbs have become a focus of poverty. The increasing outflow of people left tracts of free land and countless empty buildings. Shops and restaurants are boarded up on the central streets for many kilometers. It was rare to find an open fast food place with twinkling lights.
In 1979, less than 40 enterprises remained in the city. Opened in 1978, the Sheraton Hotel went bankrupt within 5 years and closed in 1984. The cost of maintaining the hotel for a couple of years after opening exceeded income, and the owners of the unprofitable hotel business were forced to transfer the hotel to the city to pay off debts. But in 1983, the city itself was no longer able to pay its utility bills for the hotel, and layoffs of about 400 employees followed.
Between 1980-1990, the city's population declined by 25%. The 2000 census showed Gary had a population of 102,746 people, among them 25.8% of citizens were below the poverty line. Census officials also noted that Gary has the most high percent African-American residents than any other US city with a population of 100,000 or more.
Now Gary is a real ghost town. People have almost completely forgotten it, leaving many beautiful buildings and streets to collapse.
The city of Kolmanskop is located in the Namib Desert, 10 kilometers from Lüderitz and the Atlantic coast. This city has a remarkable and somewhat romantic history. The fact is that it was in this city that the diamond rush, second in importance after the boom in Kimberley, took place in its time.
The diamond rush began in April 1908 thanks to the experience and luck of Zacarias Leval, an employee of the Lüderitz-Keetmanshoop railway. At one time he worked in Kimberley and with a trained eye managed to make out diamonds right on the surface of the sandy desert near Kolmanskop, just 7 kilometers along the rails from Lüderitz. Zacarias gave the find to foreman August Shtauh, who was even quicker and immediately realized what was happening.
Without attracting too much attention, he hurried to stake out vast areas along a narrow saddle in the dolomite ridge near Lüderitz. Along this peculiar corridor, the wind carries sand from the southern part of the Namib Desert adjacent to the mouth of the Orange Desert further north. It was there, the quick-witted Stauch realized, that small diamonds carried by the river into the ocean, and then thrown ashore by the surf, are carried along with the sand. In a matter of years, the foreman became a multimillionaire.
Large buildings were built in Kolmanskop beautiful houses, school, hospital, stadium. In a few years, an exemplary German town has grown out of the ground. The inhabitants counted on long-term prosperity in the diamond city. After all, there were so many diamonds in this deserted corner that the workers crawled on their stomachs and easily raked them into a scoop with a brush.
Perhaps the settlers somehow offended the local deities. Or maybe they were just born under an unlucky star. But the flow of diamonds quickly dried up, and as soon as they began to dig deeper, it turned out that, alas, no innumerable treasures were expected in the Namibian land. Diamond reserves were practically limited to the first diamonds found on the sand.
Then it turned out that it is hard to live in this town, and there is no need: sandstorms, lack of drinking water. And ten years after its foundation, a mass exodus of local residents began. Since then, Kolmanskop has stood as an amazing abandoned city in the middle of a sandy desert. Most of the houses are almost completely covered with sand and make a somewhat depressing sight (see photo). Although, however, the Namibians, in their effort to attract the attention of tourists to this region, have restored some buildings in recent decades and are trying to maintain the museum city in good condition. Therefore, it will be quite interesting to come here on an excursion.
The former settlement of coal miners in the Perm Territory in the territorial subordination of the city of Gubakha.
Point of interest: Mariinskaya Cave (400 m from the former ZhBK plant).
In some sources, it is called Staraya Gubakha (definitely erroneously).
In 1721, in the Solikamsk district of the Siberian province, the Kizelovskoye coal deposit was discovered, in 1778 the Gubakhinsky mines were laid, the workers of which lived in a village on the high right bank of the Kosva River (a tributary of the Kama River).
The deposit was divided into Verkhnegubakha and Nizhnegubakha. Verkhnegubakha mines belonged to the Vsevolozhsky princes.
In July 1924, the third in the RSFSR Kizelovskaya GRES No. 3, built in Gubakha according to the plan of the State Commission for Electrification of Russia (GOELRO), gave current, which in 1934 was named after S.M. Kirov.
The settlement of Gubakha was transformed into a city from the workers' settlements of Nizhnyaya and Verkhnyaya Gubakha, Krzhizhanovsky and the village of the Krupskaya mine on March 22, 1941.
Prior to this official separation into an independent administrative unit, Gubakha was a rural area of the city of Kizel. The settlement is located in the resettlement zone due to the proximity of the industrial zone of the Metafrax plant.
At the present time - a holiday village on the basis of the former, again, a mining village. The city is almost completely absorbed by nature. Of noteworthy buildings - the hospital, the building of the cultural and business center, the building of the NKVD.
"Industrial" is an urban-type settlement in the Komi Republic of Russia. Administratively subordinated to the city of Vorkuta.
Population 450 inhabitants (2007).
After the explosion in the winter of 1998 at the main enterprise of the village, the Central mine, the mine stopped working, after which the village fell into decay.
The village is now abandoned.
The industrial settlement was founded in 1954. The history of this village is closely connected with the history of two mines - Industrial and Central.
The village is located on the banks of the Izyuorsh River, a tributary of the Vorkuta River.
Residential buildings in the village were two-story barracks of the deconvoyed camp. The Promyshlenny settlement existed thanks to two city-forming enterprises - two mines of Central and Promyshlenny. The first began to build the Central mine. This mine was officially laid down in 1948. Its construction progressed rather slowly. When a new group of prisoners from the city of Lvov arrived here, they saw only a cemetery and six old barracks. A prisoner from the Lithuanian SSR, the Western part of the Ukrainian SSR and from other regions of the USSR worked here. They built houses in the village of Promyshlenny, the buildings of the Tsentralnaya mine, and then the buildings of the Promyshlenny mine. The Centralnaya mine was opened in 1954. Mine "Central" was the first "free" mine in Vorkuta. It was built, of course, by prisoners, but free people worked on it. Who freed himself, who came here initially free from the army, from technical schools, simply out of interest in recruiting for a better share, for a “long ruble”.
On January 18, 1998, an explosion occurred at the Tsentralnaya mine, which claimed several dozen lives who died during the explosion or subsequently. Rescuers got out of the rubble in the mine living and dead people. But many of the dead remained in the mine buried under the rubble. Already at 4 o'clock that day, the BBC channel (UK) was already broadcasting news "about the tragedy." Of course, for the BBC it was a sensation, an exclusive, but for us it was a tragedy. Thus ended the 44-year fate of this coal mining enterprise. And the mine "Industrial" has long been closed in the mid-90s. At present, there are no traces of the Central mine. Like the ruins of the Industrial mine, they were removed by a Vorkuta company that specializes in the elimination of ruins by order of our state. It is important to note that at the closed mines of Vorkuta, in the end, there are no waste heaps, or even mine buildings, which cannot be said about the mines of Donbass. Now there is nothing here as if there was no mine. After it was impossible to work further at the last mine, the Vorkuta administration decided to close the village of Promyshlenny. Thanks to, government subsidies The "pilot project" managed to relocate willing families to move outside Vorkuta. It was one of the conditions for the move. However, not everyone agreed to move, just outside the city of Vorkuta. Many residents lived to the last in the once 12,000-strong village of Promyshlenny.
Residential buildings were cleaned in various ways. Some were simply burned, under the supervision of fire brigades. Others were dismantled for a long time for building materials, which were then sent south, for example, to Krasnodar. However, there were also cases of deliberate arson. So, for example, attackers set fire, of course, to an uninhabited house on Dolgoprudny Street. On the first floor there was a children's clinic, and on the second floor there was a house of life of the Promyshlenny settlement. Firefighters were unable to save the important building for the village. Still, the building was wooden, and they burn quickly, the main thing is that the fire does not spread to other houses.
Even earlier, in the village of Promyshlenny, a fire broke out in a red two-story, two-entrance house on Promyshlennaya Street. The fire started late at night in winter. People could get hurt, but luckily they didn't. The victim of the tragedy was only a thoroughbred shepherd dog, which lived in the first entrance. The inhabitants of this house became victims of the fire, and for some time lived in a dispensary on Vostochny passage. In the summer of 2006, only a few houses remained in the village. The roads in the village of Promyshlenny remained in excellent condition. Currently, only the ruins of stone buildings remain here.
Yubileyny village belongs to the youngest mine of the Gremyachinsky section of the Kizelovsky coal basin - sh. "Shumikhinskaya", laid down in 1957. It reached its design capacity (about 450 thousand tons of coal per year) in 1989, just before the "perestroika". Destroyed in 1998.
The destruction of this mine is connected with the performances of miners in Gremyachinsk (they knocked with helmets for 3 months at the administration). They say that there was a delegation on the Gorbaty Bridge in the protest action of miners in Moscow.
At the moment, there is nothing left at the industrial site of the mine connected with the coal industry. Some buildings have been converted into sawmills. The rest is destroyed, hidden under ground level. As a result of the "restructuring", the entire staff of this mine was instantly dismissed and left to the mercy of fate. The leadership of the Perm region and Gremyachinsk then turned a blind eye to everything, silently supporting the criminal actions of the "restructuring agents".
At that time, there was no gas in Yubileiny settlement, which was installed only in 2000, and the boiler house that heats the village was also destroyed. What was left of it could not heat such a large number of apartments, and in the winter of 1999, almost the entire heating system of Yubileiny was defrosted, just to the delight of the scrap metal looters who began to rob the houses that had already begun to empty. The surviving buildings somehow survived this, although their heating systems were also damaged by frost and vandals.
With the arrival of gas in Yubileiny and the construction of a boiler house, the situation with heat supply improved, but no one was going to restore the looted buildings, almost all the residents of these houses left the village. They found an opportunity to leave at their own expense.
Highly professional specialists worked at Shumikhinskaya, they turned out to be in principle in demand in other industries and in other regions. On the social situation in the village then you can draw terrible pictures. Residents of the village dreamed of high-quality telephone communications, there were no cell phones then. When the communication system "Pikhta-2" was installed and its testing began, a bunch of degenerates deliberately dropped it. In the summer of 1999, it was still lying, but after a while it was dismantled and taken out. I asked Uralsvyazinform, apparently they themselves do not know about the fate of the communication mast. The second same mast stands in Gremyachinsk.
The Shumikhinskaya mine currently has about 12 million tons of unworked balance coal reserves, about 3 million tons of off-balance coal, plus a very certain amount of coal from non-working seams. This mine at that time (1998) was one of the few that made a profit. Surely there were similar mines in Kizel. When the operation with housing certificates for miners began, the population decreased even more. This state of buildings in the village is associated more with a heat supply disaster than with the departure of the population. School No. 15 also fell victim to the disaster. Due to the destroyed heating system, it was closed. In addition to these terrible five-story buildings, there were brick two-story houses with 8-16 apartments in the village. Winter with little or no heating caused the destruction of these houses. Water penetrated into the masonry of the walls of these houses, which froze in winter. In the spring, the masonry of the walls could not stand it, the bricks began to fall out along the entire length of the walls. The inhabitants of these houses were relocated to the few survivors. The houses themselves are now dismantled into bricks by the same looters-metal scrappers.
From the production in Yubileiny, small timber processing enterprises now work, they make euro-plate, door and window openings, and other wood products. Prisoners now live in the house of mine rescuers, something like a free settlement is arranged there.
After acts of vandalism, the houses were left in such ruins that it is not clear how they even kept upright. The coming winter did its job, the diamond-shaped sidewalls of the roofs, barbarously broken window openings, the vertical remains of the walls were soaked with water and finally fell with the onset of spring. Children still walk in these ruins, and some individuals also visit in search of bricks. The Ministry of Emergency Situations is resting, they probably have more important things to do than the safety of children ...
For reference: You can get to Yubileiny and Shumikhinsky from Kizel through Gubakha, there is a lapel in front of the village of Usva, an asphalt road goes to the villages, 9 km to Shumikhinsky, 18 km to Yubileiny.
AT Soviet time- an urban-type settlement in the Iultinsky district of the Chukotka national district. It is located in the spurs of the Ekvyvatap ridge; connected by road with the port of Egvekinot (in the Gulf of the Cross of the Bering Sea).
Tin mining center in Chukotka; The deposit was discovered in 1937. In 1953, a settlement was discovered. The area is characterized by exceptionally severe weather conditions, which led to difficulties with the delivery. Began to settle in 1994. In 1995, the village of Iultin officially ended its existence.
Iultinsky tin-tungsten deposit. Located in the river basin. Tenkergin, in the upper reaches of the Iultikanya-Lenotap interfluve, 2 km from the village. Iultin. Developed in 1959-1994. Iultinsky GOK.
The deposit belongs to the quartz-cassiterite-wolframite type. More than 100 ore bodies of complex morphology have been identified, uniting groups of quartz veins. Ore bodies are localized in the exo-endocontact of the Iultinsky granite stock. The southern group of veins is characterized by a higher content of tin and a lower content of tungsten trioxide compared to the veins of the Watershed and Eastern groups. In the areas of intersection and articulation of veins of different directions, an increased concentration of metals is observed. The size of ore bodies varies from tens to 1250 m along strike and up to 330 m along dip. Industrial minerals are cassiterite and wolframite. Due to its long-term exploitation, the main reserves of ore bodies located in the supra-intrusive zone have been worked out.
Until 1992, tin and tungsten mining in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug was unprofitable, the enterprises were planned and unprofitable (Peveksky GOK) or their profitability was ensured by special prices for their products (Iultinsky GOK). In market conditions, in 1994, the Iultinsky GOK stopped production, the Iultin and Svetloye deposits were mothballed. Once a thriving center of tin mining and manufacturing, the city of many thousands was abandoned in 1995. People left here in a hurry, as in an evacuation, taking only the most necessary with them. The city was completely dead by 2000.
Kolendo is the northernmost village of Sakhalin, located in the Okhinsky district of the Sakhalin region. Latitude 53.779932 - Longitude 142.783374.
The Kolendo oil field is located in the northern part of Sakhalin, on land. This is an old field that was put into operation in 1967 and is in the final stage of development.
The history of the field development began in 1923 in Okha. From 1923 to 1928, Japan developed the Okhinsky field under a concession agreement. From 1928 to 1944, the exploration and development of the field was carried out jointly by the Sakhalinneft trust (established in 1927) and a Japanese concessionaire. In 1944, the agreement with Japan was terminated, and since that time, the development of the Okhinsky field has been continued by the Sakhalinneft association (NGDU Okhaneftegaz).
In the 1950s, the attention of oil workers who cared about future prospects, attracted the areas of Tungora and Kolendo.
On April 25, 1961, the team of senior foreman N.A. Koveshnikova started drilling exploration well No. 1 with a design depth of 2,500 meters. In October 1961, well No. 1 began to flow after the test. The daily debit was 47 tons.
Meanwhile, the search in Colendo Square continued. After testing several wells, oil flows were obtained from a depth of one and a half kilometers. Thus, a new oil and gas field was discovered. Soon it was put into commercial operation. The first two Klendin wells produced as much oil as the entire Okhinsky oil field. In 1963, industrial development of the most powerful oil field in the Far East began near Kolendo Bay. The development plan for the village of Kolendo was approved.
The oil industry of Sakhalin reached significant development in the 60s. This was facilitated by the improvement in the quality of preparation of structures for exploratory drilling, intensive exploration work in new areas, justified drilling in new areas with single exploratory wells to a depth of 2000-3500 meters.
The resolution on the resettlement of the inhabitants of the village of Kolendo was issued in 1996, after the earthquake in Neftegorsk. In 1999, the construction of Canadian modules began in the Zima microdistrict in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. In 2001, residents of the village of Kolendo began to settle in the 13th microdistrict of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. In addition, residents are resettled in Okha and Nogliki.
According to the issue of the Nashi Ostrov newspaper dated November 22, 2002, the resettlement of the village is practically completed: supply of heat and energy resources and communication services to Kolendo will be interrupted.
Today, the city is completely extinct.
The abandoned village of Irbene, and a huge radio telescope, in the past a secret strategic military facility, were not even on the maps for mere mortals.
The space reconnaissance station "Zvezdochka" (aka military unit 51429) was built in the 70s. The station was a system of 3 radars designed to intercept signals from satellites, submarines and military bases, as well as tracking satellites, and to provide satellite communications.
At the same time, the village of Irbene was built. Several hundred people lived in it - the military with their families, but on the map the village was not marked in the flesh until 1993.
After the collapse of the USSR, it was decided to withdraw troops from Latvia. Around the "Asterisk" passions boiled. By agreement, the army had the right to take with them only movable property, but had to leave real estate.
It was then that a seemingly strange dispute flared up: what should be attributed to telescopes that move during operation, while their bases, stuffed with the most complex electronics, are motionless? It all ended with the fact that one telescope was dismantled and sent to Russia, while the other two remained in Latvia.
At present, the village of Irbene has turned into a ghost, and the remaining telescopes "Jupiter" and "Saturn" are practically restored and brought to such a state that serious research work has become possible. The premises of the giant radio telescope RT-32 have been partially restored.
Only here's the problem: there was no one to do research. In the 90s, unable to find a use for themselves, many scientists left. They were not prepared to replace them - it was not prestigious then to engage in science ...
Varosha - until the 70s, a lively seaside city, where hundreds of tourists flocked from all over Europe. They say that Varosha hotels were so popular that the most luxurious rooms in them were reserved by prudent British and Germans for 20 years in advance. Luxurious villas and hotels advanced by the standards of the 70s of the last century were built here.
It was a cozy seaside town, much like today's Larnaca, with multi-bed hotels along the sandy beach, with churches and clubs, panel houses and private villas, with schools, hospitals, kindergartens and gas stations of Petrolina, the Greek oil monopoly of those times. New Famagusta stretched south along the eastern coast of Cyprus, covering an area of several tens of square kilometers ...
What can be observed here now makes a rather depressing impression - Living rotting villas, a church with downcast crosses are waist-deep in thistles, weeds, cacti, rhododendrons. The inhabitants of Varosha are currently gulls, rodents and stray cats. In the silence of the streets, only the steps of UN peacekeepers and soldiers of the Turkish army are heard. Four kilometers of golden sandy beaches have remained unclaimed for more than three decades. A frozen crane, a series of hotels, bank buildings locked with padlocks. Parts of the neon sign of the Venus disco are barely visible through the thick bushes and weeds. Houses and villas that have been plundered more than once ...
The thing is that in 1974 the Greek fascists attempted a coup d'état (the goal was to subjugate Cyprus to the dictatorship of the Athenian black colonels), and Turkey was forced to send troops. On August 14-16, 1974, the Turkish army occupied 37% of the island, including Famagusta and one of its suburbs, Varosha. A few hours before the arrival of Turkish troops in Famagusta, all the Greek inhabitants of Varosha left their homes to become refugees in the southern part of the island, in mainland Greece, Great Britain and the United States. 16 thousand people left in full confidence that they would return in a week, a maximum of two. More than 30 years have passed since then, and they have not had the opportunity to enter their homes.
Unlike many other places in Cyprus, where the abandoned houses of the Greeks were occupied by their Turkish neighbors or migrants from Turkey (the Greeks call them Anatolian settlers), the Turks from Famagusta did not settle Varosha. The Turkish army surrounded the deserted village with a barbed wire fence, checkpoints and various other barriers, effectively mothballing Varosha in the form in which the Greek Cypriots left it in August 1974. And in this form, she survived to this day - the most terrible monument civil war that divided the once binational Cyprus into two unequal ethnic halves.
Every few years, the hope of returning the city to its inhabitants revived, but the parties still have not come to a compromise that would suit both communities. Varosha has become a bargaining chip in relations between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Varosha has long been the most impressive symbol of the division of the island, inhabited by the ghosts of the past.
Those who managed to slip through the wire fences erected by the Turkish army speak of plates of dried food left in the kitchens and dining rooms of once-elegant villas and houses, laundry that is still dried on ropes, and an incredible amount of weeds that littered the streets. Varosha. Shop window prices date back to 1974.
Varosha was subjected to total looting by marauders. At first it was the Turkish military, who took away furniture, televisions and dishes to the mainland. Then the inhabitants of nearby streets, who carried away everything that was not needed by the soldiers and officers of the occupying army. Turkey was forced to declare the city a closed zone, but this did not save it from total looting: everything that could be carried away was taken away.
Although, there is an alternative vision of the conflict - the British organized and provoked it in order to prevent the spread of Soviet influence in the Middle East in general and in Cyprus in particular. Makarios was going to demand (or demanded?) From the British to remove their bases from Cyprus, for which he paid with his life. “Turkish occupation” is, in fact, the introduction of troops of another NATO country to Cyprus, and the organization of a territory there that is not subordinate to the (close to the USSR) government of Cyprus and is even hostile to it. Maintaining Western control of this strategically important territory is much easier after partition.