Earlier we made a list of the most beautiful cities in the world, but now it's the turn of the scary ones. This could include countless such ugly small and medium towns around the world, but these ten are the most unattractive of all the capitals and major cities of the world.
These are real stone jungles or victims of urban sprawl combined with a lack of planning. If you live in one of these places, then of course you will disagree, but here we present a completely unbiased list of cities that could be great, but are unforgivably terrible for many reasons.
10. Guatemala, Guatemala
This smoke-filled and crime-filled city is the capital of a rather beautiful country. The city looks more like a slum than a capital, with most of the buildings on the verge of collapse.
9. Mexico City, Mexico
The city is known, at the moment, as one of the most dangerous, but even if it were a safe haven, it would not be more often visited by tourists anyway. This is one of the most polluted cities in the world and, in general, there is nothing to see there.
8. Amman, Jordan
The capital of a country with one of the most fascinating historical sites in the world (magical Petra) should be the only point of arrival and immediate departure (transfer point) on your itinerary if you don't like dirty, chaotic streets and ugly buildings that look like they are gradually falling down Each other.
7. Caracas, Venezuela
Venezuela is known for its unusual success in international competition beauty, since Venezuelan women are known for their love of plastic surgery, but the capital of this country has absolutely nothing to do with beauty. It is filled with slums, and its central areas seem to be completely devoid of planning and any style.
6. Luanda, Angola
It is now experiencing an economic boom due to the recent success of the African capital, so let's hope that new construction will turn into something more attractive than what we see today: disgusting residential buildings dot the horizon of what, unbelievably, is the most expensive city in the world.
5. Chisinau, Moldova
The capital of Moldova is an eyesore. An industrial city built up, for the most part, with very ugly Soviet-style buildings, most of which are dilapidated (and not very clean).
There are a large number of completely unattractive cities Soviet era in Eastern Europe, but still we expected more from the capital.
4. Houston, USA
The fourth largest city in the United States by population. Of course, there are many other disgusting American cities (it's still worth mentioning similar American cities: Atlanta, Cleveland ...), but this one should win the title of the most terrible of them: an impoverished and homeless population (about 1 in 5 families live below the poverty line). ) and the urban landscape without any formal division into districts.
3. Detroit, USA
Detroit is terrible not only aesthetically, but also in terms of quality of life, which explains why the city has lost a quarter of its population in a decade. One of the highest crime rates in the country may have contributed to this, but the city itself is a dirty, dying city made of brick, concrete and glass. Not very pretty.
2. Sao Paulo, Brazil
It seems that nature decided to give all the beauty to Rio and completely forgot about the existence of other Brazilian cities.
Sao Paulo might be one of the most impressive cities in terms of shopping and eating, but without a doubt, the city is one big concrete jungle.
The city is known for congested highways - this fact is already enough to make Los Angeles unattractive. In addition, there is nothing to see while walking along the streets (if anyone walks there at all, as this is one of the most pedestrian-unfriendly cities in the world).
The only attraction is Hollywood and the beaches nearby. Otherwise, Los Angeles is not a pretty place at all. And since this is one of the most famous cities in the world, year after year there is no excuse for its lack of livability and beauty.
This is hell on earth. 5 most creepy cities in which tourists are better not to meddle.
Cities are born, live and sometimes die, turning into tourist attractions. Terrible, post-industrial landscapes of abandoned and gradually destroyed by nature creations of human hands are extremely attractive to tourists. Here are ten of the scariest abandoned cities that can be visited relatively easily...
Pripyat, Ukraine
The date of the beginning of the end of this city is known: on May 26, 1986, there was a terrible accident at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. A few days after that, Pripyat was completely evacuated. It's like she's stuck in the 80s forever. Almost everything - from household items to window frames and doors - over the past decades it has been looted. Houses gradually turn into ruins and are overgrown with trees. Despite warnings from scientists that the area remains unsafe, recent times excursions to the dead city began quite often.
Sanji, Taiwan
In the late 70s of the last century, on the northern coast of Taiwan near Taipei, using the latest technologies At that time, a unique resort town was built. The original plate houses were intended for American officers. But they never managed to live in this city: due to financial difficulties in 1980, the project was frozen. In the late 80s, they decided to make a modern hotel with a pier for yachts there, but due to turmoil among the management, construction again had to be stopped. This place is notorious: during construction, workers constantly died there for unknown reasons. But this does not frighten tourists: lovers of tickling their nerves constantly come to the abandoned town.
Craco, Italy
A small picturesque city built on the edge of a cliff in the Basilicata region, since its foundation in the 8th century AD. suffered from invaders and earthquakes. At the end of the last century, after another natural disaster, it turned out that the rocks under the city were gradually being destroyed, and therefore the inhabitants were forced to leave it. There are no official tours in Krako: daredevils go there at their own peril and risk - the rock can collapse at any moment.
Kolmanskop, Namibia
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Atlantic region of Namibia was swept by the “diamond rush”. The first to know about rough diamonds was a certain German, August Stauch. A few years later, he turned into a millionaire, and a neat German town with a theater and the first tram line in this country quickly appeared in the sands. But after a few decades, all the diamonds were mined, it was not easy to live in the middle of the desert, where there is no water, but winds constantly blow and sandstorms rage, so the inhabitants gradually left Kolmanskop. But the city was not completely covered with sand: the Namibians turned it into a local landmark and successfully earn money from travelers.
Hashima Island, Japan
In 1810, coal was found on a huge rock overlooking the sea, 15 kilometers from Nagasaki. The land of Japan does not indulge in minerals, therefore, even in such an uninhabitable place, a real mining settlement quickly arose. A century later, even military factories were built on Hashim: about 5 thousand workers lived on an area of \u200b\u200bone square kilometer. It was the most populous city in the world. But by 1974 there was no coal left on the island, there was nothing to do there, and the city became a ghost. Now there are constantly travelers there, and there are even plans to turn the abandoned island into a museum.
Oradour-sur-Glane, France
During World War II, Nazi troops came to the village of Oradour-sur-Glane in the department of Limousin and brutally killed 642 people. Only 20 local residents managed to survive, who managed to leave the village before the arrival of the Germans, and one woman who accidentally survived during the massacre. After the war, it was decided to leave this village untouched, turning it into a memorial. Since 1944, dilapidated houses, charred cars have been preserved there, and a new Oradour-sur-Glane has appeared nearby.
Centralia, Pennsylvania, USA
In 1962, a fire broke out at the city dump of the town of Centralia. Unfortunately, the fire fell into the opening of a coal mine under the city, and therefore it cannot be extinguished until now: poisonous smoke comes from cracks in the road, from funnels formed on the surface of the earth. Local residents did not immediately pay attention to the deteriorating health, but in about a couple of decades, most of them gradually moved to other regions, although about a dozen people still live in Centralia. Visiting the "burning city" is dangerous, but desperate travelers still dare to do so.
Humberstone, Chile
In the famous Atacama Desert, there are many interesting places. One of them is the mining ghost town of Humberstone, which was declared a site in 2005. world heritage UNESCO. In the 19th century, when saltpeter mines were discovered in the desert, a nitrate boom began in these places. By the 20-40s of the last century, Humberstone had become a prosperous village. But when the land stopped giving people minerals, the inhabitants began to leave, and in 1961 the city was completely empty. Houses and interiors of dwellings have been preserved there, so having visited this place, you can get an idea of how people lived half a century ago.
Body, California, USA
Another mining town that flourished during the American Gold Rush can be seen east of San Francisco in California. In the middle of the century before last, they found large deposit gold. By 1880, about 10,000 people lived in Bodie, 65 saloons, seven breweries, several churches and a railway station were built, and even its own Chinatown appeared. But the golden stream dried up, and by the middle of the 20th century there were no local residents left in Bodie.
Kayakoy, Turkey
8 kilometers from Fethiye is the Greek ghost village of Kayakoy. People settled in this place about a millennium ago, and left it in 1923 due to a population exchange, when thousands of Orthodox Greeks living in Turkey were exchanged for Turks living in Greece. Now more than 500 houses, a church, a school have been preserved in Kayakoy. Tourists come here, and the lands around are gradually being developed by local farmers.
There are many unexplained phenomena in the world. However, the most interesting and mysterious have always been. There are many nuances and reasons for their occurrence. In one case, these are large-scale disasters, and in the other - unexplained phenomena. Here are a number of the most famous and interesting ten ghost towns that still excite the minds of contemporaries today.
Taiwan, the dead city of San Zhi
Sometimes even the most ambitious projects become a failure by fate, chance or inexplicable reasons. This is the city of San Zhi in Taiwan.
It was built as the greatest and unique. The project of the city was created in the seventies. A huge amount of money was allocated for the construction, and the architecture itself was amazing. Over the course of a decade, construction went on full swing, however, there were no clients. Everyone was afraid of this city of glass and plastic. This is strange for us, because in our time it attracts tourists and the rich who want to relax. Then such styles in architecture were frightening.
Throughout the construction, the city was plagued by setbacks. Basically, these were the ridiculous and horrific deaths of workers, installers and guides. It is worth saying that the tour groups did not find a place for themselves and tried to leave the entertainment complex as quickly as possible. Soon the money for the construction ran out, and investors abandoned the project. It was immediately chosen by local homeless people, but they could not live in it for a long time, since the dead constantly appeared to them.
After lengthy proceedings in the government of the country, they decided to completely demolish the city. However, the locals were not allowed to do so. According to the beliefs of the people, the spirits of the dead can, and as long as they have their own city, no one bothers anyone.
In any case, this is probably the most misterious story, and the city of San Zhi rightfully occupies .
Chernobyl
At number two, one of the most terrible and mysterious cities in the world is Chernobyl, Ukraine.
Chernobyl became abandoned after the disaster that occurred in 1986. Bang on nuclear power plant shocked the whole world without exception.
The wind carried the radioactive particles. The city was empty within a month, as the government was afraid of disclosure. People lived for several more days, not knowing that a mortal threat hung over them. Mass export put an end to the existence of this small town. In those days, Chernobyl was the great pride of the USSR, but in the end it became the biggest disappointment.
It is worth noting that a huge number of films have been shot about him, created computer games. Even at the moment, the phrase “Pripyat is a ghost town” causes shivers in the body. A huge amount of radiation made Chernobyl and its territory both dangerous and popular. Now tourists from all over the world and people who call themselves stalkers go there. They are willing to pay money for excursions and the opportunity to see ghosts caused by anomalies in places where radiation accumulates. Excursions are held daily to the reactor itself, covered with a dome, and just around the city, which was abandoned. Guides show apartments with leftover furniture, toys in kindergarten And so on. On the general background, it actually looks creepy and unpleasant.
Abandoned Chernobyl will attract tourists and ghost hunters for decades to come.
Famagusta
Among the most famous places world is Famagusta - a ghost town, the island of Cyprus.
Famagusta, the most famous abandoned city in the world, is located on the sunny touristic legendary island of Cyprus. Nobody lives in it except the wind. Silence and trees that grow through concrete walls, - this is his destiny for many more years to come.
The reason for the desolation of the city was the war between the two states - Turkey and Greece. They did not divide the right to territory among themselves. And now Famagusta stands in complete desolation and is covered with barbed wire. It has become a border between two states that do not go to reconciliation.
The once successful and prosperous center was completely plundered, only individual buildings remained intact, but have already begun to collapse under the influence of water, wind and sun. You can’t come to its territory, but the abandoned city still attracts a huge and irrepressible desire to visit it.
Villa Epequeen, Argentina
This once beautiful place is now one of the most famous abandoned ghost towns on the planet. The villa was built on the banks of a beautiful estuary and opened as a huge spa, in which the rich improved their health for huge sums of money. However, the authorities of the city seemed to have few buildings and clean water on the coast, and they decided to expand the territory by expanding the freshwater lake. However, less than ten years later, the water from the reservoir began to flood the beaches and the resort area.
Nature warned that it was not worth interfering with the sequential course of events. However, the authorities of Villa Epekeen decided that it was worth further strengthening the city's borders with dams, and excess water dump on irrigation fields.
Nature could not stand this careless attitude and in one day completely flooded the city. The water rose 15 meters up, and even mixed with fresh water. Residents had to drop all their belongings and leave. Salt and sun have turned a once-prosperous place into whitish ghosts.
Soon a new spa resort grew nearby, and tourists are taken to the Villa with pleasure, as it is a local landmark, and former residents are trying to look for traces of their long-standing stay.
Centralia, USA
If you have ever played a game called Silent Hill or watched the movie of the same name, you should know that the idea was an example - the abandoned city of Centralia in Pennsylvania.
This is a really scary and creepy place with constantly rising smoke in the cracks in the pavement and in the houses. Once this city was a successful and prosperous settlement of hard workers who mined anthracite coal. He lay very close to the surface. However, the development was closed, and the residents successfully established their lives and quietly existed, earning a living by farming and other things.
One fine day, the mayor of the city decided that it was time to burn heaps of garbage outside the city, as an inspection would soon arrive. However, he did not take into account how disastrous this would be and turn Centralia into an abandoned city of the world. It turned out that anthracite lies very close to the surface, and even after the workers burned the garbage heaps, it continued to smolder methodically.
The authorities miscalculated not only in this, but also in the fact that they closed the development, since there was a lot of fuel left there. For a long time everyone turned a blind eye to the poisoning of people carbon monoxide. Centralia continued to live in peace. The impetus for complete desolation was the more frequent tremors underground and the breaks in asphalt and houses at the most unexpected moments. Coal burns in the bowels, and the hot smoke needs an outlet to the surface. Thus, the city authorities evacuated people. However, it still burns to this day. Abandoned streets and houses smoke, and the air is saturated with carbon monoxide.
Neftegorsk
Among the most famous places in the world is Neftegorsk, Russian Federation.
Neftegorsk is probably the worst example of an earthquake. A terrible event happened in 1995. The city was founded as a settlement for oil workers who worked in it on a rotational basis. However, years passed, and high wage and the availability of jobs have turned the town into a developing and successful one. However, it also became the last shelter for most of its inhabitants.
So on May 25 in the evening there was an earthquake of 10 points on the Richter scale. Not a trace of the city remained, only a few buildings survived. More than two thousand people were buried alive under the ruins. They decided not to restore Neftegorsk, but only built a huge monument, which recalls the tragedy that happened on May 25, 1995. Thus, he enters the most terrible abandoned ghost towns, which were not just abandoned, but destroyed by the elements of nature.
Detroit, USA
The city still exists and is partially inhabited. It is worth saying that it was founded in the 17th century and was considered one of the most successful. A thriving industry, a huge number of stately buildings, amazing architecture, all this was once. Now Detroit can be safely brought into abandoned ghost towns.
The first impetus to desolation was the construction of huge corporations - Ford and General Motors. They are car manufacturers. The city becomes industrial, pollution only grows every year. The second step is to populate Detroit with the black population. Moreover, most of them are criminals and the poor. The city simply began to rob. Crime reached unprecedented heights, and the white population simply began to leave.
The gradual desolation and lack of jobs has done its job, and now the ghost towns of the world have replenished with one more representative.
Time Beach, USA
A town in Missouri was destroyed by human hands. The small settlement decided to deal with the huge dust content of country roads. In order to improve the situation, the authorities decided to spend money. However, either for lack of funding or for some other reason, an unknown contractor was hired. They did not check his documents or the means with which he decided to spray the roads.
For a small amount, he successfully completed the work entrusted to him. However, after a few years, the city completely died out. It turned out that the agent used by the contractor was dioxide. This is the strongest poison that causes mutations and a lot of serious diseases, as well as pestilence.
This is how the town was destroyed, as they say, with their own hands, due to a banal lack of finance. From it there were only dead houses and cracked asphalt.
Chaiten, Chile
The port town of Chaiten completely died out after the volcanic eruption that happened in May 2008.
The main thing is that the authorities managed to evacuate the population and save it from inevitable death. Despite the fact that the village is located deep in the mountains. It is worth saying that the volcanic eruption lasted from May to September 2008. The city was completely covered in ashes. Only 10% of the houses remain. Everything is covered with a thick layer of ash several meters high.
Namie, Japan
The catastrophe of our time, which happened in September 2013, shocked. Exploded in Japan nuclear power plant Fukushima, turning a successful city with a huge population into an abandoned one.
A great misfortune struck all countries of the world, since Japan has always been considered the most responsible and strict in its approach to electronics and inventions. However, the worst thing happened - a nuclear explosion.
Thus, the city overnight turned into an exclusion zone. No one is allowed to be on its territory, since the dose of radiation reaches unprecedented heights.
Video about the most abandoned cities
What ghost towns do you know? Let us know about them in the comments.
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), in early XIX 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 remained 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 last word 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's an Eiffel Tower here, three times the size of the original, Triumphal Arch and Versailles park. 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 lush greenery.
There are many ghost towns on the planet, and they are in almost every country. Such places appear for various reasons: due to man-made or natural disasters, genocide, or simply a decline in economic activity in the locality. All this makes people leave their homes. So, the infamous Pripyat turned into a ghost town after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the inhabitants left the Italian Krako because of landslides, there are dozens of mining villages in Africa, there are abandoned cities in India. But most of these cities are in China. True, these are not just abandoned cities, but quite the contrary, cities “for growth”: settlements constantly being built, but no one lives in them. There are about twenty such cities in the Middle Kingdom, and 64 million houses are empty in them. And this is in overpopulated China, where problems with housing and population have reached the national level! We decided to show you one of them - the largest ghost town in the world.
City for the future?
Ordos began to be built in the early 2000s in the autonomous region of Inner Mongolia (hence the Turkic roots and the connection with the word "horde").
It is designed for 1 million inhabitants. However, no more than 20 thousand people live here, and approximately 98% of the buildings are empty. In fact, a terrible picture, it seems that some kind of epidemic broke out in Ordos and most of the population simply died out.
Skyscrapers, administrative buildings, residential buildings and towers are empty here, there are even universities in Ordos, and there is not a soul in them either. All this is connected by communications and roads, but no one lives here.
And when night falls, the landscapes here become even more eerie.
A goldmine that didn't live up to expectations
In the Kangbashi region, where Ordos was rebuilt, in the early 2000s, huge reserves of coal and other natural resources. Therefore, skyscrapers, museums, theaters and administrative buildings instantly grew in these territories.
They also built sleeping areas, where there are even cozy cottages for more prosperous Chinese. The construction of Ordos was completed in 2010, and it is spread over a vast area of 355 square kilometers. But the city found itself in some kind of financial bubble: rich Chinese, who head large funds, almost immediately bought out all the real estate, considering the purchases as investments. After all, the city was potentially supposed to be successful, so the plans were to resell all the property at a higher price. However, residents of Inner Mongolia simply do not have the money to buy apartments.
Even during construction, the developer set the price of housing at 10-11 thousand dollars for one square meter, and after a few years it fell by 2-3 times. Still, 4-4.5 thousand dollars per square meter is an exorbitant price for residents of the region, where average wages barely exceed $400 a month.
The fate of the giant ghost town
Of course, after the delivery of real estate in Ordos, you will not envy the management companies. They suffer huge losses, as they fully serve the infrastructure of the city: they repair the streets, clean up, plant trees and shrubs in areas, there are not even interruptions in lighting. It takes about 10-12 million dollars every month.
So, despite the fact that the city is empty, he lives. But to say (as they say about other Chinese cities) that life is seething in it is completely impossible. Ordos is under constant guard, there are policemen who keep order. No one plundered the city, so tourists have nothing to fear here. You can walk around the desert metropolis, ride bicycles or skateboards right along the roads, take amazing and a little frightening photos and imagine yourself as the hero of a post-apocalyptic film - this is what travelers go to Ordos for.
Of course, you can meet residents here, but very rarely. Mostly employees law enforcement, or a few factory workers who managed to buy an apartment.
By the way, the Chinese government plans to buy apartments for retired military men here, however, at best, there will be no more than 20-25 thousand people, which is another 2-2.5% of the living citizens. At this rate of settlement, Ordos would only become populated half a century later.