Built as an enormous luxury housing development, Tianducheng emulates the famous French city of lights in everything from the period-correct architecture to a 300-foot tall miniature Eiffel Tower. It even has a replica fountain from the Luxembourg Gardens.
But the city that could hold 10,000 residents has remained mostly abandoned save for employees of a nearby French-themed amusement park, according to City Lab.
As one of the best-preserved ghost towns in the American Southwest, Ruby, Arizona, remains a reminder of the Wild West. With a mine founded in the 1870s that produced gold, silver, lead, zinc, and copper, Ruby officially became a town when it opened its first post office in 1910, according to Ruby Mines, Inc.
Wild West history buffs aren’t the only people interested in Ruby; true crime enthusiasts and nature lovers should also be fascinated with Ruby.
The town and the surrounding area were the sites of three horrific double homicides known as the Ruby Murders. According to Legends of America, these led to one of the largest manhunts in Southwest history.
“The crimes of which you have been convicted are perhaps the cruelest ever committed in Arizona,” Judge W.A. O’Connor reportedly told the accused. “Let the punishment that awaits you serve as a warning to others who may contemplate the commission of similar crimes.”
The mines are now home to an enormous colony of Mexican free-tail bats. The giant cloud of bats can be seen rushing from the mine entrances at sundown during the summer.
Officially abandoned in 1940, the remains of Ruby are now on private land, and it’s one of the best-preserved western towns in the US.
Founded in 1946, Wittenoom was born as a mining town in Western Australia. The nearby gorge was brimming with blue asbestos, an essential raw building material in the early 20th century. By the early 1950s, Wittenoom was the largest town in the Pilbara region.
Amid growing health concerns, the declining demand for asbestos led to the mine closing in 1966, with most of the residents moving away to find other work, according to ABC. Wittenoom was officially closed in 2007, and the Australian government took steps to limit access to the former mining town and removed it from all official maps.
Due to the nature of the mining that took place there, asbestos fibers are still found in the topsoil and air around Wittenoom, making it dangerous to spend too much time in the town.
According to a documentary released in December 2019 by Free Documentary, just one resident remains.
It isn’t often that a tourist destination frequented by the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Raquel Welch, and Brigitte Bardot becomes a ghost town. But that’s exactly what happened to the Varosha section of Famagusta in Cyprus.
Throughout the early 1970s, Varosha was one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, according to BBC. In 1974, Turkey invaded Cyprus. As the opposing Turkish and Greek armies descended on the area around Varosha, the residents fled for their lives.
According to BBC, Varosha has remained abandoned and under the control of the Turkish Military since 1974. It has been fenced off, and nobody but military and UN personnel are allowed into the once beautiful tourist destination. There have been numerous attempts to broker a deal that will once again open up Varosha, but nothing has been agreed upon.
Now, the high rises and beaches of Varosha are slowly being retaken by nature from the far side of the military fence.
Turkmenistan is a former Soviet Union country with a leader that has been compared to North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un. President Saparmurat Niyazov planned to create a “golden era of Turkmenistan” in 1991 with the building of Ashgabat. He did so by erecting buildings that broke records, like becoming the city with the most marble buildings in the world.
In fact, the city has 543 buildings made of the luxury material. Ashgabat also has the world’s largest Ferris wheel.
Today, the city is referred to as “the city of the dead” because it appears empty. This is in part because of the country’s isolated culture: Turkmenistan is one of the least-visited countries in the world.
Located in the arch of Italy’s boot, Craco dates back to well before 1060. Throughout its thousand-year history, Craco saw many conflicts between monarchs, armies, and political ideologies. In 1963, the last 1,800 residents were forced to leave Craco for their own safety and were relocated to Craco Peschiera, a new town in the valley below, according to Ancient Origins.
Films such as “Quantum of Solace” and “The Passion of the Christ” have used the Italian ghost town to provide a spectacular and authentic setting to their stories.
Despite being abandoned, Craco remains one of Italy’s popular tourist destinations and was added to the World Monuments Fund watch list in 2010.
A coal fire has been burning under the town of Centralia, Pennsylvania, since 1962 and may not stop for 250 years.
An attempt to clean up the local landfill lit the coal seams under the surface of this small Pennsylvania town. In the years the fire has burned, residents have slowly abandoned their homes, fearing the fire beneath their feet and sudden sinkholes and carbon monoxide poisoning.
Eminent domain was used to take control over most of Centralia’s homes, and the dozen or so remaining residents agreed to give their property to the government when they pass away. The state government condemned Centralia in 1992.
Founded in 1970 as a “nuclear city,” a city specifically built to house the workers at a nearby nuclear power plant, Pripyat had more than 13,000 apartments, schools for 5,000 children, two dozen stores and cafes, a cinema, sports hall, cultural center, several factories and a hospital when disaster struck at the Chernobyl power plant, according to USA Today.
After the reactor blew on April 26, 1986, releasing toxic radiation into the surrounding area, the entire city was evacuated.
Since the radiation levels have decreased considerably in the years since the disaster and the reactor has been capped, people have been allowed back into the “Nuclear Exclusion Zone.”
Hashima Island, colloquially known as Gunkanjima (meaning Battleship Island), is an abandoned island located off the coast of Nagasaki, Japan.
Developed initially as a residence for people working in the undersea coal mines in 1887, Hashima Island quickly expanded into an island of concrete high-rise buildings housing over 5,000 people. In addition to the usual community buildings, this island fortress featured a clubhouse, movie theater, communal bath, swimming pool, rooftop gardens, stores, and even a pachinko parlor.
The mine eventually closed in 1974 when Japan moved away from coal power, and with the jobs went the residents.
Travel to the island resumed in 2009 thanks to the island’s history and striking architecture. Hashima Island was also featured as a villain’s lair in the James Bond movie “Skyfall.”
Even though only a small portion of the island is open to the public, it remains a unique look at the rapid industrialization of Japan and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Oradour-sur-Glane was a small farming village located in the German-occupied section of France during World War II.
On June 10, 1944, the French village was destroyed by the Nazi’s SS organization. Soldiers killed 642 individuals and left few survivors. Post-war, the village became symbolic of German crimes against civilians and was declared a memorial and museum.
It remains preserved in its ruined state, and every year on June 10, a commemoration ceremony is held to mark the anniversary of the massacre.
In the late 1800s, Bodie was a mining town packed with people trying to get in on the success of the California Gold Rush.
For 17 years, it was a small mining camp filled with various people. Rough winters, disease, and mining accidents led to the death of many of Bodie’s inhabitants — and Bodie’s high crime levels earned the town a reputation for lawlessness.
By 1882, the population declined as mining companies became bankrupt and people sought better opportunities. Over the next few decades, Bodie was built up and destroyed again by multiple fires. But, by 1940, Bodie was a ghost town.
In 1962, the California State Parks system took over Bodie to turn it into a State Historic Park.
Vorkuta, Russia, originated as a Gulag labor camp during the Stalin era.
Later, when coal production skyrocketed, people from across the country arrived in the Arctic region for high-paying jobs. As Insider previously reported, towns and villages quickly popped up as the city boomed.
But when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, most mines closed. With few job prospects nearby, people left deserted buildings behind.
Since then, more than 1 million people have left the Arctic zone. Today, there are still 50,000 people in the city of Vorkuta, but the surrounding small towns have been abandoned.
A few final residents remain in the villages’ apartments. They can’t sell their homes, and many don’t have enough savings to relocate, so they wait in sub-zero temperatures for government assistance programs to help.
Kayaköy, Turkey, was formerly a bustling community with around 2,000 Greek residents. In 1923, the Greco-Turkish War forced the individuals out of their homes, and they fled to Greece in a population exchange with Turkey, according to Atlas Obscura.
An estimated 350 homes and two Greek Orthodox churches remain abandoned in Kayaköy. They sit empty and damaged from the weather.
Outside of Mudurnu, Turkey, are hundreds of castles with whimsical balconies, rooftop terraces, and spiraling turrets.
From a distance, it’s a scene from a fairy tale, but take a closer look, and the town is cracking at its seams.
The idea behind the Burj Al Babas development originated in 2014 when construction entrepreneurs planned a 732-home development that would cost $200 million, The New York Times reported. They targeted foreign homebuyers and successfully sold about 350 villas.
But when oil prices dropped in 2008 and Turkey faced soaring inflation and political turmoil, investors backed out, and the developers filed for bankruptcy, Bloomberg reported.
What was left were 587 partially completed castles. Since the property’s infrastructure was never completed, the development is unlivable, and the Burj Al Babas development remains a ghost town, Condé Nast Traveller reported.
In 1908, a Namibian railway worker discovered diamonds in a desert in southern Namibia while working, according to National Geographic. The worker’s German employer quickly realized the discovery — and the money that could come with it.
Shortly after, hundreds of miners arrived in the Namib Desert, and the town of Kolmanskop burst with wealth, National Geographic reported. A butcher, baker, post office, and ice factory filled the town, which reached a population of 1,200, Insider previously reported.
While there was prosperity for some, there was also colonial violence in Kolmanskop. According to National Geographic, the German colonizers killed over 60,000 Namibian Herero people.
In the 1930s, the diamond mines were depleted, and most miners relocated to diamond-richer areas. Two decades later, the town was abandoned entirely, National Geographic reported.
Slowly sand filled the abandoned buildings; today, it’s an abandoned ghost town.
