The largest abandoned city. Abandoned cities of Russia

On our planet, there are a huge number of ghost towns, empty and creepy, frightening a traveler who accidentally wandered here, with empty eye sockets of windows of rickety buildings ...
In this ranking, we will present the 10 most famous abandoned cities abandoned by people for various reasons: some were abandoned due to bloody wars, others were abandoned under the onslaught of almighty nature.

1. The city of Kolmanskop, buried in the sands (Namibia)

Kolmanskop

Kolmanskop is an abandoned town in southern Namibia, located a few kilometers from the port of Lüderitz.
In 1908, Zakaris Leval, an employee of the railway company, discovered small diamonds in the sand. This discovery caused a real diamond rush and thousands of people rushed to the hot sands of the Namib Desert, hoping to make a fortune.

Kolmanskop was built in record time. It took people only two years to erect beautiful German-style residential buildings in the desert, rebuild a school, a hospital, and even a casino. But the city's days were already numbered.

After the end of the First World War, the cost of diamonds on the world market fell, and every year the production of precious stones in the mines of Kolmanskop became worse and worse. The lack of drinking water and the constant struggle with the sand dunes made the life of the people of the mining town increasingly unbearable.

In the 1950s, the last inhabitants left Kolmanskop and it turned into another ghost town on the world map. Soon, nature and the desert almost completely buried the town under the sand dunes. A few more old houses and the theater building remained unburied, which is still in good condition.

2. City of nuclear scientists Pripyat (Ukraine)

Pripyat is an abandoned city in the "exclusion zone" in northern Ukraine. Workers and scientists of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant lived here until the tragic day - April 26, 1986. On this day, the explosion of the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant put an end to the further existence of the city.

On April 27, the evacuation of people from Pripyat began. Nuclear workers and their families were allowed to take with them only the most necessary things and documents, all the property acquired over the years, people left in their abandoned apartments. Over time, Pripyat turned into a ghost town, visited only by extreme and thrill-seekers.

For those who want to see and appreciate the full scale of the disaster, the Pripyat-Tour company provides excursions to an abandoned city. Due to the high level of radiation, you can safely stay here for no more than a few hours, and most likely, Pripyat will forever remain a dead city.

3 Futuristic San Zhi Resort City (Taiwan)

In the north of Taiwan, not far from the capital of the state, the city of Taipei, there is a ghost town of San Zhi. According to the idea of ​​the developers, very wealthy people should have bought these houses, because the very architecture of the buildings, made in a futuristic style, was so unusual and revolutionary that it should have attracted a large number of wealthy customers.

But during the construction of the city, inexplicable accidents began to occur here and every week there were more and more of them, until the death of workers began to happen every day. Rumor quickly spread the news of a bad city, which had a very bad effect on the reputation of the city for the rich.

The construction was finally completed and even a grand opening was held, but none of the potential customers bought a home here. Massive advertising campaigns and huge discounts did not help, Sang Chih became the new ghost town. Now access is prohibited here, and local residents believe that the city is inhabited by the ghosts of people who died here.

4. The medieval city of Craco (Italy)

About forty kilometers from the Gulf of Taranto in Italy, is the abandoned ancient city of Krako. Situated on picturesque hills, it was the patrimony of farmers and plowmen, its inhabitants were engaged in agriculture, growing wheat and other crops.

The first mention of the city dates back to 1060, when the entire land was owned by the Catholic Archbishop Arnaldo.
In 1981, the population of Krako was just over 2,000 people, and since 1982, due to poor harvests, landslides and constant landslides, the population of the town began to decline rapidly. Between 1892 and 1922, more than 1,300 people left Kracko. Some left to seek happiness in America, others settled in neighboring towns and villages.

The city was finally abandoned after a strong earthquake in 1963, only a few residents remained to while away their lives in the new ghost town. By the way, it was here that Mel Gibson filmed the scene of the execution of Judas for his masterpiece film The Passion of the Christ.

5. The village of Oradour-sur-Glan (France) - a memorial reminiscent of the horrors of fascism

The small ruined village of Oradour-sur-Glan in France stands as a reminder of the monstrous atrocities of the Nazis. During World War II, 642 villagers were brutally murdered by the Nazis as punishment for the capture of SS-Sturmbannführer Helmut Kampf by French resistance fighters.

According to one version, the Nazis simply confused the villages with consonant names.
A high-ranking fascist was in captivity in the neighboring village of Oradur-sur-Vaires. The Germans did not spare anyone - neither the elderly, nor women, nor children ... They drove the men to the sheds, where they accurately beat their legs with machine guns, then doused them with a combustible mixture and set them on fire.

Women, children and old people were locked in the church, then a powerful incendiary device was blown up. People tried to get out of the burning building, but they were mercilessly shot by German machine gunners. Then the Nazis completely destroyed the village.

6. Forbidden Island Gankanjima (Japan)

Gankanjima Island is one of the 505 uninhabited islands in Nagasaki Prefecture, and is located only 15 km from Nagasaki itself. It is also called Battleship Island because of the walls that protect the city from the sea. The history of the settlement of the island began in 1890, when coal was discovered here. Mitsubishi bought the entire area and began to implement a project to extract coal from the bottom of the sea.

In 1916, the first large concrete building was built on the island, and then the buildings began to grow like mushrooms after the rain. And in 1959, the population of the island grew so much that 835 people lived here on one hectare! It was a world record for population density.

In the early 1960s, oil in Japan increasingly began to displace coal in production, its extraction became unprofitable. Coal mines began to close all over the country, and the mines of Gankanjima were no exception.

In 1974, Mitsubishi officially announced the closure of the mines and the cessation of all activities on the island. Gankanjima has become another abandoned ghost town. Currently, visiting the island is prohibited, and in 2003, the famous Japanese action movie Battle Royale was filmed here.

7. Kadykchan - a village in the Magadan region

Kadykchan is an urban-type settlement located in the Susumansky district of the Magadan region. One of the most famous abandoned northern villages on the Internet. In 1986, according to the census, 10,270 people lived here, and in 2002 - only 875. In Soviet times, coal of the highest quality was mined here, which was used to heat almost 2/3 of the Magadan region.

The population of Kadykchan began to decrease rapidly after the mine explosion in 1996. A few years later, the only boiler house heating the village also thawed, and it became simply impossible to live here.

Now it's just a ghost town, one of many in Russia. There are rusty cars in the garages, destroyed furniture, books and children's toys in the rooms. Finally, leaving the dying village, the inhabitants shot the bust of V.I. Lenin installed on the square.

8. The walled city of Kowloon (Hong Kong) - a city of lawlessness and anarchy

One of the most incredible ghost towns that no longer exist is the city of Kowloon, which was located near the former Kaitak Airport, a city where all the vices and base passions of mankind were embodied. In the 1980s, more than 50,000 people lived here.
Probably, there was no longer a place on the planet where prostitution, drug addiction, gambling and underground workshops were ubiquitous.

It was practically impossible to take a step here without running into a drug addict pumped up with dope, or a prostitute who offered her services for a pittance. The authorities of Hong Kong practically did not control the city, there was the highest crime rate in the country.

Eventually, in 1993, the entire population of Kowloon was evicted and briefly became a ghost town. The incredible and creepy settlement was then demolished, and a park of the same name was laid out in its place.

9. The abandoned ghost town of Varosha (Cyprus)

Varosha is a district of Famagusta, a city in Northern Cyprus founded in the 3rd century AD. Until 1974, Varosha was a real "Mecca" for beach lovers. Thousands of tourists from all over the world flocked here to soak up the gentle rays of the Cypriot sun. They say that the Germans and the British booked places in luxury hotels for 20 years ahead!

The resort prospered, building up with new hotels and villas, until everything changed in 1974. That year, the Turks invaded Varosha with NATO support to protect the Turkish minority of Cypriot residents from persecution of ethnic Greeks.

Since then, the Varosha quarter has become a ghost town, surrounded by barbed wire, where the Turkish military has not let anyone in for four decades. The houses are dilapidated, the windows are shattered, and the streets of the once bustling quarter are in total ruin. Apartments and shops are empty and completely looted first by the Turkish military and then by local looters.

10. The Lost City of Agdam (Azerbaijan)

Aghdam, a city that was once famous for its wine throughout the Soviet Union, is now dead and uninhabited... The war in Nagorno-Karabakh, which lasted from 1990 to 1994, did not give a chance to exist to the flat city, where excellent cheese was previously brewed and the best port wine in the Union.
The collapse of the USSR led to the outbreak of hostilities in many former republics.

Azerbaijan did not escape this either, the fighters of which were able to seize wagons with rockets located not far from Aghdam. It turned out to be very convenient for them to bomb the Armenian Stepanakert. Such actions eventually led to a sad ending.

In the summer of 1993, Agdam was surrounded by 6,000 soldiers of the Liberation Army of Nagorno-Karabakh. With the support of helicopters and tanks, the Armenians practically wiped out the hated city, and the approaches to it were carefully mined. Therefore, until now, visiting the ghost town of Agdam is not safe for life.

There are places in the world where no one lives now, but before life was in full swing. Today we will talk about cities - ghosts, on the streets of which there is not a soul. Each city has its own unique story, both founding and "death". Most of them became ghosts due to tragedies, accidents, some due to political and economic reforms, while others simply retired. The most mysterious list, in which we will look at 10 stories of the desolation of cities, is called:
TOP 10 abandoned cities in Russia.

1. Kursha-2 (Ryazan region)

The city of Kursha-2 was founded at the beginning of the 20th century in the Ryazan region. The purpose of the founding was the development of a large area of ​​the forest. The population of the city increased rapidly. In the early 1930s, it amounted to more than a thousand people. The city of Kursha-2 became a ghost because of a terrible misfortune. What happened? On August 3, 1936, a large-scale fire engulfed the entire city, and since Kursha-2 was located in the very middle of the forest, only a few survived. Now near the burnt settlement there is a huge mass grave where the victims of the incident are buried. The city itself is now completely destroyed, not a soul on the streets.

2. Kolendo (Sakhalin region)

Kolendo is a village in the very north of Sakhalin. It is also referred to as abandoned territories. Founded in 1963. People went here to the oil and gas field. In 1979, the number of people living there was more than two thousand. The reason for the death of the village is a mystery of nature - an earthquake that occurred in 1995. After him, people began to leave the village en masse. Also, the reason was the exhaustion of all oil and gas reserves. At present, no one lives in the village, destroyed houses are everywhere.

3. Charonda (Vologda region)

The abandoned city of Charonda belongs to the Volgograd region, is located on the shores of Lake Vozhe with an area of ​​422 km². Previously, its population was about 11,000 people. In the 18th century, the city of Charonda was one of the central trading cities. Over time, trade routes were closed, and at the beginning of the 19th century, the once former city received the status of a village. Over time, the townspeople began to leave, moved to other settlements. And finally, only elderly people began to live in Charonda. Many tourists come to see the once former city.

4. Mologa (Yaroslavl region)

The ghost town of Mologa is located not so far from the city of Rybinsk. The specific location is the area where the Mologa River flows into the Volga. The city was built in the 12th century, it was one of the largest centers of trade in Russia. At the beginning of the 20th century, the number was about five thousand people. The trouble began in 1935, when the authorities decided to build the Rybinsk hydroelectric complex. This construction assumed the flooding of nearby territories, which included the city of Mologa. So, a fully functioning city was destroyed in an instant. There was a complete resettlement of the people living in it. The operation to irrevocably flood the city was carried out in 1941. This led to the worst - mass suicides: most of the living people in the city refused to leave their native lands. Now the city has remained under water and only occasionally, due to fluctuations in the water, its destroyed buildings are visible.

5. Neftegorsk (Sakhalin region)

From the name it is clear that oilmen with their families live in the city. More recently, a functioning city is located in the Sakhalin region. Now deathly silence reigns on these lands. What happened?
On May 28, 1995, an unpredictable grief happened that became known throughout the world. The city was abruptly overtaken by a strong earthquake of 10 points. Over 2,000 people died that day. Following the tragedy, the townspeople were quickly evacuated and the state provided them with material assistance. Now the streets of Neftegorsk are empty, there are ruins of buildings everywhere.

6. Kadychkan (Magadan region)

This village is also called "Death Valley". The settlement is related to the abandoned cities of Russia. 1943 is considered the year of foundation of the settlement Kadychkan. The city was founded after a valuable coal deposit was found there. The number of people recorded in 1986 was more than 10,000. But 1996 was marred by a tragic coal mine explosion that killed more than 1,000 workers. The settlement existed for a couple more years, until the central boiler house was defrosted. Then about 400 residents categorically did not want to leave their native village, due to the lack of infrastructure. By order of the authorities in 2003, all the remaining residents were forced to relocate. Now the village is empty.

7. Iultin (Chukotka Autonomous Okrug)

Also, Iultin can be attributed to the abandoned areas of Russia. Iultin is a settlement in the Chukotka Okrug. Tin deposits were found on this territory back in 1937. Later, from the beginning of the 50s of the 20th century, the land began to be populated by people. Unfortunately, in 1994, tin mining was stopped due to lack of profit. Gradually, residents began to leave Iultin for other settlements. Almost no one has lived in the village since the beginning of 1995. Today, nothing remains of the settlement, only everything is overgrown with grass.

8. Khalmer-Yu (Komi Republic)

Khalmer-Yu is located in the Komi Republic. The development of the area is due to the fact that back in 1942 a coal deposit was found on the Khalmer-Yu River. At the beginning of winter, a group of workers remained to determine the amount of the fossil. Unfortunately, due to unfortunate weather, people were cut off from the nearest city of Vorkuta. The weather did not calm down in any way, and therefore it was not even realistic to bring food for the workers. Those who wanted to help the abandoned people tried to ride on deer. An expedition was organized with a hundred deer and only fourteen deer returned with difficulty due to lack of food. A group of workers was finally found, but in an unthinkably serious state of exhaustion. They were transferred to Vorkuta.

A year later, the necessary material base was created in Khalmer-Yu, and soon people began to inhabit the city. In 1957, a mine was launched and from that moment more and more people began to settle in the city. Two years later, about 7 thousand people could be counted in Khalmer-Yu. The authorities announced their decision to liquidate the mine and forcibly relocate the city's residents in 1993. Now, on the site of the once former city, there is a military training ground.

9. Industrial (Komi Republic)

Promyshlenny is an urban-type settlement located in the Komi Republic, founded in 1956. Almost all the buildings on this territory were built by the prisoners of the city of Lvov. Previously, the city had up to 12 thousand inhabitants. In the 90s of the 20th century, an explosion occurred at the Tsentralnaya mine, working miners died. Now there is not a soul in that place. The history of the Industrial settlement dates back to 1954. The foundation is associated with the opening of two mines - "Central" and "Industrial". The entire infrastructure of the settlement was concentrated on these mines. The accident at the mine was the reason for the fact that the miners and other workers of the city-forming enterprise lost their jobs. Over time, people began to leave their homes and go to other settlements in search of work. Later, the Industrial village was destroyed: wooden buildings were burned, and brick buildings were dismantled. At the moment, only ruins remain from the settlement, and it is difficult to imagine that life was once in full swing in this place.

10. Jubilee (Perm Territory)

So we got to the last settlement from our list of abandoned cities in Russia. Yubileiny is a former workers' settlement founded in 1957. The village began its history with the opening of a mine called Shumikhinskaya. But in 1998, the mine was liquidated by order of the authorities, which in turn provoked a lot of discontent among the workers and people living in the village. More than half of the residents have lost their jobs. After that, the village began to rebuild. Some buildings were converted into sawmills, others were completely destroyed. Even the central boiler house, which provided heating to the entire village, was demolished. The people living in the village simply had no other choice but to leave their homes. Only a few people remained to continue to live out their days in their native settlement. Buildings began to turn into a pile of stones literally before our eyes. Marauders also did their job, breaking windows, breaking doors and looting empty houses. At the moment, the workers' settlement has been converted into a place of serving sentences for prisoners in a free settlement.

In conclusion, it should be said that there are not a dozen or even a thousand such ghost towns, abandoned by people completely or in which only a few elderly residents remain, on the territory of the Russian Federation. In fact, there are many more of them - tens of thousands of completely depopulated villages, villages and urban-type settlements. More than 19 thousand settlements (most of them are single-industry towns), in which hundreds of thousands of people once lived and worked for the good of their homeland, were actually destroyed, and in most cases these were not natural or man-made disasters. The reason was a direct instruction or criminal inaction of the authorities. Although, of course, in the media these crimes are called - a bad economic situation in the country or, for example, a crisis.

It was after the destruction of the USSR, in the new country of the Russian Federation, that many sectors of mining and production suddenly turned out to be unprofitable, and speculation began to be called business. All this has had a detrimental effect on many communities across the country.

Below you can see data based on the 2010 All-Russian Population Census. Perhaps they are already outdated, because. It's already 2016 in the yard. But we can say with confidence that if the situation with the “extinction” of Russia has changed, then only for the worse.

Where are the most abandoned cities in Russia?

Top 10 abandoned Russian cities | Video

I would like to end the article with the words of Prime Minister D. A. Medvedev, which he said to pensioners of Crimea - “There is just no money. You stay here, all the best to you, good mood ". 🙂

Russia's Most Frightening Ghost Towns!

Khalmer-Yu (Komi Republic)

In the 40s, a coal deposit was found here, but attempts to establish a full-fledged settlement here were unsuccessful until 1957. Then a serious material base appeared here and the village began to grow, turning into a city with a population of seven thousand people.


In 1993, the mine was closed, people were relocated to Vorkuta, and now there is a landfill on the site of an abandoned city. It was he who was used in 2005 to demonstrate the power of the Tu-160 to Vladimir Putin. Then the president was the co-pilot aboard a strategic bomber and fired a missile at one of the Halmer-Yu buildings.

Mologa (Yaroslavl region)

Not far from Rybinsk is the ghost town of Mologa. Once it was one of the largest shopping centers in Russia (the city was founded in the XII century).


But in 1935, the Soviet authorities ordered the construction of the Rybinsk hydroelectric complex, and Mologa was simply flooded. People began to be resettled, and those who remained died. The city has sunk under water, and now, when the level is lowering, some buildings are visible.

Kursha-2 (Ryazan region)

The city of Kursha-2 was founded at the beginning of the 20th century in the Ryazan region. People came here from all over Russia to take part in the large-scale development of forest areas. In the early 1930s, more than a thousand people settled here, but soon almost all of them died. On August 3, 1936, a fire engulfed the entire city - only a few survived. Now near the burnt settlement there is a huge mass grave. The city itself is now completely destroyed, not a soul on the streets.

Kolendo (Sakhalin region)

In the early 60s, the development of an oil and gas field began in the very north of Sakhalin. People from all over the island began to come here, and by 1979 more than two thousand people settled here.


Until 1995, everything was in order, but there was a powerful earthquake, after which the reserves of natural resources were greatly reduced, and people began to leave the settlement en masse. Now no one lives there.

Industrial (Komi Republic)

The city was founded in the 50s. All buildings were erected by prisoners, and until the 90s more than 10 thousand people lived here. Life here stopped after the explosion in the Central mine. Overnight, all the workers here turned out to be useless. Families began to move to other settlements, and soon Industrial turned into a ghost town.

Neftegorsk (Sakhalin region)

Another victim of the 1995 earthquake was the city of Neftegorsk. Here the level of tremors reached 10 points. More than two thousand people died. The authorities evacuated the survivors, and now Neftegorsk is empty. Its streets still resemble a bombed-out town - only ruins...

Charonda (Vologda region)

In the city of Charonda on the shores of Lake Vozhe, 11 thousand people once lived. Once upon a time, life was seething here, but at the beginning of the 19th century, all trade routes that passed through Charonda ceased to exist, and the city turned into a village where only old people live.

Kadychkan (Magadan region)

In 1943, large deposits of coal were found in the Magadan region. Near one of these was founded the city of Kadychkan. Of course, this settlement was built, as they say, on the bones of prisoners who were exiled here by the thousands. Nevertheless, the city continued to develop, and after the thaw, in 1986, its population was 10 thousand people.


Extinction began in 1996 after a terrible accident at a mine, where more than a thousand miners died from an explosion. After that, the city was almost completely empty, and in 2003, by order of the authorities, the last residents were taken out of here and settled in other cities. Now the village is empty.

Iultin (Chukotka Autonomous Okrug)

The settlement was founded thanks to the tin deposit found here. People have been coming here since the 1950s. Houses were built here, families settled down, but in the 90s the enterprise went bankrupt and people began to leave the village. In 1995, no one was left in Iultne.

Yubileiny (Perm Territory)

The settlement was built by miners. The miners of the "Shumikhinsky" mine developed the city from the 50s to the 90s. Then the enterprise was reduced by half, and those who were left without work were forced to either change their profession or leave. The city quickly emptied and soon turned into another ghost. Now it is hard to imagine that life was once in full swing here.

The number of abandoned cities, villages and villages on the territory of the former USSR cannot be accurately calculated. The political, economic and geological transformations of our state over the past 100 years have created a host of objects that are now left out of modern reality.

Abandoned cities in Russia formed a new layer of apocalyptic culture that arose at the turn of the millennium on the waves of the increasingly popular themes of the End of the World, the Mayan calendar, Vanga's predictions and big-budget Hollywood blockbusters. Now abandoned cities are actively used to create scenery for man's eternal fear of the Apocalypse. Musicians, photographers, "filmmakers", writers, stalkers and other people come here in an effort to find inspiration and drink "dead water" from the stream of something invisible and infinitely mysterious.

Alternative and extreme types of tourism are also gaining momentum. Standard attractions, exhausting with an abundance of information about themselves, attract fewer and fewer travelers. The modern tourist is slowly turning into a researcher chasing some kind of metaphysical "non-standard". Endless opportunities to share your "finds" via the Internet only contribute to the desire to stand out, unique and separate from the other "crowd".

Today we would also like to turn to the topic of abandoned cities. Topics for Russia and the countries of the former USSR are truly inexhaustible, and, moreover, extremely exciting and intriguing. Let's digress for a few minutes from the fear of these silent "ghosts" and slowly walk along their quiet, deserted streets.

1. Halmer-Yu (Komi Republic)

Abandoned cities of Russia: Khalmer-Yu.

Miners' village. Eliminated during perestroika due to the closure of coal mines.

Now the territory is used as a military training ground, the call sign "Pemba". On August 17, 2005, during a strategic aviation exercise, a Tu-160 bomber carrying Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin launched three missiles at the former cultural center of an abandoned village.

2. Old Gubakha (Perm Territory)

Abandoned cities of Russia: Old Gubakha.

An abandoned mining village near a depleted coal mine. High degree of destruction of buildings.

3. Industrial (Komi Republic)

Abandoned cities of Russia: Industrial.

Mining village. In 1998, an explosion at a local mine claimed the lives of 27 miners. The bodies of 19 of them were never found. The mine was closed, the village was empty.

4. Jubilee (Perm Territory)

Abandoned cities of Russia: Jubilee.

5. Iultin (Chukotka Autonomous Okrug)

Abandoned cities of Russia: Iultin.

6. Kolendo (Sakhalin region)

Abandoned cities of Russia: Kolendo.

7. Nizhneyansk (Yakutia)

Abandoned cities of Russia: Nizhneyansk.

8. Fin whale (Kamchatka Territory)

Abandoned cities of Russia: Finval.

9. Alykel (Taimyr Autonomous District)

Abandoned cities of Russia: Alykel.

10. Neftegorsk (Sakhalin region)

Abandoned cities of Russia: Neftegorsk.

11. Kursha-2 (Ryazan region)

Abandoned cities of Russia: Kursha-2.

12. Mologa (Yaroslavl region)

Abandoned cities of Russia: Mologa.

13. Charonda (Vologda region)

Abandoned cities of Russia: Charonda.

14. Amderma (Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug)

Abandoned cities of Russia: Amderma.

15. Korzunovo (Murmansk region)

Abandoned cities of Russia: Korzunovo.

City of pilots and gunners. Yuri Gagarin served here in the 1950s.

16. Kadykchan (Magadan region)

Abandoned cities of Russia: Kadykchan.

A ghost town whose inhabitants mined coal for the Arkagalinskaya GRES.

17. Pripyat (Ukraine)

Abandoned cities on the territory of the former USSR: Pripyat.

18. Chernobyl-2 (Ukraine)

Abandoned cities on the territory of the former USSR: Chernobyl-2.

An abandoned city, and previously the military lived here, serving the Soviet over-the-horizon radar station "Duga" for an early detection system for intercontinental ballistic missile launches.

19. Sharp-eyed (Belarus)

Abandoned cities on the territory of the former USSR: Ostroglyady.

The ghost village was resettled after the Chernobyl disaster.

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, a man-made disaster, a war or an 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, a strong 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.