Abandoned cities of the world

Fascinating stories about how cities lost all their inhabitants in one moment and became abandoned ghost towns.

Pripyat, Ukraine

The city was built in the 1970s for workers of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, by 1986 it had 50 thousand inhabitants. After the accident, the city quickly emptied, people left all their belongings here, which makes the city look frozen in time. Pripyat even has its own attractions, for example, the Ferris wheel, which has become a symbol of the post-apocalyptic world.

Picher, Oklahoma, USA

Picher was an industrial city for the production of zinc and lead. The population was about 25 thousand inhabitants. But in the early 1980s, it was discovered that the soil was excessively polluted with mine waste, and living was dangerous to health. Toxic lead got into the water supply system, poisoning local residents. Children were born with defects due to the influence of elevated lead levels. The final point on the city was put by a tornado in 2008, which claimed the lives of about 8000 people.

Turkey, Kayak

Now the village of Kayakey in Turkey is an open–air museum with history, located near Oludeniz and Fethiye. The ruined ghost town is under the protection of the Turkish government, but continues to collapse further. Kayak was abandoned as a result of the Greco-Turkish War. The final damage to the city was caused by the 1957 earthquake. Today it is a popular tourist route through which the famous Lycian Trail passes.

Centralia. Pennsylvania, USA

The city of Centralia, founded in 1841, was quite an ordinary functioning city, where the main occupation of the townspeople was the coal and anthracite industry. All residents had to be relocated due to an underground mine fire that began in 1962 and continues to this day, smoke is still coming from cracks in roads and mountain faults.

Namie. Japan

In 2011, the disaster off the coast of Japan shocked the whole world. As a result of the earthquake, an explosion occurred at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, after which it was decided to evacuate people. A previously densely populated, prosperous city at one point became a desert and dangerous to be in.