15 Largest Abandoned Cities on Earth

when you think of a city a bustling metropolis filled with big businesses beautiful landmarks and massive skyscrapers probably comes to mind there are some cities however that's been left almost completely abandoned eerie and desolate a sign of a time long past here are the top 15 largest abandoned cities on earth number 15. krakow italy as far as abandoned places go few are as scenic as krakow italy located in the southern italian province of basilicata and was founded all the way back in 540 a.d and has a striking appearance due to it having been built on a 400 meter tall cliff built in such a location so that the town could defend itself from potential invaders said defense mechanism worked well 1500 years ago yet it eventually led to the city's downfall this is because krakow eventually became extremely vulnerable to natural disasters and various landslides led to large amounts of damage being dealt to it these landslides ultimately became so severe that in 1963 the italian government forced out all of krakow's residents having them instead relocate to the nearby town of krakow peshira since then it has become a popular tourist attraction and film location with movies as iconic as the passion of christ and christ stopped it italy having been filmed there number 14 famestown china generally speaking copies are usually far worse than the originals and thames town in china is a prime example of this built in order to house overflow people from shanghai it was built to model victorian era london as it features cobbled streets victorian terraces corner shops and red telephone boxes yet despite its charming appearance it hasn't been very palatable to shanghai's residence as despite being designed to hold 10 000 people it currently remains mostly empty however considering that shanghai is a city that's certainly not on the decline we're sure people will be forced to move there sooner rather than later number 13 kangbashi district ordo city china while most city districts are busy vibrant and of course full of people ordo city's business district of kangbashi is anything but located in china's northern region of inner mongolia construction began in 2003 yet despite it having a capacity to hold up to 300 000 people as of 2010 it only had a population of about 20 to 30 000 and since then the population has only grown slightly as a result despite having massive residential and office skyscrapers and high-tech facilities it's still a very quiet place to live in number 12 kennecott united states the town officially holds the title as being the northernmost on this list is kennicut located far up north in the snowy state of alaska it's notable for having produced about 200 million dollars worth of copper ore between 1911 and 1938 which today would be worth about three billion dollars however in 1938 the mines officially closed down making connecticut a veritable ghost town yet since then it's been incorporated into the rengel saint elias national park and preserve which is the largest national park in the united states and as a result it's seen a steady stream of tourists over the years number 11. kaiokoi turkey world war 1 was easily one of the most brutal conflicts in history but we think you'd agree that few towns felt its effects as strongly as kaiokoi turkey built in the 1700s it's located in southwestern turkey yet for years had a sizable greek population however once world war one came around the ottoman turks began persecuting the greeks and this came to a head in 1923 when a population exchange between the two countries caused greeks living there to be forced to evacuate causing the town to quickly become abandoned it has since become a small-scale terrorist site number 10 urador sagulan france urador sugan was certainly never a large city it stands apart for having one of the most tragic tales on this list occupied by the germans during world war ii it entered the bad books of the nazis when in 1944 it was reported that highly decorated ss officer helmut kumpf had been killed by resistance fighters from the town as a result ss officer adolf diekmann decided that revenge was in order and thus marched on the town with several ss troops forcing the men into a barn and women and children into a church both groups were brutally killed by the soldiers due to a mix of gunshot and burn wounds leading to a total death toll of 642 almost every single citizen of the town was murdered on that day therefore after the war's conclusions president charles de gaulle ordered that the burned-out ruins of the old town be left untouched as a monument to the victims as a result with the exception of a museum the site remains both untouched and uninhabited to this day number nine ashkebot turkmenistan while technically not an abandoned city a trip through this massive metropolis will make you soon realize that it's on the emptier side you see ashgabat which is the capital of the former soviet state of turkmenistan is very impressive at first glance holding the guinness world record for having been built with more marble than any other city on the planet it's chock full of massive monuments spectacular statues and brilliant buildings including a large mosque and major sports complex that was used for the 2017 asian indoor games yet despite all of this glamour the city remains nearly empty this is because rather than invest in economic projects the government has consistently used its massive oil and gas revenues to make ashgabat a display of wealth in an otherwise impoverished nation as a result they have consistently evicted people from their homes without compensation and stifled the free press in order to allow these building projects to go through despite the country's gdp per capita being less than seven thousand dollars when you then further consider that ashgabat is considered to be one of the most expensive places to live in the world thanks to turkmenistan's sky-high inflation and lack of access to even the most basic products it becomes painfully clear why this city has essentially become a massive ghost town we are constantly adding more people to the top fives production team to bring you all the best content be sure to subscribe with notifications on and hit the like button number eight pripyat ukraine while war the economy or central planning are the most common reasons for cities being abandoned pripyat stands apart for being abandoned largely thanks to a nuclear disaster that's because on april 26th of 1986 a catastrophic meltdown took place inside reactor number four at the nearby nuclear power plant at chernobyl this spewed flames and radioactive material into the skies over pripyat which was a nearby city built to house the plant scientists and workers as a result the city's 49 000 inhabitants were evacuated within 36 hours and in order to ensure that no one went back the soviet government established a 29 kilometer exclusion zone around both pripyat and the power plant yet despite this many former residents have had major health problems related to their nuclear exposure despite being in the radioactive city for less than two days and most incredibly of all there are still some that refuse to leave prip yet even after the nuclear meltdown with this population constituting about 400 people to this day however despite this massive mess rendering pripyat inhospitable for at least the next few centuries authorities have deemed it safe enough for tourists to venture inside of it for short-term visits as a result practically anyone can purchase a guided tour into the abandoned city today so long as they're willing to shell out about a hundred to five hundred dollars per person therefore if you're planning on visiting eastern europe anytime soon we highly suggest putting this spectacular city onto your bucket list number seven coleman stop namibia mining towns tend to have a pretty finite lifespan and coleman scop is certainly no exception located in the southwest corner of the southwestern african country of namibia it was founded in 1908 after a nearby railway worker found a large diamond in the area leading to a massive diamond mining boom german laborers came in droves to the town which eventually grew to not only have amenities such as a hospital ballroom theater sport hall and casino but also the first x-ray station in the southern hemisphere and the first tram in africa however in 1928 a much larger deposit with much easier to find diamonds was found 260 kilometers south of coleman stop and by world war ii the coleman scop mines began to become severely depleted leading to the town being completely abandoned in 1956 due to the natural forces of the desert coleman scope is now covered in knee-deep high sand best of all it can still be visited to this day however because it's located within a restricted area of the mid desert known as the spargabiet visitors must obtain a permit before venturing inside number six north brother island the united states although technically not a town this abandoned location certainly has much more unsettling history than many of the other places on this list that's because this island which is located on new york's east river is infamous for being the location of a hospital for people with highly contagious diseases known as riverside hospital it opened in 1885 and it mainly housed people with diseases such as typhoid tuberculosis and smallpox with typhoid mary malin being its most famous patient then after being briefly closed throughout world war ii it was used to house wartime veterans in the 1950s it was then repurposed as a treatment center for adolescent drug addicts however in 1963 the hospital closed its doors for good and ever since the island has been abandoned and off limit to visitors nowadays it's instead being used as a wildlife sanctuary however there is research and area planning currently being put in place to perhaps reopen the island to the public in the near future number five famagusta cyprus if you were to turn back the clock to the middle ages you'd see a thumagusta that is far different than the version of it that's present today that's because during this time period it was the island's most important port city as it was a gateway to trade with the extremely rich ports of the levant however since then cyprus has experienced a lot of turmoil and in response to a failed greek coup in 1974 turkish troops invaded the city that same year in particular they annexed the varusha district of the city which not only led to the expulsion of all the greek cypriots inhabiting it but the sectioning off of the city with barbed wire and widespread looting by the turks thankfully since then the situation has largely de-escalated and today cyprus is in a state of uneasy peace between both greek and turkish factions on the island however in spite of this the de facto turkish government of northern cyprus has forbidden the old greek cypress to re-enter not only disallowing them from living in their homes but even forbidding them to reclaim their valuables the reason for this are extremely complicated although factors such as security and the commercial importance of the city have all been cited yet until a completely unified cyprus becomes a reality this will likely remain the status quo however in 2017 northern cyprus made a surprising move when they opened varus's world-class beaches to turkish cypress and turkish citizens and in 2019 they took this one step further by announcing that varus formerly world-class hotels would be reopening by the end of 2020 however with many of the specifics still unclear only time will tell who will be allowed to enter number 4 plymouth montserrat if you've never heard of the island territory of montserrat before we wouldn't blame you located in the southeastern caribbean montserrat is an overseas territory of the united kingdom and after plymouth became its first european settlement in 1632 it remained largely forgotten by the world at large yet a few hundred years later its existence would come to an abrupt end in july of 1995 a series of large eruptions at suffra hills volcano which had been inactive for centuries sent pyroclastic flows and ash across the southern portion of the island as a result by december of that year the entire town was completely evacuated with residents being allowed to come back in 1997. however in june of 1997 the volcano began erupting once again with these eruptions leading to a permanent evacuation of most of plymouth citizens soon afterwards luckily for the montserrat islanders this evacuation had been well timed because between august 4th and august 8th of that year a further series of large eruptions destroyed approximately 80 percent of the town burying it under 1.4 meters of ash this hot material burned many of the buildings making habitation nearly impossible for many of the residents and causing the british navy to intervene and evacuate those who had remained in the city as a result a large portion of the island's residents ended up moving back to the mainland united kingdom and in turn the island became economically depressed due to both its population decrease and the destruction of most of its economically profitable businesses nowadays the southern area of the island continues to be deemed as an exclusion zone as volcanic activity in the area has not yet paused yet if you'd like to visit there are tours that organize excursions to this exclusion zone however considering that the volcano is still active you'd definitely be entering at your own risk number three hashima island japan as we alluded to before mining towns usually aren't places with a very long lifespan and hashima island in japan was certainly no exception see after a coal mining colony was established on the island in 1887 workers and their families began to flock to the island yet after only a very short period of time the entire colony was bought out by mitsubishi and it would soon become an extremely profitable venture with this being made even more apparent after korean and chinese prisoners of war were forced to work in these mines throughout world war ii even after the war hashima islands still continued to grow but at its height in the 1950s it housed 5 200 residents in a space of less than a square kilometer making one of the most densely packed places on earth yet in 1974 mitsubishi closed down their mine leading to the island being abandoned almost immediately as a result the island remains in a ruined state as its concrete apartments schools barber shops and swimming pools all sit empty yet despite this abandonment hashima island has been able to stir up more than its fair share of controversy the first such controversy came in 2009 when japan nominated the island to be a unesco world heritage site due to it being an important factor in spurring the meiji industrial revolution in japan however south and north korea both opposed this addition as they felt that the island's legacy as a prisoner of war camp made it unworthy of a unesco title yet to both their benefits south korea and japan did eventually reach a compromise where japan agreed to acknowledge the island's dark past to tourists leading to south korea withdrawing its opposition as a result in 2015 it was officially named as a unesco world heritage site best of all if you'd like to visit hashima island you can certainly do so that's because the japanese government opened the island to visitors in 2009 and as a result it can now be seen for a price that's equivalent to about 35 to 50 us dollars therefore if you'd like to visit one of the most unique islands in the japanese archipelago then hashima island is your dream destination number two bodhi california if you're the type that enjoys an old spaghetti western and chances are that you've heard of bodhi california located in the eastern half of the state on the border with nevada the area was first settled after small amounts of gold were found in 1859 and became a full-on town after large deposits of gold were found in 1876 this convinced an influx of prospectors to make the trek over to the town in order to try their luck and by 1879 bodhi had a population of about seven to ten thousand people and a total of two thousand buildings however this influx also began to give it a reputation for being a quote unquote sea of sin and the town became infamous for its various shootouts gambling rings and brothels yet the gold deposits and wild west shenanigans couldn't last forever in fact by 1910 the town only had a few hundred people and in 1942 the last mine was closed with everyone moving out by war's end in 1945 as a result it sat for a couple of decades as a completely abandoned ghost town however in 1961 it was designated as a national historical landmark and in 1962 the california state legislature authorized the creation of bodhi state historic park this led to the 170 remaining buildings being maintained in a state of arrested decay meaning that while not having been restored but having instead been protected from decomposing further and although this means that no one can live in bodhi any longer in a sense it's now far more popular than it was during its boom years that's because to this day it receives about two hundred thousand visitors annually and is easily one of the most popular ghost towns in the world number one fordlandia brazil while the ford motors company may have made massive strides in improving the lives of workers across america in brazil the company was less than successful you see henry ford first began to look to brazil when he wanted to source his own rubber for his tires as he was growing tired of having to pay for it from the british firms that had a monopoly over the resource this caused him to invest about 20 million dollars or about 290 million today into creating the equivalent of an american working-class town on the tabajos river which runs right through the famed amazon jungle founded in 1928 and called fordlandia he created amenities such as an american-style bungalows swimming pools hotels and even a golf course in the hope that his brazilian workers would grow accustomed to this type of community however to ford's misfortune the project became a disaster almost immediately the first major issue was that there were no roads connecting fort landia to the rest of brazil therefore the only way to enter the town was by the tabajos river which proved to be a logistical nightmare then the american planners who had little knowledge of tropical rubber cultivation made the mistake of growing all the rubber trees close together rather than space them apart which caused them to quickly succumb to tree funguses disease and various crop eating critters yet worst of all the americans managed to infuriate their brazilian workers by imposing strict sets of rules that include bans on alcohol tobacco and of all things soccer causing the workers to revolt in the crop harvest to fail ford decided to move 40 kilometers down river to a more fertile site and while this site did end up producing some rubber it was around this time that synthetic rubber became easy to mass produce making natural rubber to become obsolete this caused henry ford's grandson henry ford ii to sell all of his brazilian land back to the brazilian government for pennies on the dollar in 1945 losing millions in the process as a result the town now sits abandoned far in the depths of the amazon and still receives curious visitors from time to time that's all we have for you today everyone and thank you all for watching let us know in the comments down below which abandoned city you might want to visit one day and if you enjoyed this video don't forget to like subscribe and smash that notification button so you never miss out on any of our latest content until next time

Channel: Top Fives

Views: 1,450,391

Rating: 4.8163805 out of 5

Keywords: Largest Abandoned Cities In The World, Worlds Largest Abandoned City

Id: ykNgGqCHtok

Length: 18min 45sec (1125 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 15 2020