Infrastructure

The Eeriest Abandoned Towns and Cities in the World

Drew Wood

Published: January 18, 2025 6:57 am

You can probably name some of the abandoned cities of the past, like Pompei or Babylon, that were destroyed by natural disasters or war. But in today’s world, we have our own ghost cities, sometimes complete with abandoned skyscrapers and highways. Here are some of the most eerily post-apocalyptic ones you’ll find anywhere.

Wittenoom, Australia

This mining town of 200 workers and their families in Western Australia produced asbestos, a building material in high demand in the first part of the 20th century. After the health risks of asbestos became known, the mine closed in 1966 and the town dwindled. Because of high levels of hazardous asbestos dust in the soil and air, in 2007 the government officially closed the town. They’ve even removed it from official maps to make it hard for foolhardy adventure-seekers to find. 

Centralia, Pennsylvania

This community of about 1,000 was doomed when a garbage fire ignited abandoned coal mines that ran right under the town. Despite every effort to extinguish it, the fire has been burning since 1962. Residents started to develop health problems from toxic gasses, so the government used the law of eminent domain to purchase and demolish all the property. As seen in the photo, a closed highway leading to Centralia is now covered in colorful graffiti. 

Kolmanskop, Namibia

Before World War I when Namibia was still a German colony, Kolmanskop was founded as a mining community to extract diamonds from the area. Despite the harsh desert environment, it grew as large as 1,300 people with luxurious amenities to make life easier for people who were getting very rich off the local resources. By the 1930s, the mines there had played out and the miners moved away to richer deposits elsewhere in the country. The town was completely abandoned by 1956 and the desert began to reclaim it. 

Hashima Island, Japan

Just off the coast of Nagasaki is Hashima Island, also called “Battleship Island,” a coal-mining location that grew into a small city of 5,259 people by 1959. It was far enough away from the atomic bomb site that it did not sustain significant damage. The mine closed in 1974 and the island has been abandoned for nearly 50 years. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site as it gives researchers and tourists a glimpse of the era of Japanese industrialization. 

Bodie, California

In the U.S., one of the best-preserved ghost towns you can visit is Bodie, California. A gold rush mining town, Bodie had up to 10,000 residents at its peak and was actually one of California’s largest cities. The gold boom was followed by a bust for the town, though. It declined into a ghost town early in the 20th century and in 1962 became a state park. Park officials maintain its 110 surviving buildings to prevent them from declining further so that some 200,000 tourists a year can enjoy them. 

Varosha, Cyprus

In the early 1970s, Varosha was the top tourist destination on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. After Turkey invaded and occupied the northern half of the island, Varosha was caught in the middle and abandoned. From a population high of 39,000, only 226 live there today. Plans to reopen the city to settlement by Turkish Cypriots announced in 2019 have been controversial, as legally the city belongs to its original Greek inhabitants who have not been allowed to return to their property. 

Pripyat, Ukraine

The most populous city on our list is Pripyat, Ukraine, which until 1986 had a population of about 49,300. The Chernobyl nuclear disaster dosed the entire area with high levels of radiation. The population was evacuated the next day with no opportunity to return for their belongings. These days, trees are reclaiming the streets and abandoned dogs and wildlife roam through apartment buildings and schools, which still sport communist symbols and slogans. 

What About China’s Ghost Cities?

You’ve probably heard about the huge ghost cities in China that, as a result of poor planning and changing economic conditions, have been left nearly empty. An example is Tianducheng, China, which was built as a miniature Paris for wealthy residents, including a 1/3 scale Eiffel Tower replica and French-style apartment buildings. Built in 2007, at first it was described as a “ghost city” because of poor occupancy rates. Today it thrives with over 30,000 inhabitants. Of the 20 or so Chinese cities that have been described as ghost cities, most now have tens or hundreds of thousands of people living in them. This is far less than the developers planned, but its still hard to think of them as “abandoned cities,” just underutilized ones. 

It’s safe to say though, that with the possible exception of Varosha, Cyprus, the rest of the towns and cities on our list are true ghost towns, and likely to remain that way.