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Welcome to Top 10 Archive!
All across the world, it’s easy to find bustling metropolises.
Towns and cities overflowing with people going about their daily life, and it’s impossible
to imagine those places without people.
But sometimes that’s what happens.
Sometimes, an entire city is silenced in hours if not in minutes.
Today, we're counting down ten towns that were abandoned for strange reasons.
Be warned, some of these entries are pretty shocking.
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in the comment section which town you'd like to visit the most!
10.
Centralia, USA In 1980, Centralia, Pennsylvania was a small
but bustling ex-mining town with over 1,000 residents.
But by 2013, only ten people remained.
Why?
Well, that would be because of the raging coal mine fire that’s been burning underneath
the town since 1963.
Mining in Centralia ceased in the 1960s, leaving behind a huge labyrinth of mining tunnels
which snake their way under the town.
It’s thought that fire consumed those tunnels during an operation in 1962 to clean up the
town’s landfill.
Trash was set on fire, as was usual Centralia’s method of cleaning up, but this time it’s
thought that the fire wasn’t properly extinguished and it made its way down into the tunnels.
It wasn’t until 1979 that locals became aware of the scale of the problem when a gas-station
owner found that the temperature in his underground gas tanks was 172 F or 77.8 C, which obviously
could have been extremely dangerous.
The fire still rages on to this day and the town’s property has been condemned and its
ZIP code discontinued.
State officials decided to let seven people live out the rest of their lives there, at
which point Centralia will become a real ghost town.
9.
Oradour-sur-Glane, France Before WWII erupted, the small French village
of Oradour-sur-Glane was a quiet, happy and peaceful place.
But all that changed in 1944 when the German Waffen SS arrived and massacred all but six
of the village’s residents.
642 people lost their lives that day, including over 200 children.
In what became known as the Nazis’ worst atrocity in Western Europe, locals were gathered
in the village square before the men were taken to six barns and the women and children
to the church.
The men were machine-gunned down and then their bodies, some of which were still living,
were set alight.
Only five men survived.
The women and children in the church weren’t spared the Nazi brutality – grenades were
thrown inside and only a single woman emerged with her life intact.
After the horror subsided it was decided that the village would neither be rebuilt nor demolished.
Instead, it was decided that Orandour-sur-Glane would remain exactly as it was on that unimaginable
Saturday afternoon in 1944.
Visitors to the site of the village can learn more about the horrific attack at a beautiful
memorial center and can walk around the village which has been frozen in time.
8.
Pripyat, Ukraine Pripyat is perhaps the most famous ghost town
in the world and the accident that caused it will go down in history as possibly the
worst ever.
The Chernobyl disaster took place in April 1986, when a reactor at a nuclear power plant
exploded, spewing plumes of lethal radiation into the air.
Despite the immediate threat to life, nearby Pripyat wasn’t immediately evacuated.
In fact, residents didn’t even know what had happened.
This was partly due to the fact that Chernobyl was run by authorities in Moscow, and crazily
enough, the government of Ukraine was kept in the dark after the incident.
It was a few hours later when several people suddenly fell ill with headaches, fits, and
vomiting that officials finally decided to take action.
It took 36 hours for the official order to evacuate to come through.
Originally, the evacuation was only planned for three days, but it soon became evident
that residents would never be able to set foot inside the town again.
Around 116,000 people left their homes in the days that followed the nuclear disaster,
and their worldly possessions remain there to this very day.
7.
Plymouth, West Indies The residents of Plymouth on the Caribbean
island of Montserrat knew that they were in trouble in 1995 when the previously inactive
Soufrière Hills volcano showed signs of an imminent eruption.
From July of that year, pyroclastic flows surged into town and ash fell from the skies.
Residents were evacuated as a precaution but they were allowed back a few months later.
Then, in 1997 the volcano blew again, destroying 80% of the town and smothering the entire
area in almost five feet or 1.5 meters of ash.
19 people were killed and the town’s 4,000 inhabitants were immediately displaced.
The entire southern half of Montserrat was declared an exclusion zone and this is still
in force today because of continuing volcanic activity.
This was catastrophic for the entire island’s economy, and between 1995 and 2000, around
two-thirds of its population fled to other countries.
Now, the island’s population is around 5,000, which is a drastic drop from 13,000 in 1994.
6.
Kolmanskop, Namibia Kolmanskop is a deserted town in southern
Namibia.
The settlement was always small but the area was extremely rich thanks to a single diamond
that was accidentally found by a worker in 1908.
That lucky find gave away that the area was extremely abundant with diamonds, and German
miners quickly moved in and created a settlement.
The settlement grew rapidly, and the buildings were created in the architectural style of
a German town.
There was so much wealth in the area that Kolmanskop was the first place in the southern
hemisphere to have an x-ray station and the first place in Africa to have a tram.
But, as the diamond resources were depleted, so did the town’s population.
The area’s demise was expedited by the discovery of the richest diamond-bearing deposits ever
known, around 270 kilometers or 167 miles south of Kolmanskop.
Residents deserted the town to join the rush to the south, leaving most of their possessions
behind.
The town was finally abandoned in 1957 and tourists can now walk through sand-filled
houses which are still standing deserted today.
5.
Bojayá, Colombia Colombia has been plagued by decades of civil
war and terrorism, and in 2002, the small town of Bojayá added its civilians to the
list of almost a quarter of a million people that have died in the ongoing conflict.
On May 2nd, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, stormed the town in an
attempt to seize control of the Atrato River region.
Around 500 residents hid inside the church with the hopes of staying out of harm's way,
but it wasn’t to be.
A mortar bomb smashed through the church roof and killed 119 people, including 45 children.
Since that day, Bojayá has been a ghost town and although there are plans to rebuild it,
the exact location of the massacre will be left alone as a reminder of that horrific
day.
4.
Hashima Island, Japan Hashima Island is just 15 kilometers or 9
miles off the coast of Japan.
It’s widely known as Gunkanjima or Battleship Island because of its uncanny resemblance
to a warship from the sky.
The island came to life in the late 19th century when it was established as an undersea coal
mining site.
Some of the world’s earliest high-rise residential buildings were erected in 1916 for the coal
miners and their families to live in, and from that time the population grew and grew.
By 1959, Hashima had 5,259 people packed on to it, which made it one of the most densely
populated places on Earth.
Then in the 1960s, everything started to change.
Gas was becoming Japan’s primary fuel source and coal reserves were getting low, so the
Mitsubishi-owned mines were finally closed down in 1974.
With no reason to stay, the coal miners and their families jumped ship, quickly turning
the island into a ghost town.
It’s possible to visit the island today, but you’ll need permission from council
and a compelling reason to go – and wanting to get photos for Instagram probably isn’t
a good enough reason.
3.
Famagusta, Cyprus Famagusta is a city in Cyprus and Varosha
was once its most-happening quarter.
Prior to the mid-70s, it was a popular tourist area and its beaches were packed all year
round.
But in 1974, that all changed when Turkey invaded and took control of the area.
Varosha’s residents fled and the area has remained under the occupation of Turkish Armed
Forces ever since.
Entry to the area is totally forbidden and would-be trespassers would be risking their
lives to sneak in.
It’s possible to see the area from a safe viewpoint though.
Through binoculars, the empty, silent streets and deserted buildings are visible.
And, without human intervention, nature is reclaiming the area.
Buildings are decaying and plants are working their roots into houses and pavements.
Sea turtles have even been seen nesting on the abandoned beaches.
Who knows what will happen, but for now there seems to be no possibility of the area being
repopulated.
2.
Pyramiden, Norway Very few things in life sound as creepy as
a Soviet ghost town, especially when you factor in its location in the Arctic Circle.
But if you head to Pyramiden, that’s exactly what you’re going to find.
Located in Svalbard, an archipelago between Norway and the North Pole, Pyramiden has been
deserted since 1998.
The Soviet Union-owned settlement was built for mining purposes and was once home to around
1,000 residents.
Pyramiden was almost entirely self-sufficient in its heyday and had plenty of modern amenities
including a pub and a gym.
But those Soviet glory days weren’t to last – a downturn in Russia’s economy led to
low salaries, poor living conditions, and unhappy workers.
The final nail in Pyramiden’s coffin, though, was a tragic plane crash which killed 141
Pyramiden workers and their families.
The settlement never recovered and was deserted by the 300 or so workers that were still there
by 1998.
Those families left everything behind, and visitors can still see mining supplies and
equipment exactly as it was left over two decades ago.
1.
Time Beach, Missouri The town of Times Beach, Missouri, was once
home to 2,000 people.
That is until it was discovered that the entire population had been accidentally poisoned
for ten years.
It was 1972 when officials in Times Beach paid for waste oil to be sprayed on the town’s
dirt roads.
This was a normal practice and 160,000 gallons of seemingly harmless oil was dumped all across
the town’s tracks to reduce the amount of dust in the air.
But what officials didn’t realize is that the waste oil actually contained dioxin, a
highly toxic chemical that is said to be 170,000 times as deadly as cyanide.
It took ten years for the contamination to be confirmed.
Fortuitously, soil sampling was completed just one day before Times Beach suffered its
worst flood in history.
The entire town was ordered to escape the rising river water, and while they were gone
it was recommended by the Centers for Disease Control that the town not be re-inhabited
due to concerns over the health effects of such extreme dioxin exposure.
The state and the federal government paid $36.7 million to 30 businesses and 800 residential
property owners to leave, and it cost a further $200 million to clean the area up.
Today it’s home to Route 66 State Park, which is completely safe
to visit.