10.
AN UNDERWATER VEHICLE MUSEUM
Vehicles get into accidents and sink sometimes.
It just happens!
But they are also submerged on purpose for a number of reasons.
In 2019, Jordanian authorities lowered 19 decommissioned military vehicles into the
Red Sea in hopes of attracting tourists to the nearby resort city of Aqaba.
The collection of drowned hardware includes tanks, an ambulance, a military crane, a troop
carrier, a combat helicopter, an anti-aircraft battery, and several guns.
They’re arranged in a tactical formation along a coral reef 92 feet (28 meters) underwater.
The project was the brainchild of the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA), which
has turned to wreck diving in recent years as a way to draw in more visitors and more
of their money.
In fact, most of the wrecks around Aqaba were sunk deliberately.
The tradition of deliberately scuttling vehicles also stems from the Jordanian royal family’s
passion for diving, which goes back generations.
In 1985, the Late King Abdullah ordered the sinking of a Spanish cargo vessel called the
Cedar Pride.
Three years earlier, an accident had blasted a hole in the ship, leaving a half-submerged
eyesore until the king decided it belonged on the sea bottom.
An anti-aircraft tank became the second intentionally placed wreck off Aqaba in 1999.
There are also a few sunken airplanes, a landing boat, and a crane barge.
So if exploring waterlogged vehicles is your thing, Aqaba might be your type of place.
9.
OKOBIRA HOTEL
In early 2020, two young men entered the abandoned Okobira Hotel in Ebino City, Japan, perhaps
to stave off their pandemic boredom.
The hotel hasn’t operated in decades, and rumor has it that the 9th floor is haunted.
They traveled up to the 6th floor and were shocked to find a decaying body lying face-up
in a bed.
The remains were too decomposed for police to provide the person’s approximate age
and gender.
No personal belongings or identifying items were found nearby.
The individual was eventually identified as a local resident in his 50s.
It’s apparently common in Japan for abandoned buildings to stand for years, or even decades
after shuttering their doors.
A reporter for The Mainichi recently set out to learn why.
Residents said that people had been trespassing into the Okobira Hotel for years, and that
they’d like to see it torn down.
But the company that owned the building was dissolved, and if the local government gets
too involved, it could become responsible for maintaining the dilapidated hotel, which
is starting to fall apart and become dangerous.
And it would be risky to demolish the building, because it would be extremely difficult to
go after the former owner for the cost, meaning that it might ultimately come at the taxpayers’
expense.
So for now, this and other creepy deserted sites remain in a legal limbo of sorts while
they fall further into disrepair. 8.
CAVERN OF LOST SOULS
A few years ago, an explorer named Gareth Owen decided to investigate an abandoned slate
mine in Wales that had closed around 60 years earlier.
Much to his surprise, he discovered that the cave, nicknamed the Cavern of Lost Souls,
now functions as an underground junkyard!
He found it filled with dozens of cars piled on top of one another, cascading into a pool
of blue water.
Eerie photos captured by Owen show that the vehicles are mostly unrecognizable, but there’s
one blue Ford Cortina sitting on top of the heap in one piece.
Most of the cars inside the 200-foot-deep (61 meters) mine are from the 1970s onward,
which makes sense, since the site became a dumping ground after the mine closed in 1960.
As fascinating as the site is, he pointed out that it’s a reminder of a time when
people were less worried about pollution.
But it’s not all bad according to Owen, who cited the junk pile as a reminder of how
far the country had come in its efforts to be more environmentally aware.
His photos went viral, prompting other urban explorers to go check the site out for themselves.
Sadly, the site has reportedly been trashed and covered in graffiti, making it impossible
for future visitors to enjoy it in the condition Owen found it in.
7.
KOLYUCHIN ISLAND
Located just 7 miles (11 km) from the northern shore of the Chukotka Peninsula, Kolyuchin
Island sits above the Arctic Circle in Russia’s Far East.
There’s an indigenous settlement along its northern shore, but it’s otherwise uninhabited
by humans.
The island is home to a collection of abandoned structures that were built during the 1930s,
including a polar station.
Unfortunately, it also served as a dumping ground for empty fuel barrels during the Soviet
era, with as many as 12 million of the containers scattered along the coast.
Last year, Russian photographer Dmitry Kokh traveled throughout the Russian Arctic snapping
pictures of polar bears.
He didn’t really expect to find them at Kolyuchin Island, but he stopped there anyway.
Much to his surprise, the island had been pretty much taken over by the giant furry
Arctic beasts, who have made their way into the deserted buildings.
Yep!
The polar bears moved right in!
Speaking with DIYPhotography, Kokh described his encounter with the bears as a “once-in-a-lifetime”
event.
As excited as he was, however, he expressed his disappointment about how the creatures
have to live among the garbage and pollution left behind by humans.
6.
DESERTED AIRBNB
If you’re familiar with AirBnB, then you know that it can be a very good thing or a
very bad thing.
When done right, the app connects responsible guests with reliable hosts and the exact type
of property the renter is looking for.
But things occasionally go wrong on either or both ends, and it doesn’t take much for
disaster to strike.
British couple Sebastian and Amy Alexander recently booked a room at what they thought
was a luxury hotel in Costa Rica for a planned New Year’s Eve trip.
But when they arrived, they quickly realized that the property was abandoned.
Instead of the lush, well-lit building featured in the ad, the pair encountered a dismal,
fenced-off shell of what used to be an upscale hotel.
Creepy!
While at a bar next door trying to figure out what to do, some locals told Sebastian
and Amy that the owners shuttered the business two years ago when the pandemic hit.
The couple had shelled out around $1,350 for the stay and had to pay another $2,700 to
spend their vacation elsewhere.
They told the press that it took AirBnB five days to respond to them after they contacted
the company.
Describing the experience as a “holiday from hell,” Sebastian said that he and his
wife are experienced travelers, and they never had something like that happen to them until
now.
He also said that he never wanted to use AirBnB again.
Have you ever had a bad experience with AirBnB?
Tell us about it in the comments below and don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t
already!
:)
5.
FLORIDA FUNERAL HOME
It’s unfortunately not uncommon to see news headlines about funeral home staff doing disturbing
things to cut costs, even when it means mishandling bodies that grieving families have entrusted
them to prepare properly for burial.
A 40-year-old YouTuber named Robb, who runs the channel RNK All Day, recently gained access
to one such establishment, which has sat abandoned since 2012 in Wadesboro, North Carolina.
The McLendon Funeral Home made headlines numerous times for allegedly abusing corpses.
In 2014 – two years after the business was shut down – three rotting bodies were found
inside.
Robb was taken to the run-down business by a local resident.
They found a slew of shocking items, including bags of cremated human remains, coffins, photos
of dead bodies, and more.
The building still contains the furniture it used for performing funeral services and
the equipment that was used for preparing bodies.
There’s a gravestone engraved with the name Daisy B. Hunt and the dates 1934-2004, a mattress
left behind by squatter’s, and a stuffed animal.
Two bags of ashes contained labels dated to 1995 and 1999, with personal details attached.
Robb captured footage of the frightening scene, explaining that the funeral home’s owner
failed to do right by her customers, and that she was neglectful and criminal in her actions.
He went on to say that he couldn’t imagine what it would be like if someone mistreated
one of his loved ones in such a horrifying fashion.
4.
THE DROWNED VILLAGE OF VILARINHO DA FURNA
Every now and then when a dry spell causes water levels to drop in Portugal’s Minho
region, the ruins of a 2,000-year-old town appear.
Known as Vilarinho da Furna, the crumbling settlement was submerged after construction
began on a nearby dam in 1967.
The Portuguese Electric Company built the reservoir to bring large-scale hydroelectric
power to the region.
Residents of the small village of 300 were paid to move.
Some went reluctantly, but they eventually all cleared out, with the last resident leaving
in 1971.
The town was submerged the following year, and has been all but lost to history, with
its occasional reappearances and a small nearby museum serving as the only reminders that
it’s there.
According to word of mouth, it was founded by Romans during the first century and grew
to be quite prosperous.
Visitors are unlikely to see the ruins, because fluctuating water levels make it dangerous
to take a boat near them, and most locals aren’t willing to take the risk.
3.
HUMAN REMAINS INSIDE AN ABANDONED CHURCH
Detectives in Akron, Ohio were recently led to an abandoned church building owned by the
Greater Faith Missionary Baptist Church of Akron after a tipster revealed a gruesome
discovery.
An urban explorer had entered the church with a friend out of curiosity.
Inside, she found dozens of boxes and several white bags stacked against a wall with names,
Social Security numbers, and dates on them.
She told local station WKYC that she saw cremation records dated between 2005 and 2020.
After snapping some photos, the woman contacted the authorities.
The discovery led to the arrest of the church’s former pastor, 41-year-old Shawnte Hardin.
He faces a slew of charges including records tampering, failing to file taxes, abuse of
a corpse, and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.
Harden is accused of providing funeral services without a license since 2014.
Any experienced urban explorer knows that there’s always a chance that they’ll come
across something spooky or upsetting during their investigations.
Speaking with WKYC, the woman who discovered the abandoned cremains said “It wasn’t
scary.
It was sad and disturbing.
Just shocking.”
Based on some of the information she saw, some of the ashes belong to children.
Authorities are now tasked with finding the surviving family members and returning their
loved ones’ ashes to them.
2.
EXTREMELY RARE CARS
While rummaging through an abandoned roadside garage in the U.K., a YouTube user who goes
by the name IMSTOKZE found a handful of extremely rare vehicles, including two pre-World War
II BMW’s.
The cars are likely what’s known as Frazer Nash BMW’s, meaning they were imported,
assembled, and sold by the British sportscar brand Frazer Nash Limited as part of a partnership
that lasted from 1934 to 1939.
While this lowers the value of the vehicles a little bit, they’re still incredibly rare
and worth quite a lot.
One of the cars bears the Frazer Nash emblem, while the other only has the BMW logo.
They appear to be two-door 327 models, which means they were built sometime between 1937
and 1941.
Around 2,000 were made before World War II broke out and production ground to a halt.
It’s a complete mystery why and how they ended up stashed away in what seems to be
a deserted shed.
In addition to the BMW’s, Auto Evolution reported that the explorer found some vintage
Norton bikes, an old Triumph, a Land Rover 110, and around a dozen European classic cars
dating back between the 1960’s and the ‘80s.
1.
A RUINED CITY IN THE FOREST
Deep in the woods on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada are the crumbling ruins
of one of Canada’s first planned communities.
The idea for the city, known as Broughton, came in the early 20th century after a coal
seam was discovered in the area.
British mining engineer Thomas Lancaster and businessman Col. Horace Mayhew set out to
harvest the coal.
As part of their plan, they designed what was supposed to be the infrastructure for
a thriving city of 10,000 to 12,000 residents with 10 miles (16 km) of streets.
Investors poured millions into the project.
Streets were laid out, buildings were constructed, and a luxurious hotel and resort there had
the first revolving door in North America.
But Broughton’s existence was short-lived, and the population never grew nearly as big
as it was built for.
When Lancaster and Mayhew’s coal company went bankrupt in 1907, the city’s residents
moved away and both men left the area for England.
The Canadian army took over the city during World War I and used it as a training headquarters.
Around 1,200 soldiers were housed in the former hotels and homes.
But once the war was over, they cleared out and Broughton was once again left empty.
It was never lived in again and slowly succumbed to the forces of nature, which have almost
entirely reclaimed the site.
All that’s left now are the crumbling foundations of several buildings.
A person who’s walking through the woods and isn’t familiar with the area’s history
would surely wonder what they’d just encountered.
It’s an eerie sight, to say the least, to see the deteriorating structures left behind
by Mayhew and Lancaster’s failed vision.
Some even say that the ruins are haunted by the ghosts of miners and soldiers who lived
there for a short time.
Thanks for watching!
Which one of these discoveries was the most fascinating to you?
Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to subscribe!
See you next time!
Bye! :)