Great ghost cities of the world (top 10)

video: Largest abandoned cities in the world

TOP 10

1. Bodie (United States of America, California) . It is probably the most famous ghost town (it even has a Facebook page).

Shortly after it was built, the city reached a population of 10,000 inhabitants, in 1880, and was gradually abandoned due to numerous fires.

2. Hashima Island (Japan) . Between 1887 and 1974, the island represented a coal mine and at the same time the most populated place on earth, hosting over 13,000 people per square kilometer. The decline of the island occurred due to the discovery of another fuel that replaced coal, oil. The mine was closed and, overnight, the inhabitants left it to dry, leaving behind all their goods to rot. It is currently forbidden to approach the island, for safety reasons.

3. Pripyat (Ukraine) . Built in 1970 for employees of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the city of 50,000 inhabitants was abandoned after the 1986 explosion.

4. Sanzhi Bridge City (Taiwan). Located in northern Taiwan, the city, originally built to be a luxury vacation resort, was abandoned after several tragic accidents occurred during construction.

5. Kolmanskop (Namibia) . Located in the Namib desert, in southwest Africa, the former mining town of Kolmanskop has become a tourist destination. Kolmanskop developed with the discovery of diamonds in the area in 1908, and was built in the style of an opulent German town. The city declined after the First World War, when the price of diamonds experienced a downward trajectory. The locals abandoned it for good in 1956.

6. Craco (Italy) . A medieval city that is now the location for many films (eg "The Passion of the Christ"). Craco is one of the oldest medieval cities in Italy, documented around the year 1060. Its first inhabitants focused on agriculture, but the city did not bear much fruit. Thus, around 1900, the town began to be abandoned, due to the drought and poor agricultural crops.

7. Varosha (Cyprus) . The city was abandoned after the invasion of the armed forces of Turkey in 1974, after which a pro-Turkish separatist republic was formed in the north of Cyprus. The capital of Cyprus, Nicosia, was divided in two between the Greeks and the Turks, the same should have been the case with the city of Farmagusta, but the Turkish armed forces insisted that Varosha remain under its control. The entire Greek population was evacuated from the city, the southern part of the city was fenced off, so for more than 30 years no one entered this city.

8. Agdam (Azerbaijan) . The city of Agdam, in Azerbaijan, used to be a lively city with over 150,000 inhabitants. In 1993, during a war, it was abandoned. Agdam was not even the target of an attack, but only a collateral victim, being occupied by Armenians on their way to other cities.

9. Kadykchan (Russia) . This mining town recorded a population decrease from 10,270 inhabitants in 1986 to 287 in 2007.

10. Oradour-sur-Glane (France, Limousin) . The town of Oradour-sur-Glane, in France, is the place where some terrible things happened in the Second World War. 642 inhabitants were killed by the German troops, as punishment for the fact that France resisted. Initially, the Germans were supposed to attack somewhere near Oradour-sur-Vayres, but, by mistake, they invaded this village on June 10, 1944. The town was erased from the map by the Germans.