Mysterious Places - 20 Creepy & Abandoned Places On Earth Forgotten By Society
You might ask what are the most mysterious places on earth? The type of abandoned and creepy architecture that looks like it could come from a post-apocalyptic movie, an abandoned city, or an alien landscape on another planet. A place devoid of all human life, like abandoned cities or abandoned buildings after a zombie attack.
Say, if the neutron bomb was dropped, or humanity failed to contain an outbreak of a global pandemic disease, or became victim to a infected-zombie-outbreak, or we all decided to go and live on a planet elsewhere in the cosmos. The planet would slowly start to claim back all these mysterious places devoid of humanity.
Well, even though those events (thankfully) haven't happened, there are places in existence on the earth, mostly consisting of abandoned buildings, that look eerily like they could have survived an apocalypse or alien invasion.
Something strange and creepy happens when you remove the population from the architecture it was created for, things start to get a little spooky and surreal, and turn into mysterious abandoned places.
In it's own way the lack of people populating these places gives you an eerie insight into how short our time on this planet really is, either as an individual, or a society.
Abandoned, Creepy & Mysterious Places On Earth
Here are 20 excellent examples of mysterious & abandoned Places around the world that offer a glimpse into what a world without humans would look like and the reasons (sometimes tragic and sad) behind their departure.
If some of these happen to be near you make sure you try and visit them to get a feeling of what a planet without humans would be like. Forget the fact that they are creepy abandoned buildings, that's all part of the charm.
1. Notch Hill church in Tappen, BC, Canada.
The light is from the train coming up behind it. Since this picture became popular on the internet and got a bit of press, they decided to restore the church. As mysterious places go, this one is seriously creepy.
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2. San Zhi City, UFO Pods, Taiwan.
Taiwan’s other-worldly “ruins of the future” are a set of pod-like buildings built in 1978 as a vacation resort. However, two years later the project collapsed due to financial problems and a number of deaths during construction. Deserted for a further 28 years, demolition finally began in 2008. Despite the original structures’ futuristic design, the land remains rooted in the past with current developers hoping once again to build a seaside retreat in the area.
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3. Pripyat, Ukraine.
Pripyat, a city of nearly 50,000, was totally abandoned after the nearby Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. Due to radiation, it has been left untouched ever since the incident and will be for many thousands of years into the future. As with most mysterious places, nature now rules the abandoned city.
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4. Hashima Island, Japan.
Hashima island in Japan has a wide array of nicknames, including Battelship Island (for its shape) and Ghost Island. From the late 1800s to late 1900s, the island was populated because of the access it granted to undersea coal mines. However, as Japan gradually switched from coal to petroleum, the mines (and the buildings that sprung up around them to support their workers) closed down, leaving an isolated ghost town that reminds some of a ghostly concrete battleship. It's a seriously creepy and mysterious place.
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5. Ryugyong Hotel - Pyongyang, North Korea.
Unoccupied, unopened and unfinished, the 105-story shell of the Ryugyong Hotel is a scar on Pyongyang’s skyline and North Korea’s pride. Construction began in 1987 but stopped after five years due to a lack of funds. Once proudly emblazoned across North Korean stamps, this vacant hotel soon became airbrushed out of official photos. Despite nearly two decades of abandonment, construction resumed in 2008 but whether the hotel will ever be completed is open to debate.
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6. Abandoned Military Hospital in Beelitz, Germany.
A rotting carcass of deserted corridors and empty patient wards, this military hospital once housed German and Soviet soldiers but has been largely unused since the late 1990s. Derelict it may be but it has not been entirely abandoned; empty bottles and rubbish scattered on the ground hint at the disparate groups of opportunistic looters, weekend wanderers, curious travellers and inspired photographers who are drawn to the decayed aesthetic of this moribund abandoned place.
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7. Six Flags Jazzland - New Orleans, Louisiana.
Severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina, Six Flags Jazzland has been abandoned since. Several of the rides still stand, a testimony to the resilience of New Orleans. Several companies have plans to develop the park, but until then it will remain as the perfect setting for a horror movie.
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8. Salto Hotel, Colombia
The Hotel De Salto opened in 1928 near Tequendema Falls in Colombia to serve tourists who came to marvel at the 157 meter-tall waterfall. It closed down in the early 90s after interest in the waterfall declined. In 2012, however, the site was turned into a museum.
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9. Gulliver’s Travels Park - Kawaguchi, Japan.
Constructed in the shadow of Mt Fuji, this theme park opened in 1997. Despite financial help from the Japanese government, it lasted only 10 years before being abandoned.
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10. Underwater City in Shicheng, China.
This incredible underwater city, trapped in time, is 1341 years old. Shicheng, or Lion City, is located in the Zhejiang province in eastern China. It was submerged in 1959 during the construction of the Xin’an River Hydropower Station. The water protects the city from wind and rain erosion, so it has remained sealed underwater in relatively good condition.
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11. City Hall Station - New York City, New York.
City Hall Station was built in 1904 and closed in 1945 as only around 600 people used it only a daily basis. Because of its location, much attention was given to its design, but nearby stations ensured that this one never received a significant amount of traffic, and its curved layout made it unsafe for use with newer, longer trains.
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12. Michigan Central Station in Detroit, U.S.A.
Michigan Central Station was built in 1913 in Detroit to create a new public transportation hub. Several planning oversights and mistakes, however, led to its gradual decline and closing in 1988. The building’s fate is still being decided, but in the mean time, the station has appeared in several films and videos, including Eminem’s “8 Mile” film and “Beautiful” music video.
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13. Abandoned Power Plant, I.M. Cooling Tower, Belgium.
These are parts of a cooling tower in an old power station in Monceau, Belgium. The trumpet-like structure in the middle introduced hot water to the structure, where it then cooled while dripping down hundreds of small concrete troughs and slats.
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14. Uninhabited Island in Southwest Florida, U.S.A.
These small domed structures were built in 1981 on Cape Romano off the coast of Florida in the U.S. They were the summer home of oil producer Bob Lee before falling into disrepair. What their fate will be today is still uncertain.
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15. Presidio Modelo, Cuba.
Empty since 1967, this “Model Prison” still radiates desperation and paranoia. Inspired by the Panopticon, its oppressive architecture was designed to create a sense of constant, invisible omniscience. Commissioned in 1926 by dictator Gerardo Machado, the prison’s inmates once included Fidel Castro. However, under Castro’s government the population ballooned to over 6,000 “enemies” of the state. Now a museum, visitors can experience the forbidding atmosphere still present in these echoing corridors and vacant cells.
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16. House of the Bulgarian Communist Party, Bulgaria.
The former headquarters of Bulgaria’s Communist Party are just as eerie on the outside as on the inside. The flying-saucer-like building, while probably a wonder while it was in use from 1981 until 1991, went into disrepair soon after the fall of the Soviet Union. It is now a ghost of its former self, although plans are being made to restore it.
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17. Wreck of the SS America - Fuerteventura, Canary Islands.
This former United States ocean liner was wrecked in 1994 after 54 years of service.
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18. The Maunsell Sea Forts, England.
Jutting out of the waters of the Thames Estuary, The Maunsell Forts slowly rust. Built in 1942, these offshore fortified towers were designed to provide anti-aircraft fire during the Second World War. After they were decommissioned in the late 1950s, a number of the structures were re-occupied by pirate radio stations. However, for the past three decades the forts have stood abandoned and largely unknown.
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19. Kolmanskop, Namibia.
Kolmanskop was a small settlement in Namibia that saw a boom in the early 1900s when German settlers realized that the area was rich in diamonds. The surge of wealth gave out after WWI, however, when the diamond field began to deplete. By the 1950s, the town was completely deserted, and is now visited by photographers and tourists.
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20. Varosha, Cyprus.
An urban museum of corroding classic cars, dilapidated high-rise hotels and shop fronts boasting the latest in 1970s fashion: for the deserted Varosha quarter of Famagusta time froze in 1974. Following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Varosha’s inhabitants were forced into a life of exile. Once a favourite destination of the rich and famous, people today can only peep through barbed wire as nature reclaims this ghost town. As mysterious places go, this creepy town has got it all.