15 Abandoned Cities And Town That Turned Into Ghost Town Due To Natural Disasters Or Wars

Several completely abandoned cities and towns around the world attract the attention of tourists and are great inspirations for writers and filmmakers globally. Unlike the common urban scenario, with heavy traffic, the incessant movement of pedestrians, crowded shops and restaurants, these places have lost their inhabitants for a variety of reasons, ranging from natural disasters to wars. What remains of old centres full of life and culture are ruins that, little by little, lose the battle against time. Here are 15 abandoned places that turned into ghost towns:

1. Hampi, India

UNESCO recognized Hampi World Heritage Site | Photo: Unsplash

Strolling through the incredible ruins of Hampi located in the central part of Karnataka in the southern part of India, it's easy to imagine this place teeming with life in the 14th and 15th centuries had a population of half a million people, becoming one of the most imposing and important cities in the world. The capital of the Vijayanagara Empire which was one of the largest Hindu empires in India was destroyed in 1565 by the sultanate's army. Beautifully preserved forts, temples and markets that remain in Hampi helped to make it a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986.

2. Mandu, India

Mandu or Mandavgad is an ancient city in the present-day Mandav area of the Dhar district | Photo: TOI

Mandu, also known as Mandav or Mandavgad literally meaning the City of Joy, is an ancient destroyed city located in India's Madhya Pradesh region. Once magnificent, it has been abandoned and in ruins for over 400 years. Mandu is surrounded by 45 km of walls and parapets built with rocks and salvaged material, interrupted by 12 portals. Today the city is sometimes inhabited by nomads. There are several palaces, baths, attractive canals and artistically crafted pavilions. The rock-cut caves with enchanting paintings decorating the walls and ceilings are added attractions.

3. Oradour-Sur-Glane, France

oradour-sur-glane massacre | Photo: Pixabay

Among the countless ghost towns that exist around the world, one, in particular, stands out is the small French village of Oradour-sur-Glane, completely destroyed in one of the most terrible massacres of civilians in World War II, and the biggest in France. Oradour-sur-Glane was a small French town in New Aquitaine when it was destroyed on June 10, 1944, four days after the Allies invaded Normandy. German troops put up resistance and exterminated all the inhabitants. When the conflict ended Charles de Gaulle, the president of France, decided that Oradour-sur-Glane would never be rebuilt or repopulated: the city would forever be an open-air museum. As a reminder of the dead, the ruins of the original village are still standing.

4. Wharram Percy, United Kingdom

wharram percy deserted medieval village | Photo: Wikipedia

Probably founded in the 9th or 10th century undoubtedly one of the largest and best known abandoned medieval villages in England which have been deserted for 500 years. Located in the beautiful hills of the Yorkshire Wolds, it once had two spectacular stately homes and a church. The church is a standing medieval building, but you can still see the grassed-over foundations houses, built by the noble Percy family, as well as those of the peasants' houses around it. The village's population has declined as local residents have left for sheep farming. It was abandoned shortly after 1500. Currently, the site is managed by English Heritage and is a major attraction for archaeologists and tourists alike. For over 60 years, archaeologists have pioneered new techniques here to understand what life was like in the village and why it was eventually deserted.

5. Belchite, Spain

belchite ghost town | Photo: Unsplash

Belchite is a village with a long history, dating back beyond 75 AD. Over the centuries, it was built with beautiful medieval churches and monuments. Belchite found itself on the front lines between Republican and fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939 and became the site of one of the bloodiest and most important battles of the entire war. In the Battle of Belchite, houses were destroyed, churches were razed to the ground, and the townspeople were massacred.

Belchite was a thriving city, booming economically until the Spanish Civil War broke out in the 1930s, and the place became yet another European ghost town. The municipality was completely destroyed by an attack by General Francisco Franco's forces in 1939, who did not authorize the reconstruction of the town and the order was to make Belchite an eternal reminder of what would happen to the enemies of the regime. The remains of rubble, the sad structures of the buildings and the cathedral riddled with bullet holes are a constant reminder of the realities of war.

6. Craco, Italy

craco italy ghost town | Photo: Unsplash

Located in an area called Basilicata, the town of Craco was abandoned in 1963 due to a landslide. Craco is an ancient medieval village in the earthquake-prone Italian region of Basilicata, some 40 kilometers inland from the Gulf of Taranto, at the foot of the ¡°boot¡± of Italy. The city is situated on top of a rocky outcrop above the surrounding hills, with its architecture perfectly integrated into the landscape. With a university, castle, church and squares, Craco was once a monastic centre, a feudal town and a center of education. Craco has been the setting for many films, including Saving Grace, James Bond, Quantum of Solace and The Passion of the Christ, thanks to its dramatic landscape and unique atmosphere.

Craco, which is now turned into a ghost town once provided panoramic views and warnings of potential invaders, perched strategically on top of a 400-meter high cliff overlooking the arid countryside of southern Italy.

7. Kolmanskop, Namibia

kolmanskop ghost town | Photo: Unsplash

The city of Kolmanskop had a brief but prosperous history in the middle of the Namibian desert. Kolmanskop is a ghost town in southern Namibia. In the early 1900s, after learning that its region was rich in the world's most valuable diamonds, many German miners settled there and built an Alemannic-style village. In 1912, the area produced one million carats, or 11.7% of the world's diamond production. The town, however, became depopulated after World War I with the decline in diamond mining and was finally abandoned in 1954.

Today, the town looks particularly ghostly, with sand dunes overrunning uninhabited houses. A museum was established in 1980 and displays old mining instruments and an extensive collection of photographs from the city's glory days. Some buildings, as well as the ballroom and bowling alley, were restored for tourists.

8. Bodie, California

bodie california | Photo: Unsplash

Located in California, Bodie was once California's second-largest city which turned into one of the most famous ghost towns in the United States surrounded by the rolling hills. It was abandoned at the end of the Gold Rush era. There were about 10,000 inhabitants, but they gradually left with the depletion of mineral resources. Some of the buildings in this ancient city are still standing and the interiors are intact.

But the golden dream was short-lived and Bodie was almost completely abandoned by 1915. The people who lived there seem to have fled the city in a hurry and many of their belongings were left behind. A big void and Bodie became a real ghost town.

9. Hashima Island, Japan

Hashima Island ghost town | Photo: Japan Times

Located in Nagasaki Bay, Hashima Island was established in 1887 by the Mitsubishi group. Mitsubishi has invested millions of dollars in building an island around a coal deposit off the coast of Nagasaki, Japan. Surrounded by a sturdy breakwater wall, Hashima is also called Gunkanjima by the Japanese, or battleship island, as it resembles a battleship when viewed from above. More than 5,000 people lived in immense concrete buildings in the region until the country decided to extinguish its coal mines in 1960, which sealed the fate of the island since it was abandoned. Today, Hashima Island is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015 and welcomes thousands of visitors every year.

10. Pyramiden, Norway

Pyramiden ghost town | Photo: Unsplash

Pyramiden, a Russian city in Norwegian territory, is a ghost town and capital of the Svalbard archipelago, a group of islands that lies halfway between Norway and the North Pole. The city was founded at the beginning of the 20th century by Sweden and was eventually sold to the Soviet Union in 1927. The idea was that the place would offer schools, libraries, sports courts, theaters and cinemas, in addition to free and quality food for its residents, which worked for a long time. The project, however, was suddenly terminated in the 1990s, during the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the mines were closed and everyone was forced to leave the city.

At an old school in town, books were left behind and toys were lost from the children. Objects, household items left behind help tell the story of Pyramiden.

11. Pripyat, Ukraine

Pripyat ghost town | Photo: AFP

Among all the ghost towns, Pripyat in Ukraine close to the border with Belarus is certainly the most famous. If the name seems unfamiliar to you then the name Chernobyl may be more appropriate. Founded in 1970 by the Soviet government on the border between Ukraine, the city of Pripyat once had more than 50,000 inhabitants, most of them employed by the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

At the time of disaster in 1986, it was part of the erstwhile USSR. In the 1970s and 1980s, the USSR built four reactors at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and a reservoir which was roughly 22 sq km in size was also built to provide the cooling water to the reactor.

It all came crashing down on April 26, 1986, when one of the plant's reactors exploded and released an immense amount of radiation into the air.

Pripyat was completely evacuated in the following weeks, while a trail of destruction spread across Europe, many people have died as a result of the disaster. Today, Chernobyl has home to most unique wildlife sanctuaries housing a variety of animals and birds such as boar, elk, bears, beaver, deer, lynx, eagles, wolves and others in the thick forest that now surrounds the plant. The area, however, sees the stunted trees growing in the zone and animals in the area have high levels of cesium-137 in their bodies and what's more depressing is that despite having a variety of animals in the region, for 20,000 years, this area will remain unsafe for human habitation.

In recent years, however, scientists have pointed out that it is safe to walk among deserted streets, as long as it is for limited intervals of time and keeping a distance from the most contaminated spots .

The consequence is increased tourist interest in the ruins of Pripyat, which receives thousands of visitors every year!

12. Varosha, Cyprus

Varosha ghost town | Photo: Unsplash

Varosha is not exactly a ghost town, but a huge abandoned neighbourhood in Famagusta city in Cyprus. During the 1970s, the region turned into a bloody battleground between Greek and Turkish troops during Turkey's invasion of the island. The population fled as best they could and the Turkish armed forces isolated the city which, in addition to becoming a popular tourist destination, ended up becoming a bargaining chip in the impasse between the two countries for the domain of Cyprus!

13. Vorkuta, Russia

Vorkuta ghost town | Photo: Ruptly

Villages and ghost towns surround Vorkuta, in Russia is the fourth largest city north of the Arctic Circle and the coldest city in all of Europe, a legacy of a time when it had a thriving coal mine. Coal was mined by prisoners in the cruel and terrible Gulag in the area between the 1930s and 1960s. In the years that followed, miners were drawn to this brutal site to work for high wages. When the mine stopped following the collapse of the Soviet Union, people fled, leaving several villages that were covered in snow and frozen in time.

14. Kayakoy, Turkey

Kayakoy ghost town | Photo: Unsplash

Home to the Ottoman Greeks until the fall of the empire in the 1920s, the town of Kayakoy that was built in the 18th century is located on the shores of the crystal clear waters of the Mediterranean, in the so-called Dodecanese region. The citadel was already hit by an earthquake, fire and, after being rebuilt, it was inhabited by Greeks and Turks until the Second World War. This is because, during this period, the two nations faced many conflicts and the Greeks had to abandon the country, leaving even Kayakoy. Completely depopulated since then, the city today only sees the movement of tourists interested in the rich local history and paradisiacal landscapes, like a large open-air museum.

Today, the destination has become a true open-air museum that keeps traces of the history of the entire region. Not to mention the scenery that forms in the contrast of the old buildings with the mountains around.

15. Bankhead, Canada

Bankhead ghost town | Photo: Wikipedia

The former mining town Bankhead is an abandoned small town that is located in Alberta, Canada where the main economic activity during that time was the mining of coal. The mine at Bankhead had a population of about 1,000 people with 275 of them working in the underground mines while 155 workers were tasked with overseeing things on the surface. On average, the mine used to produce between 500 and 600 tons of coal every day. The miners and a coal mine, many of the structures and buildings were removed after the mine closed due to workers' strikes in 1922. But it is still possible to explore the area on an excellent interpretive walking trail, which wraps around the main buildings that are still standing and offers spectacular views of the surrounding mountains.

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