Four Most Intriguing Deserted Places on Earth
Your friends call down to you from the second story of the abandoned house in your neighborhood. From your spot on the front yard, you can smell the rotting wood and hear the creaking floorboards. The only reason you came here at all is because they promised you they wouldn't make you come inside. But as you look past the heavy door, sitting slightly ajar in the doorway, you feel a heavy pull, a longing you can't resist. One foot steps in front of the other as you walk up to the house, your friends cheering with excited whoops and hollers. A gust of wind blows through the house as if it were a dying breath, a final sigh. Your hand is shaking as you reach for the rusted golden doorknob. Your heart beats with sheer terror, yet also with the excitement of something new and unexplored, but old and mysterious. Something with a story that could be told for hours around a campfire. Something so chillingly peaceful, you can't help but ask "what happened here?" Full of curiosity and intrigue, you take a huge breath and step into the doorway.
Human curiosity has always been piqued by the concept of abandoned places. Whether it's an old amusement park, a city that hasn't been touched in thirty years, or that old abandoned house on the end of the street, humans have always had the urge to explore, to know why it was abandoned. Here's what I found to be the four most intriguing abandoned places on Earth.
1. Pripyat, Ukraine
Pripyat is probably not a place of which you've heard, but perhaps you've heard of the power station just outside the city, Chernobyl. Pripyat was a thriving city. With 49,000 young men and women, full of youth and joy and dreams of the future, Pripyat was a bright little city, as happy as its famed Ferris wheel. Within two days of receiving the news of the disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, that once happy city became an empty radioactive wasteland. And it has stayed that way for over thirty years.
2. The Willard Asylum
The Willard Asylum is the ideal place to never visit…ever. The Asylum for the Chronically Insane was built in 1869 and closed in 1995. This nightmarish hospital housed around 50,000 patients, over half of which never checked out, at least not alive. As was a popular phrase within the asylum, "people didn't leave unless it was in a box."
3. Six Flags Jazzland
Six Flags Jazzland in New Orleans, Louisiana was a very popular place to hang out, eat popcorn, and ride roller coasters. The twinkling lights and spinning attractions could be seen and heard throughout the night on any given weekend. That was, of course, before Hurricane Katrina smashed through the park in 2005. Jazzland never recovered and was abandoned by Six Flags. Today, the site has been used for many movies and short films, including the third highest grossing film ever made, Jurassic World. But when it's not being overrun by dinosaurs and film stars, Jazzland's only visitors are the alligators, solemnly swimming past the forlorn park.
4. Hashima Island
Hashima Island is a concrete island off the coast of Japan. Meaning "Battleship Island," Hashima was used from 1887 to 1974 as a coal mine. Hashima Island is best remembered for its forced labor camp that existed during the Second World War. Today, however, the concrete walls are hidden behind a layer of vines and moss. Vegetation on the island has expanded unhindered for several years and has grown to cover most of the island. Some companies even offer tours out to Battleship Island.
Photos by Wikimedia.com
