The world is full of culturally rich sites and landmarks that make for incredible tourist attractions. Whether you’re looking to enjoy vistas of the countryside, to embark on wild adventures along sandy seascapes, or to mingle with the locals flourishing cities…you name it, the planet has it. But for every beautiful place, there’s another that has, sadly, fallen into disrepair.
Whether they were abandoned after a brutal war or because of financial issues, these are 5 ghost towns that were once thriving locations and have become some of the spookiest places in the world. Take a look.
1. Kolmanskop, Namibia
This town burst to life in the early 1900s during Africa’s great diamond rush. It had a residential development, a school, a hospital, and even a casino.
But when diamond sales plummeted after World War I, Kolmanskop was abandoned, and by the 1950s it was overtaken once more by sand.
2. Prypiat, Ukraine
Located in the “zone of alienation” in northern Ukraine, this town is what nearly 50,000 residents used to call home before the tragic 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Chernobyl is still considered one of the worst disasters in history.
3. San Zhi, Taiwan
This city in Northern Taiwan was supposed to house a futuristic pod village that served as a luxury vacation retreat.
Unfortunately, production abruptly stopped due to tragic construction accidents and limited funding, and the site’s bad reputation seems to have deterred anyone from restarting the doomed project.
4. Craco, Italy
Dating back to at least 1060, the medieval town of Craco rises from the rolling hills of southern Italy, about 25 miles inland from the Gulf of Taranto.
Despite close ties to the ever-powerful Church, Craco suffered from poor farming conditions, earthquakes, landslides, and wars.
By 1963, all of its 3,000-plus inhabitants had emigrated to a nearby areas or to North America, leaving behind a beautiful, crumbling city.
5. Oradour-sur-Glane, France
On June 10, 1944, during World War II, German troops barged into the small village of Oradour-sur-Glane to punish its inhabitants for supporting the French resistance. The village’s men were shuffled into barns, where they were shot in the legs to guarantee agonizingly slow deaths, while the women and children were slaughtered by soldiers wielding machine guns as they attempted to escape the church. The village was destroyed, and 642 in all people perished. And the worst part? The Germans invaded the wrong town. Oradour-sur-Glane remains a horrific reminder of the atrocities that occurred.
Categorised in: Paranormal
This post was written by Nadia Vella