The World’s Most Interesting Ghost Towns

We see ghost towns all around the world. Many are deserted mining locations. When the mining dried up the inhabitants moved on. Others have been abandoned due to a natural disaster and some became abandoned over the course of a few years as inhabitants decided to leave the area.

Some of these ghost towns have been revived and turned into major tourist attractions, teaching visitors about the history of the town, its inhabitants and why it has been left to suffer alone.

Grand Bassam, Ivory Coast

Image Credit

Grand Bassam, Cote d’Ivoire was the French Colonial Capital until 1896, it was abandoned by the government. The inhabitants tried to hold on for as long as possible, but it weakened to such a point that it was completed deserted by the 1960s.

This area has since been revived, given a new lease on life and is a big tourist center for the area, steeped in history. Guided tours are offered walking you through the historical and deserted homes, shops and churches that used to be home to so many people.

Port Famine

Image Credit

Port Famine is located in Chile and is considered the oldest ghost town in the area. The area suffers from freezing weather which slowly killed all the inhabitants, those that didn’t die from the cold died of starvation.

If you happen to pass through Port Famine today you will only find the ruins left from a once-thriving settlement.

Whaler’s Bay, Deception Island

Image Credit

Ominously titled and precariously located, Deception Island lies just off the Antarctic Peninsula. In the 19th century, the island became a haven for wearied sailors seeking shelter from the harsh weather of the globe’s southernmost regions. Once the site of a British whaling station, the base was abandoned in 1969 after the region’s active volcanoes threatened to erupt. Today the remains of the facility, including demolished boilers, a decaying aircraft hangar, and a derelict base, stand as a memorial to the small community of wanderers that once existed there.

Al’Arish Qatar

Al’Arish is located on the North Coast in the Middle East and was abandoned in the 1970s. This ghost town used to be a busy fishing village, but through years of hardship, the inhabitants slowly started moving to urban areas leaving the area filled with partly demolished abandoned buildings overlooking the ocean.

The area remains completely deserted today; you can still see the remains of the abandoned buildings with spectacular views that were home to a thriving community in its day.

Kayaköy

Image Credit

Kayaköy sits in the southwest of Turkey and was an area inhabited by Anatolian Greeks. The town was abandoned in 1923 after an agreement between Turkey and Greece. Today it is home to the most beautiful empty homes and magnificent churches, steeped in history and open to the public. This tourist area is now one of the most popular ghost towns to visit in Turkey.

Prypiat

Image Credit

Prypiat is the Ukraine was home to the workers from the Chernobyl Power Plant. This area was home to over fifty thousand people in its day, but today stands completely empty.

The area of Prypiat was completely deserted after the Chernobyl disaster. There are tours here and you can still drive down the main street and gaze upon the abandoned buildings.

This article was written for House Trip http://housetrip.com providing holiday apartment rental in New York.