Pripyat began to be built in February 1970. In 1972, the settlement was given a name - in honor of the river on which it was built - Pripyat. On August 15, 1972, in a solemn ceremony, the first cubic meter of concrete was laid into the base of the main building of the power plant. Along with the commissioning of the first facilities at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the first residential buildings were built. Pripyat acquired city status in 1979. In the mid-1980s, about 48,000 people lived there.

At 01:23:47 on Saturday April 26, 1986, an explosion occurred at the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which completely destroyed the reactor. The power unit building partially collapsed, killing two people. A fire started in various rooms and on the roof. Subsequently, the remains of the core melted, a mixture of molten metal, sand, concrete and fuel fragments spread throughout the sub-reactor rooms. As a result of the accident, radioactive substances were released into the environment, including isotopes of uranium, plutonium, iodine-131, cesium-134, cesium-137, strontium-90.

On April 27, 36 hours after the explosion at the fourth reactor, the announcer of the Pripyat radio broadcast network announced the gathering and temporary evacuation of city residents.

On April 28, 1986 at 21:00 TASS broadcast a brief information message: “An accident occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. One of the nuclear reactors is damaged. Measures are being taken to eliminate the consequences of the accident. Help is being provided to the victims. A government commission has been created to investigate what happened.”

This young city was a major transport hub; construction was actively underway in Pripyat. They built the Prometheus cinema, the Energetik cultural center, the Polesie hotel, the Palace of Pioneers, sports complexes, and a cultural park. The city was exemplary; foreign delegations were brought here to show how the Soviet people lived. Now the empty city is heavily overgrown with greenery. Public interest in Pripyat has only grown over the years; excursions are regularly held there.

2 Kadykchan

Kadykchan is the most famous of the abandoned villages in the Magadan region. The village was built after coal of the highest quality was found there at a depth of 400 meters in 1943. As a result, the Arkagalinskaya CHPP operated on Kadykchan coal and supplied electricity to 2/3 of the Magadan region. As of January 1986, 10,270 people lived in the village.

The population of Kadykchan began to decline rapidly after a mine explosion in 1996, when it was decided to close the village. A few years later, the only local boiler house stopped working, after which it became impossible to live in Kadykchan. By this time, there were about 400 people living in the village who refused to leave.

3 Gankajima

Off the western coast of Japan is the dead island of Gankajima (also called Hashima or Hashima). For a long time it was nothing more than a small reef. But in 1810, the accidental discovery of coal decisively changed the fate of this reef. Mitsubishi bought Gankajima and began mining coal from the bottom of the sea. The work required significant labor costs and manpower. Construction began and people arrived to live and work here. Thanks to the coal industry, residential areas began to continually expand.

By the mid-20th century, the population density on the island was 835 people per hectare. The reef has become an artificial island with a diameter of about one kilometer, with a population of 5,300 people. From the ocean, the silhouette of the island resembled a battleship.

Over time, coal was replaced by oil, and coal fields began to close. In 1974, one of the most densely populated islands in the world became completely deserted. Mitsubishi has officially announced the closure of the field. Visiting the island is currently prohibited.

4 Centralia

In the middle of the 19th century, a settlement called Centerville appeared on the map of the United States, in Pennsylvania. In 1865 it was renamed Centralia. And in 1866, Centralia received city status. The coal and anthracite industry was the main production here. For most of the town's history, while the coal industry was active, the population was over 2,000 residents. About 500-600 more people lived in the suburbs, in close proximity to Centralia.

In May 1962, the city council hired volunteer firefighters to clean up the city's garbage dump, located in an abandoned open pit mine. Firefighters set fire to the trash heaps, allowing them to burn for a while, and then extinguished them. But the fire did not go out completely. Deeper deposits of debris began to smolder, and eventually the fire spread through a hole in the mine to other abandoned coal mines near Centralia. Over time, people began to complain about deteriorating health caused by the release of carbon monoxide.

In 1979, local residents learned the true extent of the problem when a gas station owner inserted a dipstick into one of the underground tanks to check the fuel level. When he took out the dipstick, it turned out to be very hot - the temperature of the gasoline in the tank was about 78 °C.

Attention to the fire culminated in 1981, when a 12-year-old boy fell into a 1.2-meter-wide, 45-meter-deep earthen well that suddenly opened up beneath his feet. The boy was saved by his older brother. The incident quickly brought national attention to Centralia. In 1984, Congress appropriated more than $42 million to prepare and organize the relocation of citizens. Most residents accepted this offer and moved to the neighboring communities of Mount Carmel and Ashland. Several families decided to stay, despite warnings from government officials. In 1992, the State of Pennsylvania required a permit to expropriate all of the city's private property, citing the buildings' unfitness for use.

5 Oradour-sur-Glane

The village of Oradour-sur-Glane turned into a ghost in 1944 - the Nazis shot and burned 642 of its inhabitants in one day, and then set the village itself on fire. Among the dead were 207 children and 245 women.

Soldiers of the 2nd SS Panzer Division "Reich" under the command of General Heinz Lammerding, heading from Toulouse to the Normandy front, surrounded Oradour on June 10. Under the pretext of checking documents, they herded residents to the market square and demanded that fugitives be handed over to them, including residents of Alsace and Lorraine, who were allegedly hiding in the village from the German authorities. The head of the administration refused to hand them over, deciding to sacrifice himself and, if necessary, his family. However, the Nazis did not get by with this. They forced the men into barns and machine-gunned them. The bodies were covered with straw and burned. The soldiers locked the women and children in the church. First, asphyxiating gas was released into the building, and then the church was set on fire. Five men and one woman managed to survive.

The massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane, which never resisted the occupiers, became a symbol of Nazi barbarity. The ruins of the village were included in the list of historical monuments of France in 1945, and a new one was later built not far from the old Oradour.

6 Kolmanskop

The city of Kolmanskop is located in the Namib Desert, 10 kilometers from Lüderitz (Namibia) and the Atlantic coast. The city was formed thanks to the diamond rush.

In April 1908, Zacharias Leval, an employee of the Lüderitz-Keetmanshoop railway, saw diamonds right on the surface of the sandy desert just 7 kilometers from Lüderitz. Zacarias gave the find to foreman August Stauch, who immediately realized what was what.

Without attracting undue attention, Stauch hastened to stake out vast areas along a narrow saddle in the dolomite ridge near Lüderitz. Along this peculiar corridor, the wind carried sand from the southern part of the Namib Desert adjacent to the mouth of the Orange River further to the north. There, small diamonds carried by the river into the ocean and then thrown ashore by the surf were transported along with the sand.

A city quickly appeared on this site. Large beautiful houses, a school, and a hospital were built in Kolmanskop. Residents expected long-term prosperity in the diamond city. But the flow of diamonds quickly dried up. Living in Kolmanskop was difficult due to sandstorms and lack of drinking water. And ten years after its founding, a mass exodus of local residents began. Now most of the houses are almost completely covered with sand.

7 Varosha

Varosha is a quarter in the city of Famagusta in Cyprus. It was a popular tourist destination until 1974, when it later became a "ghost town".

In the 1970s, Famagusta was the main tourist center in Cyprus. Due to the growing number of tourists in the city, many new hotels and tourist facilities were built, and especially many of them appeared in Varosha. Between 1970 and 1974 the city was at the peak of its popularity. Varosha housed many modern hotels, and its streets were home to a large number of entertainment venues, bars, restaurants and nightclubs.

On July 20, 1974, the Turkish army invaded Cyprus in response to the political upheaval in the country, and on August 15 of the same year, the Turks occupied Famagusta. As a result of these actions, the country was split into two parts: Greek and Turkish. The Greeks living in Varosha were ordered to leave the city within 24 hours, taking with them only what they could carry, and since then they have been prohibited from returning to the quarter.

Soon after the closure, the quarter was looted, first by the Turkish military, who took furniture, televisions and dishes to the mainland, and then by residents of nearby streets, who carried away everything that was left.

Unlike many other places in Cyprus, where the abandoned houses of the Greeks were occupied by their Turkish neighbors or migrants from Turkey, the Turks from Famagusta did not settle Varosha. The Turkish army surrounded the deserted village with a barbed wire fence, checkpoints and various other obstacles, effectively mothballing Varosha.

All over the world there are cities and places that once flourished but now lie in ruins. These abandoned cities are often called ghost towns.
Some of these cities have a rich and glorious past, while others have a dark and troubled history.

Abandoned Cities: Sanji-pod-City

Sanzhi Pod City Hotel is located near New Taipei, Taiwan. Construction of this housing complex began in 1978 and was intended to be a resort for US military personnel. After several fatal accidents during construction and an equally devastating loss of investment, the project was cancelled.

Abandoned Cities: Bodie, California

Bodie, California is a real Wild West ghost town. Officially becoming a historic state park in 1962, Bodie boasts 200,000 visitors a year.
The term "ghost town" was first used to describe the entire length of Bodie back in 1915.

Abandoned Cities: Kowloon Wall City

Kowloon Walled City was a densely populated area in New Kowloon, Hong Kong. It initially came under Triad control after the government relinquished control. Known for drug trafficking and prostitution, the city had 33,000 residents within an area of ​​0.010 square miles.

Evacuations were carried out by the British and Chinese governments from 1987 to 1993, although the area was destroyed in 1994. Kowloon Walled City Park opened in December 1995 and still contains some artifacts, including its government building and the remains of the southern gate.

Pripyat, Ukraine

Pripyat, a testament to the destructive power of nuclear energy, was a rapidly developing city before the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. A tragic power plant failure caused a sudden and rapid evacuation of the population of Pripyat and the surrounding area. Everything was deemed contaminated and abandoned.

Hashima Island, Japan

Hashima Island, Japan (also known as Armadillo Island because of its shape when viewed from above) is now one of 505 uninhabited islands in Nagasaki Prefecture, approximately 9 miles from Nagasaki. From 1887 to 1974 the island was inhabited and operated as a coal mine.

But as Japan switched from coal to cleaner, more efficient fuel sources, the island's owner, Mitsubishi, stopped mining in Hashima. Now the island and its dwellings are deserted.

Abandoned cities Varosha coastline

Varosha, Cyprus is a suburb of Famagusta and was a leading tourist destination in the 1970s. Varosha became a victim of a major military conflict in 1974.
Residents of Varosha and tourists fled. Residents had hoped to return to their homes after the conflict subsided, but the Turkish government blocked access to the island. The area has remained unchanged since then.

Pyramiden, Norway

Pyramiden, Norway - Russian settlement and coal mining community. Sold by Sweden to the Soviet Union in 1927, the area was closed and abandoned in 1998 and is now only accessible by boat or snowmobile. Tourists are not allowed to enter buildings - even those that are open - without prior approval.

The statue of Vladimir Lenin, another figure whose ideas were also abandoned, is the visual centerpiece of the city. For those who want to spend a lot of time in this cold and decrepit city, hotels have recently appeared.

Ghost towns in Russia are scattered throughout the territory. Each of them has its own story, but the end is the same - they were all abandoned by the population. Empty houses still retain the imprint of human habitation; in some you can see abandoned household items, already covered with dust and dilapidated from the passage of time. They look so gloomy that you could make a horror movie. However, this is exactly what people usually come here for.

New life for Russian ghost towns

Despite the fact that cities are abandoned for various reasons, they are often visited. In some settlements, the military organizes training grounds. Dilapidated buildings, as well as empty streets, are good to use to recreate extreme living conditions without the risk of involving civilians.

Artists, photographers and representatives of the film world find a special flavor in abandoned buildings. For some, such cities are a source of inspiration; for others, they are a canvas for creativity. Photos of dead cities can be easily found in different designs, which confirms their popularity among creative individuals. In addition, modern tourists find abandoned cities interesting. Here you can plunge into a different side of life; there is something mystical and creepy in lonely buildings.

List of known empty settlements

There are quite a few ghost towns in Russia. Typically, this fate awaits small settlements in which residents are employed primarily in one enterprise that is key to the city. What was the reason for the mass relocation of residents from their homes?

1. Kadykchan. The city was built by prisoners during the Second World War. It is located next to coal deposits, so most of the population was involved in working in the mine. In 1996, there was an explosion that killed 6 people. There were no plans to restore mining operations; residents received compensation amounts for relocation to new places. In order for the city to cease to exist, the supply of electricity and water was cut off, and the private sector was burned. For some time, the two streets remained populated; today only one elderly man lives in Kadykchan.
   
   
   
2. Neftegorsk. Until 1970, the city was called Vostok. Its number slightly exceeded 3,000 people, most of whom were employed in the oil industry. In 1995, a strong earthquake occurred: most of the buildings collapsed, and almost the entire population was under the ruins. The survivors were resettled, and Neftegorsk remained a ghost town in Russia.
   
   
3. Mologa. The city is located in the Yaroslavl region and has existed since the 12th century. It used to be a large trading center, but by the beginning of the 20th century its population did not exceed 5,000 people. In 1935, the USSR government decided to flood the city in order to successfully build a hydroelectric complex near Rybinsk. People were evicted forcibly and in the shortest possible time. Today, ghostly buildings can be seen twice a year when the water level drops.
   
   
   

There are many cities with a similar fate in Russia. In some, a tragedy occurred at the enterprise, for example, in Promyshlenny, in others, the mineral deposits simply dried up, as in Staraya Gubakha, Iultin and Amderma.

Ghost towns in Russia: list and photos of dead towns for independent visits

Dmitriy

Hello readers! Ghost towns in Russia are the topic of today's conversation. Have you ever thought about how big our country is? I think not each of us can really imagine its scale. And almost every city, be it Rostov or, is filled with people who often leave their home for various reasons. Every city in Russia has an abandoned corner, and empty villages are scattered throughout the country; many of us no longer remember their names.

Ghost towns of Russia: list of abandoned places

The list is compiled according to my research and likes, and information from various sources - all the places you can, they are real. If you know other ghost towns, it will be interesting to read about them in the comments, and if you have them, upload their photos and names.

Today we will talk about such abandoned and dead places as:

• Nuclear lighthouse at Cape Aniva (Sakhalin)
• Abandoned castle in Zaklyuchye (Lykoshino village, Tver region)
• Hotel "Northern Crown" (St. Petersburg)
• Eighth workshop of the Dagdizel plant (Makhachkala)
• Diamond quarry "Mir" (Yakutia)
• Khovrinskaya Hospital (Moscow)
• Kadykchan village (Magadan region)
• Building of the sanatorium "Energy" (Moscow region)
• Maternity hospital (Vladimir region)
• Ghost town Halmer-Yu (Komi Republic)
• Ghost town Pripyat (Ukraine)

So, let's go. Some places will be illustrated with videos. Let's start with a place like

Nuclear lighthouse at Cape Aniva

it is located in Sakhalin.

The lighthouse was built back in 1939 and, due to its design, became the most difficult structure to construct on the entire coast of Sakhalin. Thanks to nuclear servicing, in the late 90s, the costs of its operation were minimal, but soon there was no money left for this either. Since then the lighthouse has been empty. And in 2006, special installations were removed from it, thanks to which it once shone 17 miles into the distance.
Now it is looted and empty.

You can see the abandoned lighthouse by going to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to the city of Korsakov, and then taking a boat to the cape. You look, and this photo resembles a horror film, and the lighthouse resembles the film “Shutter Island” from. But, to be honest, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it.

Abandoned castle in Zaklyuchye

Do you think this is a cursed place or just a superstition that shouldn’t be believed? The castle itself is located in a picturesque forest, on the banks of a small river, just between two capitals, the current and the past. This estate was built according to the design of the owner of the house. The estate surprises with its asymmetry and the fact that it is made of different types of material, which are not used at all together in modern construction.

What's so mystical about this place?

During the day, the estate looks very friendly, especially since it is being reconstructed. There used to be a sanatorium here, so the house cannot be called completely abandoned, but local residents tell legends that people who went into the forest and saw the castle returned from there completely different. I don’t really believe in this, but I myself didn’t dare to stay there overnight.

Although I asked my friend’s mother about this place, just before we wanted to go there on an excursion, she told me that she had never seen a more beautiful place in her entire life; she spent her childhood here. Her father's parents worked at the sanatorium until the day it closed.

Mom helped her grandmother because her parents left her with her for the summer. She felt like a queen, walking along the alleys and by the river. According to her, it was a real paradise with fountains, a large palace, roses, and squirrels. Mom said that there were large flowerpots with flowers at the front entrance, and they were the best flowers in the whole area. Every year the sanatorium received about 200 people, and it closed simply because funding was stopped.

If you have not been there yet and have not seen the castle with your own eyes, I strongly advise you to do so, especially since it is not far from Moscow and St. Petersburg, and you can get there on your own.

By the way! Recently appeared interesting service Vivaster, which allows you to find and take excursions from local residents, rather than travel agencies. This, in my opinion, is much more interesting and authentic than contacting industry giants. In a word, pay attention.

Hotel "Northern Crown"

If you have ever been to St. Petersburg, then you probably know how beautiful and pompous this city is. No, really, it’s not for nothing that it’s called the cultural capital of Russia. I think many residents and guests of the city know about one abandoned hotel, which is located at the embankment of the Karpovka River, 37

Residents of St. Petersburg, who believe in mysticism, claim that the hotel was abandoned for a reason. Just think about the fact that the wiring has already been done, all the plumbing has been purchased, and then one day the project was closed. Locals claim that everything happened after the death of a priest, who was invited to a large banquet in honor of the anniversary of the largest city bank, where, in addition to him, the mayor and his wife were present. After all the solemn events, the hotel owner asked the bishop to bless the guests and invite everyone to a meal, but then suddenly he felt ill and died, right in the middle of the hall. Since that time, this place has been called “cursed.”

Today they are trying to demolish the building, but for some reason no one dares to do it. Even shabby walls, peeling paint and crumbling plaster did not prevent the hotel from maintaining its luxury. Despite the closed doors, you can get into the hotel through the roof, but be careful, the hotel is carefully guarded by the authorities.
Another place of honor in my ranking is occupied by

Military facility - Eighth workshop of the Dagdizel plant (Makhachkala)

They say that many have seen ghosts there.

I haven’t been to this place yet, but I would really like to go there. Maybe some of my subscribers have already seen these places, if so, please share your impressions. Long ago, this was a station where naval weapons were researched and tested. The workshop is located 3 kilometers from the shore, but for reasons unknown to me it has not been used for a long time.

The construction of the workshop took more than one year, someone says that during construction a man died there, and has been within the walls of the building for many years; his body has never been found. The interesting thing is that the foundation was made on the shore, and only then delivered to the construction site. To all lovers of the Caspian Sea and those who want to tickle their nerves by looking at abandoned workshops - go there.

Diamond quarry "Mir" in Yakutia

This place fascinates with its grandeur and beauty. There is definitely some mysticism here, because the quarry can be included in the list of not only the most mystical places, but also the most beautiful places in our country. Open pit diamond mining ended 12 years ago. This is the second largest and longest canyon mine in the world. The airspace here is closed due to possible accidents of helicopters, which were drawn here by a large air flow. The “world” looks so mysterious and unknown.

I was not lucky enough to visit these places, but a friend of mine was once there, he went down almost to the very bottom. He said that at the bottom there was a salt-sulfur lake and it had a very unpleasant smell, like a decomposing corpse. Open-pit diamond mining has not been carried out for a long time, but locals are building a mine that will allow them to go even deeper by several hundred meters. Construction is very expensive because the environment inside is unfavorable for human life.

Khovrinskaya Hospital in Moscow

These are the places in the capital that evoke horror. It is not surprising that people die very often in her area. According to unofficial ratings, this place was included in the ranking of the most mystical and dangerous places in the whole world. The hospital was built on a cemetery, but was never opened. This place already has its own folklore, and urban informals often gather there. But what is paradoxical is that for many years this building has not been saving lives, but on the contrary, it has been maiming and killing. Every day the police come here and tragic events occur.

The mysticism is enhanced by the very sinister external characteristics of the death hospital. If you look at it from a bird's eye view, the main buildings located resemble the international Biohazard symbol of mortal danger.

As I already said, the hospital was built on a cemetery, because of this the land turned out to be ruinous: all the basements were flooded, and the main buildings were slowly being destroyed. According to legend, the police wanted to catch sectarians and Satanists who performed their rituals in basements. When they found and brought everyone out into the street, they blew up the tunnel, but they did not take into account that there were still people there who were hiding from the people in uniform. Some of the Satanists were blown up, but all their remains were never found.

I can say that today the hospital is surrounded by a metal fence made of welded mesh, and on top it is covered with barbed wire. It’s better not to go there, there is plenty of security there, fighters with dogs are constantly on duty. Would you dare to climb into this mystical place?

Closed village Kadykchan

another place on my list.

Translated, it means “valley of death.” I don’t really know who names the cities, but I can’t understand one thing for sure: how can you live peacefully and hope for a bright future in a city with such a name? Apparently the local authorities are not at all interested in mysticism and do not believe in paranormal phenomena.

This city was built by prisoners, and at the end of the work about 10 thousand people lived in it, and by 2007 there were not even five hundred left here. 4 years ago, only one elderly man lived here who did not want to leave. Once upon a time, coal was mined here, which provided energy for half of the Magadan region.

But the explosion at the mine changed Kadykchan, and people began to leave. It's surprising that they didn't even take things with them; here you can find books, magazines, toys, clothes and much more. The city was cut off from heat and electricity, today it is an abandoned place, the streets and houses are gradually being destroyed.

Building of the Energy sanatorium in the Moscow region

occupies the next place of ghost towns in my ranking.

Don’t be surprised, but in our country, working and non-working buildings of the same sanatorium can function on the same territory. In the Moscow region, the Energia sanatorium is very popular, which has been welcoming everyone who wants to improve their health for many years.

There is one next to the working buildings that no one wants to reconstruct, and this is not due to lack of funds. Once the building burned down and took the lives of more than a dozen people; they say that even Energia workers do not enter the burnt building after nightfall. Now there are heaps of garbage, but the mysticism of these places attracts guests and tourists. After the fire, a beautiful staircase, made in a palace style, was preserved; many heard voices here at night. (I wonder what people do at night in such places?)

Maternity hospital in the Vladimir region

There is not enough money in the country to build a normal hospital, but in the Vladimir region there is an operating medical institution that just needs to be renovated, but for some reason the locals are not in a particular hurry to go work there and repair something.

Mystic? It is quite possible, because what could be more mysterious and scarier than an abandoned medical institution? Even a hospital that is working causes unpleasant emotions in everyone, simply due to the specifics of its work, especially since every clinic, even a children's clinic, has a morgue, and such places are already scary.

The building, which was built at the beginning of the last century, houses a maternity hospital. Judging by the documentation, it functioned 5 years ago, but is guarded until today. Much of the hospital remained untouched and locals still do not understand why the maternity hospital stopped accepting pregnant women. You know, only horror films should be shot in such places. Maybe someone has information about this maternity hospital, write in the comments.

In the past, it was an urban-type settlement in the Komi Republic. Translated, this city means “River of the Valley of Death” or “Dead River”. The village appeared when a deposit of valuable coal was discovered here in 1943. A mine was built here, which began operating in 1957; 250 thousand kilograms of coal were mined per day.

But the government of the country, for reasons unknown to me, decided to suspend the operation of the mine. People did not want to leave their homes, and even riot police were used to force them to do so. 11 years ago they began testing bombing technology over the city and the president himself destroyed the village’s former recreation center. Today Halmer-Yu is the “ghost” of our country.

Next on my top

Yes, it does not belong to Russia, but it was once part of the former USSR, and it became a ghost town while still part of the Union. I think everyone who played Stalker will understand why I added this city.

Pripyat is a ghost town located on the banks of the river of the same name, a few kilometers from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. According to the population census, which was conducted in the fall a year before the disaster, about 50 thousand people lived here. It was planned that by the end of the year the number of residents would increase by another 20 thousand. All residents were evacuated in April 1986 due to a tragic accident. Today the city is located in a special exclusion zone. More than one documentary film was made about the accident at the nuclear power plant; it also formed the basis for many performances and computer games.

Today, many residents of our planet dream of getting to Pripyat. Of course, a fraction of a percent of people’s interest was caused by the game “Stalker”, which was played by hundreds of thousands of people. The game completely copies the city, if you have completed it, you probably know where to go in Pripyat.

In conclusion, I want to say that I would be very interested in reading your opinion and finding out your rating of ghost towns in Russia and beyond. I'm also looking forward to your videos and photos. I’m also wondering if it’s worth including points on Google maps in the article so that you can find these places on the Internet yourself? Please write in the comments!

In contact with

Continuation of the list of abandoned settlements and objects on the FORUM,
where you can post your interesting material yourself, or discuss any topic in the appropriate section.

February 4, 1970 considered the beginning of the construction of the city. Dormitory No. 1, the construction department building, canteen No. 1 were laid, and the installation of the temporary village "Lesnoy" began. On April 14, 1972, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR, Pripyat was given a name - in honor of the river on which it was built - Pripyat. Well, Pripyat acquired the status of a city in 1979. On August 15, 1972, in a solemn ceremony, the first cubic meter of concrete was laid into the base of the main building of the power plant... Along with the commissioning of the first facilities at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the first houses were built. In the mid-1980s, about 48,000 people lived in prosperous Pripyat. Every year the number of Pripyat residents increased by more than one and a half thousand people, of which almost half were newborns.

"Attention attention! Dear comrades! The City Council of People's Deputies reports that due to the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the city of Pripyat, an unfavorable radiation situation is developing.

Party and Soviet bodies and military units are taking the necessary measures. However, in order to ensure the complete safety of people, and, first of all, children, there is a need to temporarily evacuate city residents to populated areas of the Kyiv region. To do this, buses accompanied by police officers and representatives of the city executive committee will be delivered to each residential building today, April twenty-seventh, starting from fourteen zero zero hours.

It is recommended to take with you documents, extremely necessary things, and also, in case of emergency, food. The heads of enterprises and institutions have determined a circle of workers who remain on site to ensure the normal functioning of city enterprises. All residential buildings will be guarded by police officers during the evacuation period.

Comrades, when temporarily leaving your home, please do not forget to close the windows, turn off electrical and gas appliances, and turn off the water taps. We ask you to remain calm, organized and orderly during the temporary evacuation.”

This message was heard by residents of the city of Pripyat on April 27, 1986. Now it is a ghost town with a population of 0 people, but with the possibility of a full tour. A walk through the “dead city”, a visit to the Polesie hotel, a school, a kindergarten, once residential buildings and even a three-course dinner. In online stores you can buy everything from stickers to radiation measuring instruments. A webcam will be installed soon, and fundraising is actively underway online.

This young city, and it became a city only in 1979, was a major transport hub; construction was actively underway in Pripyat. They built the Prometheus cinema, the Energetik cultural center, the Polesie hotel, the Palace of Pioneers, sports complexes, shopping centers, a cultural park with its Ferris wheel. The city was exemplary; foreign delegations were brought here to show how the Soviet people lived. It seemed that everything was just beginning, like other young cities of the Soviet Union...

But Pripyat was unable to continue its history together with those who lived in it, built it, raised their children and were simply proud of their city. After the evacuation, the looters stole everything that was possible, but the pianos remained in the houses due to their weight, and the beds were not touched in kindergartens, probably due to the strong “background” of the iron. The city is overgrown with greenery. This is especially unusual to see at a stadium, where trees grow straight from the running track, breaking through the asphalt.

Today, about 300 people live in the Zone. These are “self-settlers”, those who returned to their native land. These are mainly elderly people for whom adaptation to new conditions and surroundings is very difficult. They conduct subsistence farming and a truck shop comes to them 1-2 times a week.

Every year, up to several thousand people come here from April 26 to May 9. Among them are former residents and participants in the aftermath of the accident. They come here to meet friends, colleagues, and remember those they will never see again.

As a result of the Chernobyl disaster at a nuclear power plant, for the first time in Ukraine, the evacuation and resettlement of people from contaminated areas was carried out, completely clearing the population of some small towns, as well as large, medium and small rural settlements. Total during 1986 - 1991 163 thousand people were evacuated from the mandatory resettlement zone, including in 1990 - 1991. - 13,658 people and 58.7 thousand voluntary migrants from all zones of influence of the Chernobyl disaster.

This beautiful and promising city turned out to be the youngest “ghost town”...

The most famous abandoned village in the Magadan region. Kadykchan (according to Even folk legends - “Death Valley”, and according to the toponymic dictionary of the North-East USSR - “Little Gorge”) is an urban-type settlement in the Susumansky district of the Magadan region, 65 km northwest of the city of Susuman in the Ayan-Yuryakh river basin (tributary of the Kolyma). The population according to the 2002 census is 875 inhabitants, according to unofficial estimates for 2006 - 791 people. According to data for January 1986 - 10,270 people.

The village was once the location of one of the Kolyma Gulag camps.

Kadykchan is a river, a left tributary of the Arkagala River in its lower reaches. For the first time the name Kadykchan appeared on the map of B.I. Vronsky in 1936, when his party conducted research in the Emtygei and Khudzhak river basin. The village was built after coal of the highest quality was found at a depth of 400 meters in 1943. As a result, the Arkagalinskaya CHPP operated on Kadykchan coal and supplied electricity to 2/3 of the Magadan region.

The nearly 6,000-strong population of Kadykchan began to rapidly melt away after a mine explosion in 1996, when it was decided to close the village. A few years later, the only local boiler house defrosted, after which it became impossible to live in Kadykchan. By this time, there were about 400 people living in Kadykchan who refused to leave, and there had been no infrastructure for several years.

The awarding of the status of unpromising to the village of Kadykchan and the resettlement of its residents was announced on the basis of the law of the Magadan region No. 32403 of April 4, 2003.

According to former Kadykchan resident V.S. Poletaev, “Kadykchan residents were not evacuated for 10 days, but they left on their own. Those who were entitled to housing after the liquidation of the mine and open-pit mine waited. Those who had no prospects left on their own, so as not to freeze. Secondly, Kadykchan was closed not because it was unfrozen, but on orders from above, as an unprofitable village."

Nowadays it is an abandoned mining “ghost town”. There are books and furniture in houses, cars in garages, children's potties in toilets. On the square near the cinema there is a bust of V.I., which was finally shot by residents. Lenin.

Ostroglyady village, Bragin district, Gomel region. Looted by looters.

It is located just 1 km from the Khoiniki-Bragin highway. Resettled in 1986 after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

The ruins of the master's estate have been preserved - an outbuilding in which the master's servants lived. Three master's alleys: sort of like oak, linden and hornbeam. Collapsed columns indicate that the estate was built in the classicist style.

Descendants of Ostroglyad residents periodically come to the local cemetery. Some of them no longer even live in Belarus. By the way, people were buried here even after 1986.

The city of Chernobyl-2 is located northwest of the small Polesie city of Chernobyl, but it cannot be found on any topographic map. When examining the maps, you will most likely find symbols of a boarding house for children, or dotted lines of forest roads at the location of the city, but not symbols of urban and technical buildings. The USSR knew how to hide a secret, especially if it was a military secret.

Only with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant did it become known about the existence of a small town (military garrison) in the Polesie forests, which was engaged in ... “space espionage.” In the seventies of the last century, the military created unique radar systems that made it possible to track ballistic missile launches from the territories (military bases and submarines) of a potential enemy. The created radar was called an over-the-horizon radar station (OGRLS). Having colossal dimensions of masts and receiving antennas, the ZGRLS required a large human resource - about 1000 military personnel were on combat duty at this facility. A small town was created for the military and their families, with one street, which bore (bears) the name Kurchatova.

The decision to create an over-the-horizon radar system Duga No. 1 (near Chernobyl) was made on the basis of Government resolutions of January 18, 1972 and April 14, 1975. Already in 1976, the main radar unit of Chernobyl-2 ZGRLS was installed. The general designer of the ZG radar in Chernobyl-2 was the Scientific Research Institute of Long-Range Radio Communications (NIIDAR). The main designer and inspirer of the idea of ​​the ZGRLS was Franz Kuzminsky. The first radar tests by the State Commission were carried out in 1979. As the experts themselves note, “... in the process of preparing... testing, a number of practical problems had to be solved, caused by the fact that a completely new, unique product, which has no analogues in world practice, was introduced...”. According to some sources, “... during the tests, launches of ballistic missiles and launch vehicles from the US Eastern Missile Range were detected, the adequacy of the models was checked based on the results of detection of associated launches of ballistic missiles and launch vehicles of the United States, which confirmed the correctness of the selected model representations.” At the same time, shortcomings of the system were also discovered, which consisted in the lack of a qualitative definition of single targets and small groups of targets. High-quality operation of the ZGRLS was achieved only under conditions of massive attacks by ballistic missiles of a potential enemy. Despite some functional limitations, in 1982 the AGLRS in Chernobyl-2, according to the Government Decree (dated May 31, 1982), was accepted for trial operation.

With the start of operation of the complexes, additional problems arose. It turns out that part of the operating frequency range of the radar systems coincided with the systems of civil aviation and the fishing fleet of European countries. The USSR received an official appeal from Western countries that the created systems significantly affect the safety of aviation and maritime navigation. The USSR made concessions and stopped using operating frequencies. The designers were immediately tasked with eliminating the shortcomings of the radar. Scientists and designers solved the problem, and after modernization, in 1985, the system began to undergo State acceptance. After the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986, the ZG radar was removed from combat duty, and the equipment was mothballed. The military and civilian population were evacuated from the radioactive contamination zone. When the leadership and military of the USSR realized the scale of the environmental disaster, a decision was made (in 1987) to remove valuable equipment and systems to the city of Komsomolsk. So the unique object that provided the space shield of the Soviet state ceased to function, and the city and urban infrastructure were forgotten and abandoned.

Off the west coast of Japan is a dead island (Gankajima, Gunkajima or Gunkanjima, also called Hashima or Hashima), which was barely known even to the Japanese. In Nagasaki Prefecture it was considered one of the uninhabited islands. For a long time it was nothing more than a small reef.

In 1810, the accidental discovery of coal dramatically changed the fate of this reef. Mitsubishi bought Gankajima and began mining coal from the bottom of the sea. The work required significant labor costs and manpower. Construction began and people arrived to live and work here. Thanks to the coal industry, residential areas began to continually expand. Residential complexes were built, much more durable than on the mainland, in order to protect against the tsunami. By the mid-20th century, the population density on the island was 835 people per hectare, which is one of the highest population densities in the world. The reef became an artificial island with a diameter of about one kilometer (three-quarters of a mile) in perimeter, with a population of 5,300 people.

Rising above the ocean, a labyrinth of residential buildings and industrial facilities appeared, built together. From the ocean, the silhouette of the island resembled a battleship - that’s why it was called Gunkanjima. It is like a fortress rising out of the sea, surrounded by high walls. The island gave the impression of a small kingdom. Its inhabitants boasted, “There is nothing in the world that we don’t have here.” They were right. They truly had everything within their miniature kingdom - except the cemetery. But the irony of this was soon proven. The island was already doomed to turn into a huge cemetery.

Over time, coal was replaced by oil, and coal fields began to close. In 1974, one of the most densely populated islands in the world became completely deserted. Mitsubishi has officially announced the closure of the field. The city looked as if all its inhabitants had suddenly disappeared overnight. The island was devastated, but the spirit of the people who left it remained. In the buildings, there is a lot of evidence of human activity. The strange atmosphere makes it feel like the island fell asleep when its inhabitants abandoned it.

Visiting the island is currently prohibited. The exception was the filming of the film “Battle Royale” on the island.

The city got its name from the Detroit River (French: le détroit du Lac Érie), which means the Lake Erie Strait connecting Lake Huron to Lake Erie. In the XVII-XVIII centuries. The strait meant not only the current Detroit River, but also Lake St. Clair and the river of the same name. Traveling up the Detroit River on La Salle's ship, Catholic priest Louis Hennepin noted that the north bank was ideal for settlement. Here, in 1701, Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, with a group of 51 French-Canadians, founded Fort Detroit (Ponchartrain du Detroit). By 1765, Detroit's white population numbered 800, putting it on par with the largest French settlements in America at the time, Montreal and St. Louis. However, in 1760, both Montreal and Detroit were surrendered to the British and became part of the British colonial empire. Having become masters, the British shortened the name of the fort to Detroit.

In 1763, the fort was besieged by the rebel Indians of Chief Pontiac. Forced to soften its policies in the occupied territories, the British government that same year prohibited English colonists from establishing new settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains, which, in turn, caused discontent among the large population of the British colonies proper and became one of the causes of the American Revolution. After the revolution, Detroit remained a Canadian town for a long time and passed to the United States only in 1796. In 1805, most of Detroit burned down in a fire. From 1805 to 1847 Detroit was the capital of the territory and then of the new state of Michigan. At this time its population increased greatly. In 1812, it was reoccupied by the British during the Anglo-American War (1812-1814), a year later it was recaptured by the Americans and received city status in 1815. On the eve of the Civil War, Detroit was one of the key points of the “Underground Railroad”, along which fugitive black slaves made their way from the United States to Canada. For some time, the future president, and then Lieutenant Ulysses Grant, lived here, and during the war, many townspeople volunteered to join the northern army. George Armstrong Custer formed them into the famous Michigan Brigade.

Many of the city's buildings and mansions were built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, during Detroit's Gilded Age. At the time, it was called the “Paris of the West” for its luxurious architecture and Washington Boulevard, brightly lit by Edison light bulbs. Its favorable location on the Great Lakes waterway made the city a major transportation hub. The basis of the urban economy in the mid-19th century. was shipbuilding. At the end of the same century, the advent of automobiles inspired Henry Ford to create his own model and the Ford Motor Company (1904). The factories of Ford, Durant, the Dodge brothers (see Dodge), Packard and Chrysler turned Detroit into the automobile capital of the world.

During Prohibition, smugglers used the river to transport liquor from Canada. In the 1930s, with the advent of trade unions, Detroit became an arena for the struggle between the auto workers' union and employers. In particular, such leaders as Hoffa and James Riddle emerged in it. In the 1940s, one of America's first highways, M-8, passed through the city, and thanks to the economic boom of World War II, Detroit earned the nickname "Arsenal of Democracy." The rapid economic growth of the first half of the 20th century was accompanied by an influx of people from the southern states (mostly black) and Europe, which led to racial unrest and open rebellion in 1943.

In the 50s of the 20th century, Detroit remained the automobile capital of the United States, which at that time was promoting a program of cheap and accessible cars at the state level. The country's largest automobile factories (Ford, General Motors, Chrysler) were concentrated in Detroit, and the city experienced a boom in its development - it literally flourished, becoming one of the richest cities in North America. Since the mid-40s, with the development of the automobile industry, a large number of personal cars appeared in the city. Constant traffic jams and lack of parking spaces became an increasingly acute problem. At the same time, the need to purchase a personal car is promoted; public transport is presented as unprestigious - it is “transport for the poor.” On the other hand, the public transport system is not developing; tram and trolleybus lines are being eliminated. This forces residents to switch to cheaper cars. As a result, the number of cars in the city is growing rapidly, and the old urban structure does not meet the requirements of the city's motorists. The authorities are trying to solve the problem by demolishing historical buildings in the city center to build parking lots.

By the beginning of the 21st century in Detroit, the former automobile capital of the United States, the white population was about 10% and concentrated in the southern part of the city and in the suburbs.

Detroit was recognized as the most disadvantaged city in the United States. In addition to high crime, the environment here is poor, and the unemployment rate there ranks second in the United States. According to Forbes, since 1950 the population has decreased by a third, to 950 thousand people. According to forecasts, it will continue to decline at least until 2030. The most eerie views of Detroit can be seen in Eminem's "Beautiful" video.

Khalmer-Yu is a former urban-type settlement (ghost town) in the Komi Republic, and was subordinate to the Gornyatsky District Council of Vorkuta. Abolished in 1996. It was connected by an access railway about 60 km long with the railway station on Metallistov Square in Vorkuta. Coal mining was carried out (Pechora coal basin).

Population 7.1 thousand people (1959); 7.7 thousand people (1963); 4.1 thousand people (1994).

"Halmer-Yu" translated from Nenets means "River in the Valley of Death." There is also such a translation option as “Dead River”. Nomadic Nenets reindeer herders considered Khalmer-Yu a sacred place where they took their dead for burial. Khal-Dolina, mer-death, Yu-river (translation from Nenets) Working strata on the Khalmer-Yu river were discovered in the summer of 1942 by the party of geologist G. A. Ivanov. The coal from the new deposit was grade “K”, the most valuable for coke production. It was decided to leave a group of workers at the site of the future village to determine the parameters of the field. However, bad weather in late autumn and early winter cut the group off from Vorkuta. Several attempts were made to locate the group and rescue the people. In late autumn, an attempt was made to deliver food by reindeer. Of the hundred reindeer, fourteen returned to Vorkuta, the rest died on the way. The reindeer moss turned out to be frozen in the ice, and the reindeer died from lack of food. It was impossible to detect two small tents from airplanes. In January, a ski squad went out in search of the group. A group of workers were found in a state of extreme exhaustion and were transported to Vorkuta.

It was decided to continue exploration of the new deposit, and in the spring of 1943 the work was headed by USSR State Prize laureate G. G. Bogdanovich. Over the summer, the necessary material base was created, and by the fall about 250 people lived. A radio station, a canteen, a bakery, and a bathhouse were operating, and the necessary food supply was abandoned for the winter. Eight drilling crews simultaneously drilled three deep holes. And to provide the village with fuel, an exploration and expedition adit was laid on the other side of the river.

The mine began operating in 1957, its average daily production was 250 tons.

With the transition of new Russia to a market economy, the question arose about the feasibility of the existence of Halmer-Yu. On December 25, 1993, the Russian government adopted a resolution to liquidate the mine. In the fall of 1995, it was planned to complete the liquidation of the village, and the government tried to carry out the process according to world standards, which required enormous financial and material resources. As a result, riot police were used during the eviction. Doors were kicked in, people were forcibly forced into carriages and taken to Vorkuta. People have not yet been provided with new housing; some received unfinished apartments. Relocating them to hostels and hotels in Vorkuta made people hostage to the promises of the authorities, which few believed.

Now the territory of the village is used as a military training ground under the code name “Pemboy”. On August 17, 2005, during a strategic aviation exercise, a Tu-160 bomber, carrying Russian President Vladimir Putin, launched three missiles at the former cultural center of the village of Khalmer-Yu

Kowloon, or Kowloon, sometimes Kowloon, means "Nine Dragons" - the peninsular part of the urban area of ​​Hong Kong (not including the New Territories). Consists of the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. The eastern border of Kowloon runs along the Lei Yu Mun Strait, the western - through Mae Fu San Chyun and Stonecutter Island, the eastern - through Tate's Pyramid and the Lion Stone, and the southern - along Victoria Harbor. Population of Kowloon (2000 data) 2 million 71 thousand people. Population density 44 thousand people/km². The area of ​​the peninsula is about 47 km². Together with Hong Kong Island, its population accounts for 47% of the population of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

A terrible place!.. It was possible to shoot dark thrillers, fantastic action films, bloody horror films, or at least melodramas about the torments of the urban poor here - but not comedies. For a decade and a half there has been nothing like this here: everything is blooming and turning green. However, old memories and yellowing photographs do not allow us to forget about the terrible past of this area.

Oradour-sur-Glane (French: Oradour-sur-Glane) is a village in France in the department of Haute-Vienne (Limousin). The population is 2,025 inhabitants (1999).

Modern Oradour-sur-Glane was built far from the village of the same name, destroyed by German soldiers during the Second World War.

The village of Oradour turned into a ghost in 1944 - the Nazis shot and burned 642 of its residents in one day, and then set the village itself on fire. Among the dead were 207 children and 245 women.

The burned church, ashes, and wells that became cemeteries will not let us forget about those terrible events of 65 years ago.

Soldiers of the 2nd SS Panzer Division "Reich" under the command of General Heinz Lammerding, heading from Toulouse to the Normandy front, surrounded Oradour on June 10. Under the pretext of checking documents, they herded residents to the market square and demanded that fugitives be handed over to them, including residents of Alsace and Lorraine, who were allegedly hiding in the village from the German authorities. The head of the administration refused to hand them over, deciding to sacrifice himself and, if necessary, his family. However, the Nazis did not get by with this. They forced the men into barns and machine-gunned them. The bodies were covered with straw and burned. The soldiers locked the women and children in the church. First, asphyxiating gas was released into the building, and then the church was set on fire. Five men and one woman managed to survive.

With such measures, the Nazis discouraged the French from collaborating with Resistance fighters who supported the Allies who opened a second front in Normandy.

The massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane, which never resisted the occupiers, became a symbol of Nazi barbarity. The ruins of the village were included in the list of historical monuments of France in 1945, and a new one was later built not far from the old Oradour.

Several participants in the massacre - seven Germans and 14 Alsatians, 13 of whom were recruited into the Wehrmacht by force - appeared on January 12, 1953 before a military court in Bordeaux. The court sentenced two of them to death, which was later commuted, and to forced labor.

A month later, the French parliament, under pressure from Alsace deputies, passed a law that granted amnesty to 13 French people who acted “against their will.” This act angered relatives of the victims of the Oradour massacre, and for more than 20 years government officials were not invited to memorial ceremonies.

On the northern coast of the island of Taiwan, not far from Taipei (the capital of the state), stands the ghost town of San Zhi. Back in the early eighties of the last century, a group of companies under the patronage of the state began construction of an ultra-modern city.

As planned, the city of San Zhi was to become a haven for the capital's rich. No expense was spared for the construction, and very quickly futuristic saucer houses appeared on the coast, which were supposed to be the pinnacle of engineering. However, instead of the worldwide fame of the city of the future, the city of San Zhi faced desolation and the notoriety of a ghost town.

Local archives indicate that several fatal accidents occurred during the construction process, and eyewitnesses claim that accidents occurred almost every day.

The population of Taiwan is quite superstitious, and bad rumors quickly began to circulate about the city of San Zhi.

The construction was completed, they even held a grand opening, but there were no people willing to buy real estate in the city, and tourists came extremely reluctantly.

Developers tried to change the situation and carry out large-scale advertising campaigns, but very soon San Zhi fell into disrepair, and then completely turned into a restricted area.

Local residents unanimously claim that this place is cursed and the city is full of ghosts. Several times the government took the initiative to demolish all the buildings, but each time such a proposal ran into civil protest.

The fact is that local residents sincerely believe that the city has become a haven for lost souls, and to deprive ghosts of a haven means to bring upon oneself and one’s entire family serious troubles.

So the resort town of San Zhi stood on the shore, gradually collapsing.

By order of the Taipei County Government, the city was classified as a dangerous architectural structure, and an order was given for its demolition. It began to be demolished on December 29, 2008. It was planned that by the Chinese New Year, around the beginning of February 2009, the city should be demolished.

In the first half of the 18th century, Karabakh Khan Panahali ordered the construction of a residential complex - an imaret - made of white stone. This imaret has long served as a kind of landmark for residents of nearby villages. Agdam - “bright, illuminated by the sun’s rays, white house”

Agdam was founded in the 18th century and received city status in 1828. Population in 1989 - 28 thousand people, currently uninhabited. It is located 26 km from Stepanakert, 365 km from Baku. Before the Karabakh war of 1991-1994. In the city there was a creamery, a wine factory (Production Association for Grape Processing - Agdam Brandy Factory), a canning and machine-building factory, a metal products factory, and a railway station.

During the Karabakh war, Agdam became the scene of fierce battles. In the period from 1992 to 1993, Azerbaijani artillery periodically fired at Stepanakert from the territory of Agdam. At the beginning of June 1993, the Armenian armed forces, in order to suppress enemy firing points, launched an attack on Agdam.

The first assault began on June 12, but was repulsed. According to Armenian sources, the first assault on Aghdam was a diversion and was carried out by the forces of the Martuni defensive detachment. Then the Armenian lieutenant colonel Monte Melkonyan died.

On June 15, a second assault on Agdam was launched. After the failure, the Armenian formations switched all their forces to the capture of Mardakert, after the capture of which they again began to storm Aghdam.

On July 3, the third assault began, and on July 14, the fourth. The assault involved 6 thousand soldiers, a Mi-24 squadron, and about 60 tanks. The defense of Agdam was held by the 708th brigade of the NAA, numbering 6,000 people. Despite the stubborn defense, the city's garrison was put in a difficult position due to the protracted internal political crisis that unfolded in Baku. The personnel were exhausted from days of fighting and experienced a lack of reinforcements and a shortage of ammunition. During the fighting, the defenders lost about half of their personnel. By July 5, the city was practically surrounded by Karabakh Armenians, who subjected it to intense shelling from artillery and Grad launchers. As a result, on the night of July 23-24, after 42 days of continuous hostilities, units of the Agdam brigade were forced to leave the city and retreat to the northern and eastern directions of the villages of Geytepe and Zankishaly-Afatli. The city fell.

The entire Soviet Union knew the former Azerbaijani city of Agdam thanks to the famous brand of port wine that was produced here. Now it is in the full sense of the word “former city”. Everything was destroyed except for the large mosque in the city center. Now not only is port wine not produced here, there is simply no one here. Occasionally, a truck moves along deserted streets, among the rubble of the remains of building materials and fittings. The only economic activity carried out in the city by residents of the surrounding regions of Nagorno-Karabakh is the dismantling of the remains of buildings for building materials that may still be useful for construction.

According to the jurisdiction of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which has controlled the settlement since July 23, 1993, it is located in the Askeran region of the NKR; according to the jurisdiction of Azerbaijan, it is the administrative center of the Agdam region of Azerbaijan, part of which, according to the UN Security Council resolution, is considered occupied by Armenian forces.

The city is located in the northern United States, in the state of Indiana, a southeastern suburb of Chicago, located on the southern shore of Lake Michigan. Home of the King of Pop Michael Jackson. Founded in 1906 by the US Steel Trust. Together with the adjacent points of East Chicago, Indiana Harbor, etc., it forms the largest center of ferrous metallurgy in the United States; 100 thousand people are employed in industry, including up to 80 thousand in metallurgy and related industries (coke chemistry, production of building materials, metalworking).

In 1960, the city reached its peak population of 178,320 residents, but over time, unemployment, crime, etc. forced residents to leave the city.

Gary began to acquire the status of a dysfunctional city. The surrounding suburbs became a concentration of poverty. The increasing outflow of people left tracts of vacant land and countless empty buildings. The main streets for many kilometers are boarded up with shops and restaurants. It was rare to find an open fast food place with twinkling lights.

In 1979, there were fewer than 40 enterprises left in the city. Opened in 1978, the Sheraton Hotel went bankrupt within 5 years and closed in 1984. The cost of maintaining the hotel for a couple of years after opening exceeded the income, and the owners of the unprofitable hotel business were forced to transfer the hotel to the city to pay off debts. But by 1983, the city itself was also unable to pay its hotel utility bills, and about 400 employees were laid off.

Between 1980-1990, the city's population decreased by 25%. The 2000 census showed Gary had a population of 102,746 people, with 25.8% below the poverty line. Census Bureau officials also noted that Gary has the highest percentage of African-American residents than any other U.S. city with a population of 100,000 or more.

Now Gary is a real ghost town. People almost completely forgot about it, leaving many beautiful buildings and streets to collapse.

The city of Kolmanskop is located in the Namib Desert, 10 kilometers from Lüderitz and the Atlantic coast. This city has a remarkable and somewhat romantic history. The fact is that it was in this city that at one time the second most important diamond rush after the boom in Kimberley took place.

The diamond rush began in April 1908 thanks to the experience and luck of Zacharias Leval, an employee of the Lüderitz-Keetmanshoop railway. At one time he worked in Kimberley and with a trained eye managed to see diamonds right on the surface of the sandy desert near Kolmanskop, just 7 kilometers along the rails from Lüderitz. Zacarias gave the find to the foreman August Stauch, who was even quicker and immediately realized what was what.

Without attracting undue attention, he hastened to stake out vast areas along a narrow saddle in the dolomite ridge near Lüderitz. Along this peculiar corridor, the wind carries sand from the southern part of the Namib Desert adjacent to the mouth of the Orange River further to the north. It was there, the quick-witted Stauch realized, that small diamonds, carried by the river into the ocean and then thrown ashore by the surf, are transported along with the sand. In a matter of years, the foreman became a multimillionaire.

Large beautiful houses, a school, a hospital, and a stadium were built in Kolmanskop. Within a few years, a model German town had emerged from the ground. Residents expected long-term prosperity in the diamond city. After all, in this deserted corner there were so many diamonds that the workers crawled on their stomachs and easily raked them into a scoop with a brush.

Perhaps the settlers somehow offended the local deities. Or maybe they were just born under an unlucky star. But the flow of diamonds quickly dried up, and as soon as they began to dig deeper, it turned out that, alas, no untold treasures were to be found in the Namibian soil. Diamond reserves were practically limited to the first diamonds found on the sand.

Then it turned out that living in this town was difficult, and there was no need for it: sandstorms, lack of drinking water. And ten years after its founding, a mass exodus of local residents began. Since then, Kolmanskop has remained an amazing abandoned city in the middle of the sandy desert. Most of the houses are almost entirely covered with sand and produce a somewhat depressing sight (see photo). Although, however, the Namibians, in their efforts to attract the attention of tourists to this region, have restored some buildings in recent decades and are trying to maintain the museum city in good condition. Therefore, it will be quite interesting to come here on an excursion.

A former coal mining village in the Perm region, territorially subordinate to the city of Gubakha.

Attraction: Mariinskaya cave (400 m from the former reinforced concrete plant).

Some sources call it Old Gubakha (definitely wrong).

In 1721, the Kizelovskoye coal deposit was discovered in the Solikamsk district of the Siberian province; in 1778, the Gubakhinsky mines were founded, the workers of which lived in a village on the high right bank of the Kosva River (a tributary of the Kama River).

The deposit was divided into Verkhnegubakhinskoye and Nizhnegubakhinskoye. The Verkhnegubakhinsky mines belonged to the princes of Vsevolozhsk.

In July 1924, Kizelovskaya State District Power Plant No. 3, built in Gubakha according to the plan of the State Commission for Electrification of Russia (GOELRO), the third in the RSFSR, produced current, which in 1934 was named after S.M. Kirov.

The settlement of Gubakha was transformed into a city from the workers' villages of Nizhnyaya and Verkhnyaya Gubakha, Krzhizhanovsky and the village of the Krupskaya mine on March 22, 1941.

Before this official separation into an independent administrative unit, Gubakha was a rural zone of the city of Kizel. The village is located in a resettlement zone due to the proximity of the industrial zone of the Metafrax plant.

Currently, it is a holiday village on the basis of what was, again, a mining village. The city is almost completely absorbed by nature. Notable buildings include a hospital, a cultural and business center building, and the NKVD building.

“Promyshlenny” is an urban-type settlement in the Komi Republic of Russia. Administratively subordinate to the city of Vorkuta.

Population 450 inhabitants (2007).

After an explosion in the winter of 1998 at the main enterprise of the village, the Tsentralnaya mine, the mine stopped working, after which the village fell into decay.

Now the village is abandoned.

The Promyshlenny village was founded in 1954. The history of this village is closely connected with the history of two mines - Industrial and Central.

The village is located on the banks of the Izyuorsh River, a tributary of the Vorkuta River.

The residential buildings in the village were two-story barracks of the unconvoyed camp. The village of Promyshlenny existed thanks to two city-forming enterprises - two mines, Tsentralnaya and Promyshlennaya. The first to begin construction was the Central Mine. This mine was officially founded in 1948. Its construction proceeded rather slowly. When a new group of prisoners from the city of Lvov arrived here, they saw only a cemetery and six old barracks. Prisoners from the Lithuanian SSR, the Western part of the Ukrainian SSR and from other regions of the USSR worked here. They built houses in the village of Promyshlenny, the buildings of the Tsentralnaya mine, and then the buildings of the Promyshlennaya mine. The Central mine was opened in 1954. The Tsentralnaya mine was the first “free” mine in Vorkuta. It was built, of course, by prisoners, but free people worked on it. Those who were freed, those who came here initially free from the army, from technical schools, simply out of interest in recruitment for a better life, for a “long ruble.”

On January 18, 1998, an explosion occurred at the Tsentralnaya mine, which claimed several dozen lives who died during the explosion or subsequently. Rescuers pulled living and dead people from under the rubble in the mine. But many of the dead remained in the mine, buried under the rubble. Already at 4 o'clock that day, the BBC television channel (UK) was already broadcasting news “about the tragedy.” Of course, for the BBC it was a sensation, an exclusive, but for us it was a tragedy. Thus ended the 44-year fate of this coal mining enterprise. And the Promyshlennaya mine was closed long ago in the mid-90s. At present, there are no traces left of the Central Mine. Like the ruins of the Promyshlennaya mine, they were removed by a Vorkuta company that specializes in eliminating ruins on behalf of our state. It is important to note that in the closed mines of Vorkuta, in the end, there are no waste heaps or even mine buildings left, which cannot be said about the mines of Donbass. Now there is nothing here, as if there was no mine there. After it was impossible to continue working at the last mine, the Vorkuta administration decided to close the Promyshlenny village. Thanks to government subsidies from the “Pilot Project”, it was possible to resettle families willing to move outside of Vorkuta. This was one of the conditions for the move. However, not everyone agreed to move, specifically outside the city of Vorkuta. Many residents lived in the once 12,000-population Promyshlenny village until recently.

Residential buildings were cleaned in different ways. Some were simply burned, under the supervision of fire crews. Others took a long time to disassemble for building materials, which were then sent to the south, for example to Krasnodar. However, there were also cases of deliberate arson. So, for example, the attackers set fire, of course, to a non-residential building on Dolgoprudny Street. On the ground floor there was a children's clinic, and on the second floor there was a service house for the village of Promyshlenny. Firefighters were unable to save the important building for the village. After all, the building was made of wood, and they burn quickly, the main thing is that the fire does not spread to other houses.

Even earlier, in the village of Promyshlenny, a fire started in a red two-story, two-entrance house on Promyshlennaya Street. The fire started late at night in winter. People could have been hurt, but fortunately they weren’t. The only victim of the tragedy was a purebred shepherd dog that lived in the first entrance. The residents of this house became fire victims and lived for some time in a dispensary on Vostochny Passage. In the summer of 2006, only a few houses remained in the village. The roads in the village of Promyshlenny remained in excellent condition. Currently, only the ruins of stone buildings remain here.

The village of Yubileiny belongs to the youngest mine of the Gremyachinsky section of the Kizelovsky coal basin - sh. "Shumikhinskaya", founded in 1957. It reached its designed capacity (approx. 450 thousand tons of coal per year) in 1989, just before “perestroika”. Destroyed in 1998.

The destruction of this mine is associated with the protests of miners in Gremyachinsk (the administration banged their helmets for 3 months). They say there was a delegation on Gorbaty Bridge during the miners’ protest in Moscow.

At the moment, there is nothing left at the mine’s industrial site related to the coal industry. Some buildings have been converted into sawmills. The rest was destroyed, buried below ground level. As a result of the “restructuring”, the entire staff of this mine was instantly fired and abandoned to their fate. The leadership of the Perm region and Gremyachinsk then turned a blind eye to everything, silently supporting the criminal actions of the “restructurers”.

In the village of Yubileiny there was no gas at that time, which was installed only in 2000, and the boiler house heating the village was also destroyed. What was left of it could not heat such a large number of apartments, and in the winter of 1999, almost the entire heating system of Yubileiny was unfrozen, just to the delight of looters and scrap metal workers, who began to rob the houses that had already begun to empty. The surviving buildings survived this somewhat, although their heating systems were also damaged by frost and vandals.

With the arrival of gas in Yubileiny and the construction of a boiler house, the situation with heat supply improved, but no one was going to restore the looted buildings; almost all the residents of these houses left the village. They found an opportunity to leave there at their own expense.

Highly professional specialists worked at Shumikhinskaya; they were, in principle, in demand in other industries and in other regions. Then you can paint terrible pictures about the social situation in the village. Residents of the village dreamed of high-quality telephone communications; there were no cell phones then. When the Pikhta-2 communication system was installed and testing began, a bunch of degenerates deliberately dropped it. In the summer of 1999, it was still lying there, but after some time it was dismantled and taken away. I asked Uralsvyazinform, apparently they themselves do not know about the fate of the communication mast. A second similar mast stands in Gremyachinsk.

The Shumikhinskaya mine currently has about 12 million tons of unmined balance sheet coal reserves, another about 3 million tons of off-balance sheet reserves, plus a very certain amount of coal from non-working seams. This mine at that time (1998) was one of the few that made a profit. Surely there were similar mines in Kizel. When the operation of housing certificates for miners began, the population fell further. This state of buildings in the village is associated more with a heat supply disaster than with the departure of the population. School No. 15 also became a victim of the disaster. Due to the destroyed heating system, it was closed. In addition to these terrible five-story buildings, the village also had two-story brick houses with 8-16 apartments. Winter with virtually no heating caused the destruction of these houses. Water penetrated into the masonry of the walls of these houses and froze in winter. In the spring, the masonry of the walls could not stand it, bricks began to fall out along the entire length of the walls. The inhabitants of these houses were relocated to the few that remained. The houses themselves are now being torn down into bricks by the same looters and scrap metal workers.

Small timber processing enterprises now operate from production in Yubileiny, making euroslabs, door and window frames, and other wood products. Prisoners now live in the mountain rescuers' house; something like a free settlement has been set up there.

After acts of vandalism, the houses were left in such ruins that it is unclear how they were even kept upright. The coming winter did its job, the diamond-shaped sides of the roofs, the barbarically broken window openings, the vertical remains of the walls were saturated with water and with the onset of spring they finally fell. Children still walk in these ruins, and some individuals also visit in search of bricks. The Ministry of Emergency Situations is resting, they probably have more important things to do than the safety of children...

For reference: You can drive to Yubileiny and Shumikhinsky from Kizel through Gubakha, there is a turnoff in front of the village of Usva, an asphalt road leads to the villages, 9 km to Shumikhinsky, 18 km to Yubileiny.

In Soviet times, it was an urban-type settlement in the Iultinsky district of the Chukotka National District. Located in the spurs of the Ekvyvatapsky ridge; connected by road to the port of Egvekinot (in the Gulf of the Cross of the Bering Sea).

Tin mining center in Chukotka; the deposit was discovered in 1937. The village was opened in 1953. The area is characterized by extremely difficult weather conditions, which led to difficulties with delivery. Began to settle in 1994. In 1995, the village of Iultin officially ended its existence.

Iultinskoe tin-tungsten deposit. Located in the river basin. Tenkergin, in the upper reaches of the Iultkanya-Lenotap interfluve, 2 km from the village. Iultin. Developed from 1959 to 1994. Iultinsky GOK.

The deposit belongs to the quartz-cassiterite-wolframite type. More than 100 ore bodies of complex morphology, combining groups of quartz veins, have been identified. Ore bodies are localized in the exo-endocontact of the Iultinsky granite stock. The southern group of veins is characterized by a higher tin content and a lower content of tungsten trioxide compared to the veins of the Vodorazdelnaya and Eastern groups. In areas of intersection and articulation of veins of different directions, an increased concentration of metals is observed. The size of ore bodies ranges from tens to 1250 m along strike and up to 330 m along dip. Industrial minerals are cassiterite and wolframite. Due to its long-term operation, the main reserves of ore bodies located in the supra-intrusive zone have been exhausted.

The extraction of tin and tungsten in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug until 1992 was unprofitable, the enterprises were planned unprofitable (Pevek GOK) or their profitability was ensured by special prices for their products (Iultinsky GOK). Due to market conditions, in 1994 the Iultinsky GOK stopped production, and the Iultin and Svetloye deposits were mothballed. Once a thriving center of tin mining and manufacturing, the city of thousands was abandoned in 1995. People left here quickly, as if in an evacuation, taking with them only the essentials. The city was completely dead by 2000.

Kolendo is the northernmost village of Sakhalin, located in the Okha district of the Sakhalin region. Latitude 53.779932 - longitude 142.783374.

The Kolendo oil field is located in the northern part of Sakhalin, onshore. This is an old field, put into operation in 1967 and is in the final stages of development.

The history of the development of the Okha field began in 1923. From 1923 to 1928, the Okha field was developed by Japan under a concession agreement. From 1928 to 1944, exploration and development of the field was carried out jointly by the Sakhalinneft trust (formed in 1927) and the Japanese concessionaire. In 1944, the agreement with Japan was terminated, and from this period the development of the Okhinskoye field has been continued by the Sakhalinneft association (NGDU Okhaneftegaz).

In the 50s, the attention of oil workers, who were concerned about future prospects, was attracted by the areas of Tungora and Kolendo.

On April 25, 1961, the team of senior foreman N.A. Koveshnikova began drilling exploratory well No. 1 with a design depth of 2500 meters. In October 1961, well No. 1 began to flow after testing. The daily output was 47 tons.

Meanwhile, the search in Colendo Square continued. After testing, gushing oil flows were obtained from several wells from a depth of one and a half kilometers. Thus, a new oil and gas field was discovered. Soon it was put into commercial operation. The first two Kolendinsky wells produced as much oil as the entire Okha oil field. In 1963, industrial development of the most powerful oil field in the Far East began near Kolendo Bay. The development plan for the village of Kolendo has been approved.

Sakhalin's oil industry achieved significant development in the 60s. This was facilitated by an increase in the quality of preparation of structures for exploratory drilling, intensive geological exploration work in new areas, and justified drilling in new areas with single exploratory wells to a depth of 2000-3500 meters.

The decree on the resettlement of residents of the village of Kolendo was issued in 1996, after the earthquake in Neftegorsk. In 1999, construction of Canadian modules began in the Zima microdistrict in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. In 2001, residents of the village of Kolendo began to move into the 13th microdistrict of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. In addition, residents are being resettled in Okha and Nogliki.

According to the issue of the newspaper “Our Islands” dated November 22, 2002, the resettlement of the village is almost complete: “In connection with the completion of the resettlement of residents of the village of Kolendo, Okhinsky district, to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and Okha, work has begun on decommissioning the water pumping station of the village. In the near future supplies of heat and energy resources and communication services to Kolendo will be stopped.

Nowadays the city is completely extinct.

The abandoned village of Irbene, and a huge radio telescope, in the past a secret military facility of strategic importance and was not on the maps for mere mortals.

The Zvezdochka space reconnaissance station (also known as military unit 51429) was built in the 70s. The station was a system of 3 radars designed to intercept signals from satellites, submarines and military bases, as well as track satellites, and provide satellite communications.

At the same time, the village of Irbene was built. Several hundred people lived in it - military men and their families, but the village was not marked on the map until 1993.

After the collapse of the USSR, it was decided to withdraw troops from Latvia. Passions began to boil around “Zvezdochka”. According to the agreement, the army had the right to take with it only movable property, but had to leave immovable property.

It was then that a seemingly strange dispute flared up: what should we include telescopes that move during operation, while their bases, stuffed with sophisticated electronics, are motionless? It all ended with one telescope being dismantled and sent to Russia, while the other two remained in Latvia.

Currently, the village of Irbene has turned into a ghost, and the remaining telescopes “Jupiter” and “Saturn” have been practically restored and brought to such a state that serious research work has become possible. The premises of the giant radio telescope RT-32 have been partially restored.

There was just one problem: there was no one to do the research. In the 90s, unable to find a use for themselves, many scientists left. They weren’t trained to replace them - it wasn’t prestigious to do science back then...

Varosha - until the 70s, a lively seaside city, where hundreds of tourists flocked from all over Europe. They say that Varosha hotels were so popular that the most fashionable rooms in them were reserved by prudent British and Germans for 20 years in advance. Luxurious villas and hotels, advanced by the standards of the 70s of the last century, were built here.

It was a cozy seaside town, very similar to today's Larnaca, with multi-occupancy hotels along the sandy beach, with churches and clubs, panel houses and private villas, with schools, hospitals, kindergartens and gas stations of Petrolina, the Greek oil monopolist of those times. New Famagusta stretched south along the eastern coast of Cyprus, covering an area of ​​several tens of square kilometers...

What can be seen here now makes a rather depressing impression - rotting villas alive, a church with drooping crosses standing waist-deep in thistles, weeds, cacti, rhododendrons. The inhabitants of Varosha currently include seagulls, rodents and stray cats. In the quiet streets, only the footsteps of UN peacekeepers and Turkish army soldiers can be heard. Four kilometers of golden sand beaches have remained unclaimed for more than three decades. A frozen crane, a row of hotels, bank buildings, locked with padlocks. Parts of the neon sign for the Venus disco are barely visible through the thick bushes and weeds. Houses and villas that have been looted more than once...

The thing is that in 1974, Greek fascists attempted a coup d'etat (the goal was to subjugate Cyprus to the dictatorship of the Athenian black colonels), and Turkey was forced to send in troops. On August 14-16, 1974, the Turkish army occupied 37% of the island, including Famagusta and one of its suburbs, Varosha. A few hours before the Turkish troops arrived in Famagusta, all the Greek residents of Varosha left their homes to become refugees in the southern part of the island, in mainland Greece, Great Britain and the United States. 16 thousand people left in full confidence that they would return in a week, maximum two. More than 30 years have passed since then, and they have never had the opportunity to enter their homes.

Unlike many other places in Cyprus, where the abandoned houses of the Greeks were occupied by their Turkish neighbors or migrants from Turkey (the Greeks call them Anatolian settlers), the Turks from Famagusta did not settle Varosha. The Turkish army surrounded the empty village with a barbed wire fence, checkpoints and various other obstacles, essentially mothballing Varosha in the form in which the Greek Cypriots left it in August 1974. And in this form it has survived to this day - the most terrible monument to the civil war that divided the once binational Cyprus into two unequal ethnic halves.

Every few years, hope for the return of the city to its inhabitants revived, but the parties have still not come to a compromise that would suit both communities. Varosha has become a bargaining chip in relations between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Varosha has long been the most impressive symbol of the island's division, haunted by the ghosts of the past.

Those who have managed to sneak through the wire fences erected by the Turkish army speak of plates of dried food left in the kitchens and dining rooms of once elegant villas and houses, laundry still drying on the lines, and incredible amounts of weeds infesting the streets. Varoshi. Prices on store windows date back to 1974.

Varosha was subjected to total plunder by marauders. At first it was the Turkish military, who took furniture, televisions and dishes to the mainland. Then the residents of nearby streets, who carried away everything that the soldiers and officers of the occupying army did not need. Turkey was forced to declare the city a closed zone, but this did not save it from total looting: everything that could be carried away was taken away.

Although, there is an alternative vision of the conflict - the British organized and provoked it in order to prevent the spread of Soviet influence in the Middle East in general and in Cyprus in particular. Makarios was going to demand (or demanded?) that the British remove their bases from Cyprus, for which he paid with his life. “Turkish occupation” is, in fact, the entry of troops of another NATO country into Cyprus, and the organization of territory there that is not subordinate to the (close to the USSR) government of Cyprus and is even hostile to it. Maintaining Western control over this strategically important territory is much easier after partition.