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Ghost Town

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Ghost town



 
 
A ghost town is a town
Town

A town is a type of human settlement ranging from a few to several thousand inhabitants, although it may be applied loosely even to huge metropolitan areas; the precise meaning varies between countries and is not always a matter of legal definition....
 or city
City

A city is an urban area with a high population density and a particular administrative, legal, or historical status.Large industrialized cities generally have advanced systems for sanitation, utilities, land usage, house, and transportation and more....
 that has been completely abandoned by human inhabitants, usually because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as flood
Flood

A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land, a deluge. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide....
, government action, uncontrolled lawlessness or war
War

...
. The term is sometimes used in a depreciative sense to include cities, towns, and neighborhoods which, while still populated, are significantly less so than years past.

A ghost town may be a site where little or nothing remains above the soil surface (e.g., Babylon
Babylon

Babylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, sometimes considered an empire, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad....
 ?r Smeerenburg
Smeerenburg

The settlement of Smeerenburg on Amsterdam Island in north-west Svalbard, originated with Denmark and Netherlands whalers in 1619: one of Europe's northernmost outposts....
).






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Encyclopedia


A ghost town is a town
Town

A town is a type of human settlement ranging from a few to several thousand inhabitants, although it may be applied loosely even to huge metropolitan areas; the precise meaning varies between countries and is not always a matter of legal definition....
 or city
City

A city is an urban area with a high population density and a particular administrative, legal, or historical status.Large industrialized cities generally have advanced systems for sanitation, utilities, land usage, house, and transportation and more....
 that has been completely abandoned by human inhabitants, usually because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as flood
Flood

A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land, a deluge. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide....
, government action, uncontrolled lawlessness or war
War

...
. The term is sometimes used in a depreciative sense to include cities, towns, and neighborhoods which, while still populated, are significantly less so than years past.

A ghost town may be a site where little or nothing remains above the soil surface (e.g., Babylon
Babylon

Babylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, sometimes considered an empire, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad....
 ?r Smeerenburg
Smeerenburg

The settlement of Smeerenburg on Amsterdam Island in north-west Svalbard, originated with Denmark and Netherlands whalers in 1619: one of Europe's northernmost outposts....
). Often a ghost town will still have significant art and architecture, e.g. Vijayanagara
Vijayanagara

Vijayanagara is in Bellary District, northern Karnataka. It is the name of the now-ruined capital city, located at , of the historic Vijayanagara empire which extended over the southern part of India....
 in India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
 or Chang'an
Chang'an

Chang'an is an ancient Capital of more than ten Dynasties in Chinese history in Chinese history. Chang'an literally means "Perpetual Peace" in Classical Chinese....
 in China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
.

Some ghost towns are tourist
Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational or leisure purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who "travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from...
 attractions, among them Oatman, Arizona
Oatman, Arizona

Oatman, Arizona is a mining town in the Black Mountains of Mohave County, Arizona, Arizona, United States. Located at an elevation of 2700ft/896m, it began as a tent camp soon after two prospectors struck a $10 million gold find in 1915, though the area had been already settled for a number of years....
; Bannack, Montana
Bannack, Montana

Bannack is a ghost town in Beaverhead County, Montana, Montana, United States. Located on the Jefferson River, approximately upstream from where the Beaverhead joins with the Red Rock River south of Dillon, Montana....
; Kolmanskop
Kolmanskop

Kolmannskuppe is a ghost town in southern Namibia, a few kilometres inland from the port of L?deritz. It was a small mining village and is now a popular tourist destination run by the joint firm NAMDEB ....
 and Elizabeth Bay
Elizabeth Bay (Namibian ghost town)

Elizabeth Bay is a ghost town in southern Namibia. It was a former diamond mining settlement and is situated close to and south of L?deritz, on the edge of the Sperrgebiet....
, outside Lüderitz
Lüderitz

L?deritz is a harbour town in southern Namibia, lying on one of the least hospitable coasts in Africa. It is a port developed around Robert Harbour and Shark Island, Namibia....
, Namibia
Namibia

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in southern Africa on the Atlantic Ocean coast. It shares borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east, and South Africa to the south....
. This is especially true of those that preserve interesting architecture. Visiting, writing about, and photographing ghost towns is a minor industry.

Some ghost towns may be overgrown, difficult to access, and dangerous or illegal to visit.

Factors

Cassilis Historical Area02
Factors leading to abandonment of towns include depleted natural resources (as was the case of Smeerenburg
Smeerenburg

The settlement of Smeerenburg on Amsterdam Island in north-west Svalbard, originated with Denmark and Netherlands whalers in 1619: one of Europe's northernmost outposts....
 and Grytviken
Grytviken

Grytviken is the principal Hamlet in the United Kingdom territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic. It was so named by a 1902 Swedish surveyor who found old English try pots used to render Pinniped oil at the site....
), or natural resources such as water no longer being available; railways and motorway
Motorway

Motorway is a term for both a type of road and a classification or designation. Motorways are high capacity roads designed to carry fast motor traffic safely....
s bypassing or no longer accessing the town (as was the case in many of the ghost towns along Ontario's historic Opeongo Line
Opeongo Line

The Opeongo Line or Road was one of a series of settlement roads planned by the Canada government in the 1850s to encourage development of northeastern Ontario....
); economic activity shifting elsewhere; human intervention such as highway re-routing (as was the case with many towns located along U.S. Route 66
U.S. Route 66

U.S. Route 66 was a highway in the U.S. Highway System. One of the original U.S. highways, Route 66, US Highway 66, was established on November 11, 1926....
, after motorists bypassed the towns on the faster moving I-44 and I-40); river re-routing (the Aral Sea
Aral Sea

The Aral Sea is a landlocked endorheic basin in Central Asia; it lies between Kazakhstan in the north and Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan, in the south....
 being one example of this), and nuclear disasters such as Chernobyl
Chernobyl

Chernobyl , or Chornobyl , was a city in northern Ukraine, in the Kyiv Oblast near the border with Belarus.The city was evacuated in 1986 due to the Chernobyl disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, which is located 14.5 kilometers north-northwest....
. Significant fatality rates from epidemic
Epidemic

In epidemiology, an infection that is epidemic appears as new cases in a given human population, during a given period, at a rate that substantially exceeds what is "expected," based on recent experience ....
s have also produced ghost towns; for example, some places in eastern Arkansas
Arkansas

Arkansas is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States of the United States. Arkansas shares a border with six states, with its eastern border largely defined by the Mississippi River....
 were abandoned after near-total mortality (over 7,000 Arkansans died during the Spanish Flu
Spanish flu

The 1918 flu pandemic was an influenza pandemic that spread to nearly every part of the world. It was caused by an unusually severe and deadly Influenza A virus Strain of subtype H1N1....
 epidemic of 1918 and 1919). The Middle East has many ghost towns, created when the shifting of politics or fall of empires caused capital cities to be socially or economically non-viable, e.g., Ctesiphon
Ctesiphon

Ctesiphon was one of the great cities of the Persian Empire, located on the east bank of the Tigris.Ctesiphon was an imperial capital of the Arsacids and of their successors, the Sassanids....
.

Natural disasters can also create ghost towns. After being flooded more than 30 times since their town was founded in 1845, residents of Pattonsburg, Missouri
Pattonsburg, Missouri

Pattonsburg is a city in Daviess County, Missouri, Missouri, United States. The population was 261 at the 2000 census....
 had enough after two floods in 1993. With government help, the whole town was rebuilt three miles (5 km) away. Residents moved to New Pattonsburg, leaving the old Pattonsburg behind as a ghost town.

Due to improvements in scientific testing and warning procedures, ghost towns may also occasionally come into being due to an anticipated natural disaster — for example, the Canadian town of Lemieux, Ontario
Lemieux, Ontario

Lemieux is a ghost town in the Canada province of Ontario, which was located on the shore of the South Nation River in the Prescott and Russell United Counties, Ontario township of South Plantagenet, Ontario....
 was abandoned in 1991 after soil testing revealed that the community was built on an unstable clay bed. Two years after the last building in Lemieux was demolished, a landslide swept part of the former townsite into the South Nation River
South Nation River

The South Nation River is a river whose watershed covers 3,900 km?, a large part of eastern Ontario. The river's headwaters are located north of Brockville, Ontario and it flows 175 km northeast to empty into the Ottawa River near Plantagenet, Ontario....
.

Land contamination can also create a ghost town. This is what happened to Times Beach, a suburb of St. Louis whose residents were exposed to a high level of dioxins. Centralia, Pennsylvania
Centralia, Pennsylvania

Centralia is a Borough in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, United States. Its population has dwindled from over 1,000 residents in 1981 to 12 in 2005 and 9 in 2007, as a result of a mine fire burning beneath the borough since 1962....
 was abandoned by many people due to a dangerous underground coal fire. Since some residents chose to stay despite the dangers, it cannot be classified as a true ghost town.

Ghost towns may also be created when land is expropriated
Eminent domain

Eminent domain , compulsory purchase , resumption/compulsory acquisition or expropriation in common law legal systems is the inherent power of the state to seize a citizen's Property, expropriation property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent....
 by a government and residents are required to relocate. An example was when NASA
NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the Federal government of the United States, responsible for the nation's public list of space agencies....
 acquired land to build a rocket
Rocket

A rocket or rocket vehicle is a missile, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust by the Reaction of the rocket to the ejection of fast moving fluid exhaust from a rocket engine....
 propulsion testing center. Construction of the John C. Stennis Space Center
John C. Stennis Space Center

The John C. Stennis Space Center , located in Hancock County, Mississippi, at the Mississippi/Louisiana border, is NASA's largest rocket engine test facility....
 in Mississippi
Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Deep South of the United States. Jackson, Mississippi is the state capital and largest city. The state's name comes from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, and takes its name from the Anishinaabe language word misi-ziibi ....
 required acquisition of a large buffer zone
Buffer zone

In geography, a buffer zone is any zone area that serves the purpose of keeping two or more other areas distant from one another, for whatever reason....
 (approximately 34 square miles) because of the loud noise and potential dangers associated with testing huge rockets. Communities were abandoned and roads became overgrown by forest.

Construction of dam
Dam

A dam is a barrier that Reservoirs surface water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates, levees, and Dike are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions....
s has produced ghost towns left underwater. Examples include the settlement of Loyston, Tennessee
Loyston, Tennessee

Loyston was a community in Union County, Tennessee, Tennessee, that was inundated by the waters of Norris Lake after the completion of Norris Dam in 1935....
, inundated by the creation of Norris Lake. The town was reorganized and reconstructed on nearby higher ground. Other examples are The Lost Villages
The Lost Villages

The Lost Villages are ten communities in the Canada province of Ontario, in the former Township of Cornwall Township, Ontario and Osnabruck Township, Ontario near Cornwall, Ontario, which were permanently submerged by the creation of the St....
 of Ontario
Ontario

Ontario is a Provinces and territories of Canada located in the Central Canada part of Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area....
, and the hamlets of Nether Hambleton and Middle Hambleton in Rutland
Rutland

Rutland is a Counties of England of mainland England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire, and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....
, England, which were flooded to create Rutland Water
Rutland Water

Rutland Water is a reservoir in the county of Rutland, England, just east of the county town Oakham. It was known as Empingham Reservoir during its construction and until its official opening in 1976....
, Europe's largest man-made reservoir, Mologa
Mologa

Mologa was a town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, formerly situated at the confluence of Mologa River and Volga Rivers, but now submerged under the waters of the Rybinsk Reservoir....
 in Russia
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
 that was flooded by the creation of Rybinsk reservoir
Rybinsk Reservoir

Rybinsk Reservoir , informally called the Rybinsk Sea, is a vast water reservoir on the Volga River and its tributary Sheksna River and Mologa River, formed by Rybinsk Hydroelectric Station dam, located on the territories of Tver Oblast, Vologda Oblast, and Yaroslavl Oblasts....
. Many ancient villages had to be abandoned during construction of the Three Gorges Dam
Three Gorges Dam

The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectricity river dam that spans the Yangtze River in Sandouping, Yichang, Hubei, China. It is the List of the largest hydroelectric power stations in the world....
 in China, leading to displacement of many rural people.

Revived ghost towns

A few ghost towns manage a second life, often due to heritage tourism propagating an economy able to support residents. Walhalla
Walhalla, Victoria

Walhalla is a small town in Victoria, Australia, Australia, founded as a gold-mining community in early 1863 and at its peak home to around 2,500 residents....
, Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
, for example, was a town deserted after its gold mine ceased operation. Owing to its accessibility and proximity to other attractive locations, Walhalla has had a recent surge in economy and population.

Alexandria
Alexandria

Alexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports....
, the second largest city of Egypt, was a flourishing city in the Ancient era, but declined during the Middle Ages. With only 150 residents in the early 19th century, it qualified as a ghost town. During the Modern period, it has grown to a city of 3.5 to 5 million inhabitants. In Algeria
Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country of the Mediterranean sea, second largest in the Arab World, and the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area....
, many cities became hamlets after the end of Late Antiquity
Late Antiquity

Late Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the transitional centuries from Classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world: generally from the end of the Roman Empire's Crisis of the Third Century to the Islamic conquests and the re-organization of the Byzantine Empire under...
. They were revived with shifts in population during and after French colonization of Algeria. Oran
Oran

Oran is a city on the Mediterranean Sea coast in northwestern Algeria. Oran marked the largest westernmost metropolitan area of the then Ottoman Empire....
, today the nation's second largest city with 1 million people, before colonization was a village of a few thousand people.

Ghost towns around the world


Americas


Argentina
Most 19th and 20th century European immigrants to Argentina
Argentina

Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is a country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city....
 settled in the cities, which offered jobs, education, and other opportunities that enabled newcomers to enter the middle class. Many also settled in the growing small towns along the expanding railway system. Since the 1930s, many rural workers have moved to the big cities.

The 1990s saw many rural towns become ghost towns when train services ceased and local products previously manufactured on a small scale were replaced by massive amounts of cheap imported goods. Some ghost towns near cities offer tourist attractions, especially during weekends.

Brazil
The small village
Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or Residential community, larger than a hamlet , but smaller than a town or city. Though generally located in rural areas, the term urban village may be applied to certain urban area neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New York City and the Saifi Village in Beirut, Lebanon....
 of Caraíbas, in the municipality
Municipality

A municipality is an administrative entity composed of a clearly defined territory and its population and commonly denotes a city, town, or village, or a small grouping of them....
 of Itacarambi, state of Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais

Minas Gerais was so named for its great riches in the mining industry. It is one of the 26 states of Brazil of Brazil, the second most populous and fourth largest by area in the federation....
, suffered an earthquake
Earthquake

An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes are recorded with a seismometer, also known as a seismograph....
 in the early morning of December 9, 2007. Measuring 4.9 degrees on the Richter scale
Richter magnitude scale

The Richter magnitude scale, or more correctly local magnitude ML scale, assigns a single number to quantify the amount of moment magnitude scale#Radiated seismic energy released by an earthquake....
, the earthquake was rare in Brazil. Located over a geological fault, the village (76 families) was evacuated and has been abandoned since then.

Canada

Ghost towns are seen in Alberta
Alberta

Alberta is one of Canada Canadian Prairies Provinces and territories of Canada. It became a province on September 1, 1905.Alberta is located in western Canada, bounded by the provinces of British Columbia to the west and Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Territories to the north, and the U.S....
, Northern Ontario
Northern Ontario

Northern Ontario is the part of the province of Ontario which lies north of Lake Huron , the French River and Lake Nipissing.Northern Ontario has a land area of 802,000 km? and constitutes 87% of the land area of Ontario, although it contains less than 7% of the population....
, Central Ontario
Central Ontario

Central Ontario is the portion of the Canada province of Ontario which lies between Georgian Bay and the eastern end of Lake Ontario.The population of the region was 959,266 in 2001; however, this number does not include large numbers of seasonal cottage country residents, which at peak times of the year swell its population to well in exc...
, British Columbia
British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's Provinces and territories of Canada and is famed for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu ....
, Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is a prairie provinces in Canada, which has an area of 588,276.09 square kilometres and a population of 1,015,895 , mostly living in the southern half of the province....
, Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador

Newfoundland and Labrador is a Provinces and territories of Canada of Canada, on the country's Atlantic Ocean coast in northeastern North America....
 (see outport
Newfoundland outport

An outport is the term given for a small isolated coastal community in the Canada province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Originally the term was just used for coastal communities on the island of Newfoundland but the term has also been adopted for those on the mainland area of Labrador as well....
) and in Quebec
Quebec

Quebec , in French language, Qu?bec , is a Provinces and territories of Canada in the Central Canada and Eastern Canada regions of Canada....
. Some of these were logging towns or dual mining and logging sites, often developed at the behest of the company
Company town

A company town is a town or city in which all real estate, buildings , utilities, hospitals, small businesses such as grocery stores and gas stations, and other necessities or luxuries of life within its borders are owned by a single company ....
. In Alberta and Saskatchewan most ghost towns were once farming communities that have since died off due to the removal of the railway through the town or a bypass of a highway. In British Columbia, they were predominantly mining towns and prospecting camps as well as canneries and, in one or two cases, large smelter and pulp mill towns.

British Columbia has more ghost towns than any other jurisdiction on the North American continent, with one estimate at the number of abandoned and semi-abandoned towns and localities upwards of 1500. Some ghost towns have revived their economies and populations due to historical and eco-tourism, such as Barkerville
Barkerville, British Columbia

Barkerville was the main town of the Cariboo Gold Rush in British Columbia, Canada and is preserved as an historic town. It is located on the Quesnel Highland near the Cariboo Mountains east of Quesnel, British Columbia....
, once the largest town north of Kamloops, which is now a year-round Provincial Museum.

Chile
Most of the ghost towns in Chile had once been mining camps or lumber mills, such as the many saltpeter
Potassium nitrate

Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula PotassiumNitrogenOxygen3. A naturally occurring mineral source of nitrogen, KNO3 constitutes a critical oxidation component of black powder/gunpowder....
 mining camps that prospered from the end of the Saltpeter War until the invention of synthetic saltpeter during World War I
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
. The ghost towns of Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works
Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works

Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works are two former Potassium nitrate refineries located in northern Chile. They were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005....
 in the middle of the Atacama Desert
Atacama Desert

The Atacama Desert is a virtually rainless plateau in South America, covering a 966 km strip of land on the Pacific Ocean coast of South America, west of the Andes mountains....
 were declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2005. The copper mining camp of Sewell
Sewell, Chile

Sewell is an uninhabited Chilean mining town located in the commune of Machal? in Cachapoal Province, O'Higgins Region, on the slopes of the Andes, at an altitude between 2,000 and 2,250 metres....
, high up in the Andes
Andes

The Andes form the world's longest exposed mountain range. They lie as a continuous chain of highland along the western coast of South America. The range is over 7,000 km long, 200-700 km wide , and of an average height of about 4,000 m ....
 of Central Chile, was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2006. Despite protection laws, this ghost town suffers "tourist looting."

Port Famine is arguably Chile's oldest ghost town. It was founded in the Strait of Magellan
Strait of Magellan

The Strait of Magellan comprises a navigable sea route immediately south of mainland Chile and north of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego. The waterway is the most important natural passage between the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans, but it is considered a difficult route to navigate because of the inhospitable climate and the narrowness o...
 in 1584 by Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa

Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa was a Spain explorer, author, historian, astronomer, scientist, and humanist. His birthplace is not certain and may have been Pontevedra, in Galicia , where his paternal family originated or Alcal? de Henares in Castile, where he later is known to have studied ....
. Starvation and the cold climate killed all of the inhabitants. The English
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
 navigator
Navigator

A navigator is the person onboard a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation. The navigator's primary responsibility is to be aware of ship or aircraft position at all times....
, Sir Thomas Cavendish
Thomas Cavendish

Sir Thomas Cavendish was known as "the Navigator" because he was the first who deliberately set out to circumnavigate the globe. While members of Ferdinand Magellan's, Garc?a Jofre de Loa?sa's, Francis Drake's, and Mart?n Ignacio de Loyola's expeditions had preceded Cavendish in circumnavigating the globe, it had not been their intent at...
 landed at the site in 1587. He found only ruins of the settlement, and renamed the place Port Famine.

Other lesser known ghost towns are located in the southern part of the Chilean Coast Range
Chilean Coast Range

The Chilean Coast Range is a mountain range that runs southward parallel with the Andes, from the Morro de Arica to the Taitao Peninsula where it ends together with the Nazca Plate....
. They were once lumbermills where Fitzroya
Fitzroya

Fitzroya is a genus in the cypress family Cupressaceae with a single species, Fitzroya cupressoides native to the Andes mountains of southern Chile and adjoining Argentina, where it is an important member of the Valdivian temperate rain forests....
 were cut down to make roof shingles, a typical element of Chilota architecture
Chilota architecture

Chilotan architecture is a unique architectural style that is mainly restricted to Chiloe Island and nearby areas.In part because of its physical isolation from the rest of Chile, and access to different materials, Chilo? has a very special architecture that differs a lot from the typical Spanish Colonial style....
.

Colombia
Many Ghost towns today in this country are mostly as a result of the ongoing violence by illegal guerrilla groups (such as FARC). Bojayá
Bojayá

Bojay? is a town in Choc? Department, Colombia. It is located at around . Bojay? massacre occurred here in 2002.References...
 was a small town in the Quibdó
Quibdó

Quibd? is the capital city of Choc? Department, in western Colombia. The municipality of Quibd? has an area of 3,337.5 km? and a population of 100,000 mainly consisting of Afro Colombians and Zambo Colombians....
 department. On May 2, 2002, FARC attacked this village, and most of the people hid in the church, as later FARC threw a bomb in the building, killing aprox. 140 people including 40 children. Today, Boyajá is a ghost town and though plans have been made to rebuild it, it will not be on the exact location of the massacre.
Guyana
Jonestown
Jonestown

Jonestown was the informal name for the "Peoples Temple Agricultural Project", an intentional community in northwestern Guyana formed by the Peoples Temple, a cult from California, United States, led by Jim Jones....
 in Guyana
Guyana

Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana and previously known as British Guiana, is the only state of the Commonwealth of Nations on mainland South America....
 became a ghost town because of the mass suicide of the Peoples Temple
Peoples Temple

Peoples Temple was an organization founded in 1955 by Jim Jones that, by the mid-1970s, possessed over a dozen locations in California including its Peoples Temple in San Francisco....
 community that lived there.

Mexico
  • Ojuela
    Ojuela

    Ojuela was a small mining town located northwest of the city of Torre?n, Coahuila, in northern Mexico. The settlement is now a well known as a "ghost town" as a result of the mineral ore being exhausted....
  • Real de Catorce
    Real de Catorce

    The village of Real de Catorce , often shortened to Real is located northwest of San Luis Potosi, Mexico. The village of Real de Catorce sits on the side of a mountain at more than 2.743 meters ....


Real de Catorce
Real de Catorce

The village of Real de Catorce , often shortened to Real is located northwest of San Luis Potosi, Mexico. The village of Real de Catorce sits on the side of a mountain at more than 2.743 meters ....
 was once a flourishing silver
Silver

Silver is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal....
 mining town in northern Mexico. Its dramatic landscapes and buildings have been used by Hollywood for movies such as The Mexican
The Mexican

The Mexican is a 2001 movie by director Gore Verbinski starring Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, with a plot that is an unusual mixture between romantic comedy and road movie....
 (2001) with Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt

William Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. He has been cited as one of the world's most attractive men and his off-screen life is widely reported....
 and Julia Roberts
Julia Roberts

Julia Fiona Roberts is an American actress and former fashion model. She became well known during the early 1990s after starring in the romantic comedy Pretty Woman opposite Richard Gere, which grossed $463 million worldwide....
. Recent efforts to adapt the town to tourism have created a mixture of ghost town and heritage tourist site adapted to visitors in search of interesting history in the country.

United States
Bodie Ghost Town
There are many ghost towns, or semi-ghost towns (some of them unincorporated communities) in the American Great Plains
Great Plains

The Great Plains are the broad expanse of prairie and steppe which lie west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada....
, whose rural areas have lost a third of their population since 1920. Thousands of communities in the northern plains states like North Dakota
North Dakota

North Dakota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States and Western United States regions of the United States of America. North Dakota is the 19th largest state by area in the US; it is the 48th most populous, with just over 640,000 residents as of 2006....
, South Dakota
South Dakota

South Dakota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States of the United States of America. It is named after the Lakota people and Sioux Sioux Native Americans in the United States tribes....
, Montana
Montana

Montana is a U.S. state in the Western United States. The western third of the state contains numerous mountain ranges; other 'island' ranges are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains....
 and Nebraska
Nebraska

Nebraska is a U.S. state located on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States and Western United States.Nebraska probably gets its name from the archaic Chiwere language words ?? Br?sge or the Omaha-Ponca language N? Bth?ska meaning "flat water," after the Platte River that flows through the state....
 became railroad ghost towns when a rail-line failed to materialize. Hundreds more were abandoned when the US Highway System replaced the railroads as America's favorite mode of travel. Ghost towns are common in mining
Mining

Mining is the extraction of value minerals or other geology materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or seam. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, Sodium chloride and potash....
 or old mill town
Mill town

A mill town, also known as factory town or mill village, is typically a settlement that developed around one or more mills or factories ....
 areas: Washington
Washington

Washington is a U.S. state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Washington was carved out of the western part of Washington Territory which had been ceded by Britain in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty as settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute....
, Colorado
Colorado

The State of Colorado is a U.S. state located in the Mountain States of the United States of America. Colorado may also be considered to be a part of the Western United States and Southwestern United States regions of the United States....
, Arizona
Arizona

The State of Arizona is a U.S. state located in the Southwestern United States of the United States. The capital and largest city is Phoenix, Arizona....
, Nevada
Nevada

Nevada is a U.S. state located in the Western United States of the United States of America. The capital is Carson City and the largest city is Las Vegas, Nevada....
, New Mexico
New Mexico

New Mexico is a U. S. State located in the Southwestern United States of the United States. Inhabited by Native Americans in the United States populations for many centuries, it has also has been part of the Spanish Empire viceroyalty of New Spain, part of Mexico, and a U.S....
, Montana
Montana

Montana is a U.S. state in the Western United States. The western third of the state contains numerous mountain ranges; other 'island' ranges are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains....
, Minnesota
Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States of the United States. The twelfth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with just over five million residents....
, and California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
 in the western United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 and West Virginia
West Virginia

West Virginia is a U.S. state in the Appalachian, Upland South, and Mid-Atlantic States regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia on the southeast, Kentucky on the southwest, Ohio on the northwest, and Pennsylvania and Maryland on the northeast....
 in the eastern USA. They can be observed as far south as Texas
Texas

Texas is a U.S. state located in the South Central United States, nicknamed the Lone Star State. Texas is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, spanning , and with a growing population of 24.3 million residents....
, Louisiana
Louisiana

The State of Louisiana is a U.S. state located in the U.S. Southern States of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans....
, Arkansas
Arkansas

Arkansas is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States of the United States. Arkansas shares a border with six states, with its eastern border largely defined by the Mississippi River....
, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a U.S. state in the United States and was one of the original Thirteen Colonies that revolted against United Kingdom rule in the American Revolution....
 and Florida
Florida

Florida is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the northeast....
. When the resources that had created an employment boom in these towns played out, eventually the businesses ceased to exist, and the people moved on to more productive areas. Sometimes a ghost town consists of many old abandoned buildings (like in Bodie, California
Bodie, California

Bodie, California is a ghost town east of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in Mono County, California, United States, about 75 miles southeast of Lake Tahoe....
), other times there are simply structures or foundations of former buildings (e.g., Graysonia, Arkansas
Graysonia, Arkansas

Graysonia was once a boomtown in Clark County, Arkansas, Arkansas, United States, but has since become a ghost town. It is located on a dirt road in what is now known locally as "the middle of nowhere", halfway between Arkadelphia, Arkansas and Alpine, Arkansas....
). Even some of the earliest settlements in the US are or have been ghost towns, such as Jamestown, Virginia
Jamestown, Virginia

Jamestown, located on Jamestown Island in the Virginia Colony, was founded on May 14, 1607. It is commonly regarded as the first permanent England settlement in what is now the United States of America, following several earlier failed attempts....
, the Zwaanendael Colony
Zwaanendael Colony

Zwaanendael or Swaanendael was a Dutch colonization of the Americas settlement in Delaware. It was built in 1631. The name is archaic Dutch language spelling for "swan valley"....
 in Delaware and the famous Lost Colony in North Carolina
North Carolina

North Carolina is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north....
.

Old mining camps that have lost most of their population at some stage of their history, such as St. Elmo, Colorado
St. Elmo, Colorado

St. Elmo is a ghost town located in Chaffee County, Colorado, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1880, St. Elmo lies in the heart of the Sawatch Range, 20 miles southwest of Buena Vista, Colorado....
; Central City, Colorado
Central City, Colorado

Central City is a Colorado municipalities#Home Rule Municipality in Clear Creek County, Colorado and Gilpin County, Colorado counties in the U.S....
; Aspen, Colorado
Aspen, Colorado

The City of Aspen is a Colorado municipalities#Home_Rule_Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Pitkin County, Colorado, Colorado, United States....
; Virginia City, Montana
Virginia City, Montana

Virginia City is a town in and the county seat of Madison County, Montana, Montana, United States. A portion of the town was designated as a National Historic Landmark District in 1961.The population was 130 at the United States Census, 2000....
; Marysville, Montana
Marysville, Montana

Marysville is a small ghost town in Lewis and Clark County, Montana, Montana, United States. In the 1880s and 90's it was a bustling mining town of 3,000 people, and was the center of gold mining in Montana....
; Tombstone, Arizona
Tombstone, Arizona

Tombstone is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, Arizona, United States, founded in 1879 by Ed Schieffelin in what was then the Arizona Territory....
; Deadwood, South Dakota
Deadwood, South Dakota

Deadwood, named for the coarse woody habitat found in its gulch, is a city in and the county seat of Lawrence County, South Dakota, South Dakota, United States....
; Park City, Utah
Park City, Utah

Park City is a town in Summit County, Utah and Wasatch County, Utah counties in the U.S. state of Utah. It is one of two major resort towns in Utah, the other being Moab, Utah....
; Crested Butte, Colorado
Crested Butte, Colorado

Crested Butte is a Colorado municipalities#Home_Rule_Municipality in Gunnison County, Colorado, United States. A former coal mining town now called "the last great Colorado ski town", Crested Butte is a destination for skiing, mountain biking, and a variety of other outdoor activities....
; or Cripple Creek, Colorado
Cripple Creek, Colorado

The City of Cripple Creek is a Colorado municipalities#Statutory_City that is the county seat of Teller County, Colorado, Colorado, United States....
, are sometimes included in the category, although they are active towns and cities today.

A recent attempt to declare an "Official Ghost Town" in California collapsed when the adherents of the town of Calico
Calico, California

Calico is a ghost town located in the Mojave Desert region of Southern California. Founded in 1881 as a silver mining town, today it is a county park....
, in Southern California
Southern California

Southern California, or So Cal, is defined as the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its population centers on the cities of Los Angeles, California, San Diego, California, San Bernardino, California, and Riverside, California....
, and those of Bodie
Bodie, California

Bodie, California is a ghost town east of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in Mono County, California, United States, about 75 miles southeast of Lake Tahoe....
, in Northern California
Northern California

Northern California or Nor Cal is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The region contains the San Francisco Bay Area, the state capital, Sacramento, California; as well as the substantial natural beauty of the Sequoia forests, the North Coast, California, the Big Sur coastline area, the Sierra Nevada including Yosem...
, could not come to an agreement as to which of their favorites was more deserving.

The ghost town of Medicine Mound
Medicine Mound, Texas

Medicine Mound is a ghost town in southeastern Hardeman County, Texas in West Texas, in the southwestern United States. It consists of two buildings, the former Hicks-Cobb general store and the W.W....
 in Hardeman County
Hardeman County, Texas

Hardeman County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. In 2000, its population was 4,724. Hardeman County is named for Bailey Hardeman and Thomas Jones Hardeman, two early Texas politicians and legislators....
 in West Texas
West Texas

West Texas is a region in Texas that has more in common geographically with the Southwestern United States than it does with the rest of the state....
 is preserved through a museum
Museum

A museum is a "permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment, for the purposes of education, study, and entertainment", as defined by the International Coun...
 operated there by Myna Potts
Myna Potts

Myna Gayle Hicks Potts is an historical preservationist from Chillicothe, Texas in Hardeman County, Texas in West Texas who is the curator of the Medicine Mound Museum in the nearby ghost town of Medicine Mound, Texas....
. Medicine Mound consists of two buildings. The museum is in the former Hicks-Cobb General Store
General store

The general store or general merchandise store is a store that carries a general line of merchandise.In Australia, Canada and the United States, a store named or subtitled "general store" is traditionally a retailer located in a small town or in a rural area....
.

A more recent ghost town is Centralia, Pennsylvania
Centralia, Pennsylvania

Centralia is a Borough in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, United States. Its population has dwindled from over 1,000 residents in 1981 to 12 in 2005 and 9 in 2007, as a result of a mine fire burning beneath the borough since 1962....
, which at its peak had over 2,600 residents in either the borough itself or in immediately adjacent areas and was over 1,000 as recent as 1981 but as of 2007 is down to nine residents as a result of a underground mine fire that started in the 1960s when a landfill created from an abandoned strip mine was set on fire. (At the time, it was legal to create a landfill from an abandoned strip mine as long as it was sealed off from any possible coal
Coal

Coal is a readily combustion black or brownish-black sedimentary rock. The harder forms, such as anthracite, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure....
 seams that could catch fire; this loophole
Loophole

A loophole is a weakness that allows a system to be circumvented. The term loophole could also refer to:* Embrasure, a slit in a castle wall* Loophole , a short science fiction story by Arthur C....
 has since been closed because of Centralia.) Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , often colloquially referred to as PA by natives and Northeasterners, is a U.S. state located in the Northeastern United States and Mid-Atlantic States regions of the United States....
 later acquired the borough through eminent domain
Eminent domain

Eminent domain , compulsory purchase , resumption/compulsory acquisition or expropriation in common law legal systems is the inherent power of the state to seize a citizen's Property, expropriation property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent....
 so it could get the residents safely moved to other areas, though a small handful remain.

Darkwood was an old fur trading/logging community during the late 1800s that was abandoned because of a disease (unknown at this time) that decimated most of the residents (POP 243). Darkwood was located off one of the great lakes, but further information is unavailable.

Antarctica

The oldest ghost town in Antarctica
Antarctica

Antarctica is Earth's southernmost continent, overlying the South Pole. It is situated in the Antarctica of the southern hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean....
 is located in Deception Island, where in 1906 a Norwegian-Chilean whaling company started using Whalers Bay as a base for a factory ship, the Gobernador Bories. Other whaling operations followed suit, and by 1914 there were 13 factory ships based there.

Antarctica also has many more-recently abandoned scientific and military bases, especially in the Antarctic Peninsula
Antarctic Peninsula

The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost part of the mainland of Antarctica. It extends from a line between Cape Adams and a point on the mainland south of Eklund Islands....
.

South Georgia
The Antarctic
Antarctica

Antarctica is Earth's southernmost continent, overlying the South Pole. It is situated in the Antarctica of the southern hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean....
 island of South Georgia
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands is a British overseas territory in the southern Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote and inhospitable collection of islands, consisting of South Georgia ? which measures approximately by and is by far the largest island in the territory ? and a chain of smaller islands known as the South Sand...
 used to have several thriving whaling settlements during the first half of the 20th century, with a combined population exceeding 2,000 in some years. These included Grytviken
Grytviken

Grytviken is the principal Hamlet in the United Kingdom territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic. It was so named by a 1902 Swedish surveyor who found old English try pots used to render Pinniped oil at the site....
 (operating 1904-64
1964

1964 was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the 1964 Gregorian calendar....
), Leith Harbour
Leith Harbour

Leith Harbour was a whaling station up on the northeast coast of South Georgia, established and operated by Christian Salvesen Ltd, Edinburgh....
 (1909-65
1965

1965 was a common year starting on Friday of the 1965 Gregorian calendar....
), Ocean Harbour
Ocean Harbour

Ocean Harbour is a deeply indented bay on the north coast of South Georgia which is entered 1.5 miles west-northwest of Tijuca point. It was an active whaling station between 1909–1920....
 (1909-20
1920

Year 1920 was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar....
), Husvik
Husvik

Husvik is a former whaling station on the north-central coast of South Georgia Island. It was one of three such stations in Stromness Bay, the other two being Stromness and Leith Harbour....
 (1910-60
1960

Year 1960 was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. The year 1960 is known as the "Year of Africa."...
), Stromness
Stromness (South Georgia)

Stromness is a former whaling station on the northern coast of South Georgia Island in the South Atlantic. Its historical significance is that it represents the destination of Ernest Shackleton's epic rescue journey in 1916....
 (1912-61
1961

Year 1961 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar.As MAD Magazine pointed out on its cover for the March 1961 issue, this was the first "upside-up" year?i.e., one in which the numerals that form the year look the same as when the numerals are rotated upside down?since 1881, and the last until 6009....
) and Prince Olav Harbour
Prince Olav Harbour

Prince Olav Harbour is a derelict Norway whaling station, operational from 1911 until 1931, and a small harbour in the south west portion of Cook Bay, entered between Point Abrahamsen and Sheep Point, along the north coast of South Georgia....
 (1917-34
1934

Year 1934 was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar....
). The abandoned settlements have become increasingly dilapidated, and remain uninhabited nowadays except for the Museum curator's family at Grytviken. The jetty, the church, and dwelling and industrial buildings at Grytviken have recently been renovated by the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands is a British overseas territory in the southern Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote and inhospitable collection of islands, consisting of South Georgia ? which measures approximately by and is by far the largest island in the territory ? and a chain of smaller islands known as the South Sand...
, becoming a popular tourist destination. Some historical buildings in the other settlements are being restored too.

Oceania


Australia
Similar to the United States, Canada and other former frontier countries, most ghost towns in Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
 were usually formed after the end of mining operations or the removal of railway services. They are spread throughout the country and are located in every state and territory. Some ghost towns in Australia include Cassilis
Cassilis, Victoria

Cassilis is a ghost town in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, Australia. It was named after a district and castle in Ayrshire, Scotland. In the late 19th century, at the peak of the Gold rush, it was a thriving mining centre and home to more than 500 people....
 in Victoria
Victoria (Australia)

File:Map Victoria Aboriginal tribes .jpgVictoria is a States and territories of Australia located in the southeastern corner of Australia. It is the smallest mainland state in area but the most Population density and urbanised....
, Farina
Farina, South Australia

Farina a town in the far north of South Australia. The mean annual rainfall is 163.6 mm, although it is highly variable.Originally called The Gums, Farina was settled in 1878 by optimistic farmers hoping that rain follows the plough....
 in the far north of South Australia
South Australia

South Australia is a States and territories of Australia of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories....
, Newnes
Newnes, New South Wales

Newnes located in the Wolgan Valley, New South Wales, Australia, and part of the Wollemi National Park is an abandoned Oil Shale mining site that was operational in the late 1800s and early 1900s....
 in New South Wales, and Goldsworthy
Goldsworthy, Western Australia

Goldsworthy was a mining town in Western Australia east of Port Hedland, Western Australia and located in the Shire of East Pilbara.The town was abandoned when the iron ore mine it served was closed....
, Cossack
Cossack, Western Australia

Cossack is a historic ghost town located 1,480 km north of Perth, Western Australia and 15 km from Roebourne, Western Australia in the Pilbara region of Western Australia region of Western Australia....
, Wittenoom
Wittenoom, Western Australia

Wittenoom is a locality in the Pilbara region of Western Australia about 1,106 kilometres north-northeast of Perth, Western Australia. During the 1950s, Wittenoom was the Pilbara's biggest town, but was shut down in 1966 due to health concerns from asbestos mining at the nearby Wittenoom Gorge....
 in Western Australia
Western Australia

Western Australia is a States and territories of Australia occupying the entire western third of the Australia . The nation's largest state and the second largest subnational entity in the world, it has 2.1 million inhabitants , 85% of whom live in the south-west corner of the state....
. Ravenswood
Ravenswood, Queensland

File:Imperial-hotel-ravenswood-outback-queensland-australia.JPGRavenswood is a small mining town in Queensland, Australia. The town is located approximately south of Mingela, Queensland, and about from Charters Towers, Queensland....
 in north-eastern Queensland
Queensland

Queensland is a States and territories of Australia of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory to the west, South Australia to the south-west and New South Wales to the south....
 was a ghost town for many years, due to the declining gold rushes, but new gold discoveries in the area and improved mineral processing technologies, has boosted the economy of the area and revived the town.

Old Adaminaby in New South Wales is an example of one of the drowned towns which has been subsequently revealed through drought in recent decades.

Europe

In Europe, many village
Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or Residential community, larger than a hamlet , but smaller than a town or city. Though generally located in rural areas, the term urban village may be applied to certain urban area neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New York City and the Saifi Village in Beirut, Lebanon....
s were abandoned over the ages, for many different reasons.

Sometimes, wars and genocide end a town's life, and it is never resettled. This happened to the Swedish town Sjöstad, in Närke
Närke

is a traditional Provinces of Sweden or landskap in middle Sweden. It borders V?sterg?tland, V?rmland, V?stmanland, S?dermanland and ?sterg?tland....
, in 1260, when the town's 700 merchants crossed the ice of Lake Vättern
Vättern

V?ttern is the second largest lake in Sweden, after V?nern. It is a long, finger-shaped body of fresh water in south central Sweden to the southeast of V?nern pointing at the tip of Scandinavia....
 and were cut down by the Danes. The Danes then proceeded to the town, ravaging and burning it. The town was never resettled. A farm named Skyrstad, ruins and a silver treasure which yielded 4000 coins are all that testify to its existence (see abandoned village
Abandoned village

An abandoned village is a village which has for some reason been deserted. In many countries many thousands of villages were deserted at several periods in history, for a variety of causes....
). The same happened in the French village Oradour-sur-Glane
Oradour-sur-Glane

Oradour-sur-Glane is a town and Communes of France in the Haute-Vienne Departments of France of west-central France.The original village was destroyed on June 10, 1944, when 642 of its inhabitants were murdered by a German Waffen-SS company....
 in 1944, when occupying Germans massacred the village's population. Natural disasters can play a role. For example, the erupting volcano of Vesuvius famously terminated Pompeii
Pompeii

Pompeii is a ruined and partially buried Ancient Rome town-city near modern Naples in the Italy region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei....
 and Herculaneum
Herculaneum

Herculaneum is an ancient Roman Empire town, located in the territory of the current commune of Ercolano. Its ruins can be found at the co-ordinates , in the Italy region of Campania....
 in Italy in AD 79.

In the United Kingdom, the once thriving farming village of Knaptoft
Knaptoft

Knaptoft is a civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England, with a population of around 50. It is also a deserted village in this parish....
 in Leicestershire
Leicestershire

Leicestershire County Hall, situated in Glenfield, Leicestershire, about 3 miles northwest of Leicester city centre, is the seat of Leicestershire County Council and the headquarters of the county authority....
 was depopulated due to the enclosure of the surrounding land for sheep pasture. The ruins of the former church still exist as a graveyard, with graves even occupying ground inside the ruins of the church. The villages of Imber
Imber

Imber is an uninhabited village in Wiltshire, situated in the middle of England's Salisbury Plain. Imber's inhabitants were evicted in 1943 to provide training grounds for the military....
 on Salisbury Plain
Salisbury Plain

Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in central southern England covering . It is part of the Southern England Chalk Formation and largely lies within the county of Wiltshire, with a little in Hampshire....
, Wiltshire
Wiltshire

Wiltshire is a Ceremonial counties of England in the South West England of England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire....
 and Tyneham
Tyneham

Tyneham is a ghost town in south Dorset, England, near Lulworth on the Isle of Purbeck. It remains a civil parish. The village is situated near Worbarrow Bay on the Jurassic Coast, and there have been fishing communities associated with the parish since the Iron Age....
 near Dorset
Dorset

Dorset , is a Counties of England in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester, Dorset, situated in the south of the county at ....
's historic Jurassic Coast
Jurassic Coast

The Jurassic Coast is a World Heritage Site on the English Channel coast of southern England. The site stretches from Orcombe Point near Exmouth, Devon in East Devon to Old Harry Rocks near Swanage in East Dorset, a distance of ....
, as well as several villages within the Stanford Battle Area
Stanford Battle Area

The Stanford Battle Area, also known as the Stanford Training Area , is a British Army infantry training area situated in the England county of Norfolk....
 in Norfolk
Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying Counties of England in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and with Suffolk to the south....
, were evacuated by the British Army
British Army

The British Army is the Army branch of the British Armed Forces. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdoms of Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707....
, and the abandoned buildings are now used for training exercises. The creation of reservoirs has led to the drowning of villages. These include Mardale Green
Mardale

Mardale is a glacial valley in the Lake District, in northern England. The valley used to have a hamlet at its head, called Mardale Green, but this village was submerged in 1935 when the water level of the valley's lake, Haweswater, was raised to form Haweswater Reservoir by the Manchester City Council....
 in the English Lake District
Lake District

The Lake District, also known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a rural area in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes and its mountains , and its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth and the Lake Poets....
 and two villages - Ashopton
Ashopton

Ashopton was the second village in Derbyshire, England, that was lost along with neighbouring Derwent, Derbyshire when the Ladybower Reservoir was constructed in the late 1930s and early 1940s....
 and Derwent - drowned by the Ladybower Reservoir
Ladybower Reservoir

Ladybower Reservoir is a large Y-shaped reservoir , the lowest of three in the Upper Derwent Valley in Derbyshire, England. The River Ashop flows into the reservoir from the west; the River Derwent, Derbyshire flows south, initially through Howden Reservoir, then Derwent Reservoir , and finally through Ladybower Reservoir....
 in Derbyshire
Derbyshire

Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains....
. Also in Wales
Wales

native_name = Cymru|conventional_long_name = Wales|common_name = Wales|image_flag = Flag of Wales 2.svg|national_motto = ...
 the village of Capel Celyn
Capel Celyn

Capel Celyn was a rural community to the north west of Bala, Gwynedd in north Wales, in the Afon Tryweryn that was flooded to create a reservoir , Llyn Celyn, to supply Liverpool and The Wirral Peninsula, with water for industry....
 was drowned to form Llyn Celyn
Llyn Celyn

Llyn Celyn is a large reservoir constructed between 1960 and 1965 in the valley of the River Afon Tryweryn in North Wales. It measures roughly 2? miles long by a mile wide, and has a maximum depth of ....
, to provide water for Liverpool, and Llyn Clywedog drowned farmsteads and agricultural land to reduce flooding of the River Severn
River Severn

The River Severn is the longest river in Great Britain, at . It rises at an altitude of on Plynlimon near Llanidloes, Powys, in the Cambrian Mountains of mid Wales....
.
Smeerenburg Blubberovens
Industrialisation is another factor. For example, the village of Etzweiler in northwestern Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 was abandoned in the 1990s to make way for a coal
Coal

Coal is a readily combustion black or brownish-black sedimentary rock. The harder forms, such as anthracite, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure....
 (lignite
Lignite

Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, or Rosebud coal by Northern Pacific Railroad,is a soft brown fuel with characteristics that put it somewhere between coal and peat....
) mine . While Etzweiler disappeared in 2006, neighbouring Pesch
Pesch

Pesch may refer to the following:People* Doro Pesch - a german Heavy metal singer* Helmut Pesch - a German fantasy writer* Tilman Pesch - nineteenth century German Jesuit philosopher...
 and Holz have become near-deserted ghost towns by now (January 2008) and all that is left of Otzenrath are the remains of the village's church, where archeologists excavate remains of sacred buildings from medieval and potentially Roman times. . Furthermore, parts of the motorway A44 have been removed and as the lignitemine continues to move west, parts of the A61 will follow before 2020 (with the A44 being rebuilt behind the mine).

Also in Belgium, several villages had to disappear to facilitate the expansion of the port of Antwerp
Antwerp

||-||-||-||}Antwerp is a city and municipality in Belgium and the capital of the Antwerp in Flanders, one of Belgium's three regions....
, such as the former villages of Oosterweel, Oordam, Wilmarsdonk
Wilmarsdonk

Wilmarsdonk was a village in Belgium, north of Antwerp, which has disappeared under the Port of Antwerp expansion.The village was first mentioned in 1155 and merged into the city of Antwerp in 1927....
, Lillo and Oorderen. Soon, the village of Doel will follow suit.

Pyramiden
Pyramiden

Pyramiden was a Russian settlement and coal mining community on the archipelago of Svalbard, Norway. It was founded by Sweden in 1910, and sold to the Soviet Union in 1927....
 (Danish, Swedish and Norwegian, meaning "the pyramid", Russian: ????????) was a Russia
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
n settlement and coal mining community on the archipelago of Svalbard
Svalbard

Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean north of mainland Europe, about midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. It consists of a group of islands ranging from 74th parallel north to 81st parallel north, and 10th meridian east to 35th meridian east....
, Norway
Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a constitutional monarchy in Northern Europe that occupies the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula....
. It was founded by Sweden
Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the ?resund Bridge in the south....
 in 1910, and sold to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
 in 1927. The settlement, with a one time population of 1,000 inhabitants, was abandoned in the late-1990s by its owner, the state-owned Soviet company Trust Artikugol, and is now a ghost town. There are no restrictions on visiting Pyramiden. However, visitors may not enter any buildings without permission, even if the doors are open. Most buildings are now locked. Pyramiden is accessible by boat or snowmobile. Guided tours are available (in Russian, Norwegian, and English).

The city of Prypiat and dozens of smaller settlements in northern Ukraine
Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south....
 and southern Belarus
Belarus

Belarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north....
 were abandoned after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and turned into a closed alienation zone
Zone of alienation

The Zone of Alienation, which is variously referred to as The Chernobyl Zone, The 30 Kilometer Zone, The Zone of Exclusion, The Fourth Zone, or simply The Zone is the 30 km/19 mi exclusion zone around the site of the Chernobyl disaster....
. The area has been largely untouched since then, and as such it functions as a large time capsule
Time capsule

A time capsule is a historic cache of goods and/or information, usually intended as a method of communication with people in the future. Time capsules are sometimes created and buried during celebrations such as a World Fair, cornerstone laying for a building or other event....
 of the late Soviet
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
 era. There is an of this area.

Several communities became ghost towns in Ireland
Ireland

Ireland is the List of islands by area in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islet....
 in the latter half of the nineteenth century, particularly in the west of the country, due to a combination of the potato famine
Potato famine

Potato famine may refer to:* Great Irish Famine, the famine in Ireland between 1845 and 1849* Highland Potato Famine, a major agrarian crisis in the Scottish Highlands from 1846 to 1857...
 and economic decline brought on by the famine. These now consist primarily of knee high ruins of cottages. Notable ghost towns are on Achill Island
Achill Island

Achill Island in County Mayo is the largest island of Ireland, and is situated off the west coast. It has a population of 2,700. Its area is 148 km? ....
 and in the Burren
Burren

Burren can refer to:*The Burren, a karst landscape in County Clare, Ireland*Burren, County Down, a village in Northern Ireland*Burren College of Art, an art college in Ballyvaughan, County Clare, Ireland...
 area of county Clare. A more recent ghost town was created in the 1950s on Great Blasket island, where island life became unfeasible and the island was depopulated. The Island is only accessible to tourists in the summer months.

The Île aux Marins of the Saint-Pierre and Miquelon
Saint-Pierre and Miquelon

The Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon is a group of small French islands in the North Atlantic Ocean, the main ones being Saint Pierre and Miquelon, south of Newfoundland , Canada....
 group of islands has been uninhabited since 1965.

In Finland
Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland , is a Nordic countries situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland....
, which is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world, most people live in the biggest towns, and some villages near the Russian border and in Lapland
Lapland Province

The Province of Lapland is one of the Provinces of Finland of Finland. The municipalities in the province cooperate in a Regional Councils of Finland, which also makes it the Region of Lapland....
 are nearly abandoned.

While Athens
Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
, Greece, experienced severe decline after the end of the Byzantine Empire, it may never have been a ghost town, although it certainly came close, dwindling to some 3,000 or 4,000 people by the 19th century. It has since gone back to being a major city. Rome
Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
 experienced similar declines, but it too hasn't been completely abandoned (one of its lowest estimated populations was 17,000 in 1347, down from more than a million in Imperial times ).

Wales
The village of Nant Gwrtheyrn
Nant Gwrtheyrn

Nant Gwrtheyrn Welsh Language and Heritage Centre is situated in a former quarrying village, which on the northern coast of the Llyn Peninsula, Gwynedd, in northwest Wales....
 on the Llyn in Gwynedd, North Wales was an old quarry village which was abandoned in the 1950s after the quarry closed because there was no road leading to the village. It has since been restored as a (Welsh) Language learning centre.

Hungary
Hundreds of villages were abandoned during the Ottoman
Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299?1923. It was Treaty of Lausanne by the Republic of Turkey, which was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923....
 wars in the Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary

The Kingdom of Hungary , which existed from 1000 to 1918, and then from 1920 to 1946, was a considerable state in Central Europe....
 in the 16-17th century. Many of them were never repopulated but generally they are not classified as ghost towns because few visible traces remained of them. Real ghost towns are rare in present-day Hungary
Hungary

Hungary , officially in English the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia....
, except the abandoned villages of Derenk (left in 1943) and Nagygéc (left in 1970). Due to the decrease of rural population beginning in the 1980s dozens of villages are now threatened with abandonment. The first village officially declared as "died out" was Gyurufu in the end of the 1970s but later it was repopulated as an eco-village. Sometimes depopulated villages were successfully saved as small rural resorts like Kán, Tornakápolna, Szanticska
Szanticska

Szanticska is a former village in Borsod-Aba?j-Zempl?n county, Hungary. With a population of 5 people in 2001 Szanticska is famous for being regarded the smallest settlement in Hungary, although officially it is not an independent municipality but part of the village Aba?jlak since 1870....
, Gorica and Révfalu.

Bulgaria
An increasing number of settlements in Bulgaria
Bulgaria

The state of Bulgaria , Scientific transliteration Balgarija, officially the Republic of Bulgaria has played a significant role in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe for over fourteen centuries....
 are becoming ghost towns as a result of the ongoing demographic decline of that country since the late 20th century. According to the 2001 census
Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population....
 there were 138 uninhabited villages, estimated to have become over 150 by 2006. There are such ghost villages in 16 out of the 28 provinces of the country, more numerous in Gabrovo Province
Gabrovo Province

Gabrovo is a small province lying at the geographical centre of Bulgaria....
 (57 in 2001), Veliko Tarnovo Province
Veliko Tarnovo Province

Veliko Tarnovo is a province in the middle of the northern part of Bulgaria. Its capital city, Veliko Tarnovo, is of historical significance as it is known as the capital of Medieval Bulgaria....
 (34), Kardzhali
Kardzhali Province

Kardzhali is a province of southern Bulgaria, neighbouring Greece with the Greek prefectures of Xanthi and Rodhopi to the south and east. Kardzhali Province area is 3209.1 km?...
, Blagoevgrad
Blagoevgrad Province

Blagoevgrad Province , also known in certain contexts as Pirin Macedonia , is a province of southwestern Bulgaria. To the north and east it borders with four other Oblasts of Bulgaria, to the south with Greece and the west with the Republic of Macedonia....
, Burgas
Burgas Province

Burgas provinces of Bulgaria or oblast is located in southeastern Bulgaria, on the southern Black Sea coast. Its capital is the city of Burgas....
, and Lovech
Lovech Province

Lovech is one of the 28 provinces in Bulgaria....
 Provinces. Some Bulgarian villages may avoid that fate thanks to immigration of settlers from abroad, mainly from the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 but also other EU countries, former Soviet republics, even Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
 and Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
.

Cyprus
The southern part of Famagusta
Famagusta

Famagusta is a city on the east coast of Cyprus and is capital of the Famagusta District. It is located in a bay between Capes Greco and Eloea, east of Nicosia District, and possesses the deepest harbour in the island....
, also known as Varosha
Varosha (Famagusta)

Varosha is a settlement in Northern Cyprus. Prior to the Turkish Invasion of Cyprus in 1974, it was the modern tourist area of the city of Famagusta....
/Maras is fenced off by Turkish army. Prior to the Turkish Invasion of Cyprus
Turkish invasion of Cyprus

The Turkish invasion of Cyprus, launched on 20 July 1974, was a Turkey military operation against a coup which had been staged by the Cypriot National Guard against president Makarios III with the intention of annexing the island to Greece, but the invasion ended up with Turkey occupying a considerable area on the north part of it and establi...
 in 1974, it was the modern tourist area of the city of Famagusta
Famagusta

Famagusta is a city on the east coast of Cyprus and is capital of the Famagusta District. It is located in a bay between Capes Greco and Eloea, east of Nicosia District, and possesses the deepest harbour in the island....
. For the last three decades, it has been left as a ghost town
Ghost town

A ghost town is a town or city that has been completely abandoned by human inhabitants, usually because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as flood, government action, uncontrolled lawlessness or war....
.

Czech Republic
There is a ghost-town town in Milovice, 30 km from the capital, Prague
Prague

Prague is the Capital and World's largest cities of the Czech Republic. Its official name is Hlavn? mesto Praha, meaning Prague, the Capital City....
. Milovice consists of four parts and two of them, Milovice-Mladá and Milovice-Boží Dar, were occupied by Soviet soldiers and their families. These two parts were abandoned in 1990-1991 after the Velvet Revolution
Velvet Revolution

The "Velvet Revolution" or "Gentle Revolution" refers to a nonviolence revolution in Czechoslovakia that saw the overthrow of the Communist government....
. The population was about 20,000. Nowadays, Mladá, the central part of Milovice, is being rebuilt and many young people live there. Boží Dar, as well as the nearby airport, is totally abandoned.

Poland
A Polish
Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian Enclave and exclave, to the north....
 ghost town is Klomino
Klomino

The village of Klomino, located in northwestern Poland is the only official ghost town in Poland. Originally known as Westfalenhof, it was a large garrison and training ground of the German Wehrmacht....
 (near to Borne Sulinowo
Borne Sulinowo

Borne Sulinowo [] is a town in Poland's Western Pomeranian Voivodship, in the Powiat of Szczecinek Szczecinek. It is a capital of a separate gmina and home to 4149 inhabitants ....
; Russian name - Gródek\??????) in the northwest part of the country. It was built for Soviet soldiers and their families. The population was about 5,000. It was completely abandoned in 1992 after the collapse of the USSR. Only a few families live there now, but there are plans to repopulate the city.

Spain
There are many ghost hamlets in central Spain, as most of their former inhabitants moved to urban areas after the 1960s
1960s

The 1960s list of decades were the years from the start of 1960 to the end of 1969. The term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends in the west, particularly United States, United Kingdom, France, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Spain, Italy, and Ger...
.

Belchite
Belchite

Belchite is a village in Zaragoza , Spain, about 40 km southeast of Zaragoza. It has a population of about 1,647 .On June 15 1809, French and Spanish forces in the Peninsular War fought the Battle of Mar?a near Belchite....
, in the province of Zaragoza, Aragon
Aragon

Aragon is an autonomous communities of Spain of Spain. Located in northeastern Spain, the region comprises three provinces of Spain from north to south: Huesca , Zaragoza , and Teruel ....
 is one of the most well known ghost towns in Spain
Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
. Before the 1930s
1930s

In Western Europe, Australia and the United States, more progressive reforms occurred as opposed to the extreme measures sought elsewhere. Roosevelt's New Deal attempted to use government spending to combat large-scale unemployment and severely negative growth....
, Belchite was a growing city, with many services. As a consequence of the Battle of Belchite
Battle of Belchite

Battle of Belchite may refer to:*Battle of Belchite during the Peninsular War*Battle of Belchite during the Spanish Civil War...
, during the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil War was a major conflict in Spain that started after an attempted coup d'?tat by a group of Spanish Army generals, supported by the conservative Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right , Carlist groups and the fascistic Falange, against the government of the Second Spanish Republic, then under the leadership of pr...
 , the city was totally destroyered. Instead of a reconstruction, General Franco decided to keep the ruins of the Old Town of Belchite intact as a memorial of the battle, being totally deserted as of 1964, being their inhabitants removed to Belchite Nuevo, on the side of the Old Town. The ruins, which are not accommodated for tourism are visited by more then 10.000 tourists annually. It is also a well known meeting point for francoism notalgics, especially falangists.

Turkey
Kayaköy
Kayaköy

Kayak?y is a village 8 km south of Fethiye in southwestern Turkey where Anatolian Greeks lived until approximately 1923. The ghost town, now preserved as a museum village, consists of hundreds of rundown but still mostly intact Greek-style houses and churches which cover a small mountainside and serve as a stopping place for tourists visi...
 in southwestern Turkey
Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
 was inhabited by Anatolian Greeks, until 1923 when a population exchange was agreed by the Turkish and Greek governments which left the town as a site of empty houses and Greek churches.

Ukraine

Prypiat
Prypiat, Ukraine

Prypiat , or Pripyat, is an ghost town in the zone of alienation in northern Ukraine, Kiev Oblast, near the border with Belarus. It was home to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant workers....
 is one of the biggest ghost towns today because at its peak, it had a population of over 50,000 residents; all have abandoned the town after the Chernobyl disaster
Chernobyl disaster

The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear reactor accident in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. It is considered to be the worst nuclear power plant disaster in history and the only level 7 instance on the International Nuclear Event Scale....
. Prypiat was built to be the home for the workers of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power power plant near the city of Prypiat, Ukraine, 18 km northwest of the city of Chernobyl, 16 km from the border of Ukraine and Belarus, and about 110 km north of Kiev....
. Unlike its neighboring town Chernobyl
Chernobyl

Chernobyl , or Chornobyl , was a city in northern Ukraine, in the Kyiv Oblast near the border with Belarus.The city was evacuated in 1986 due to the Chernobyl disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, which is located 14.5 kilometers north-northwest....
, Prypiat remains a ghost town and is completely empty.

Post-Soviet states
Post-Soviet states

The post-Soviet states, also commonly known as the former Soviet Union or former Soviet republics, are the 15 independent state that split off from the Soviet Union in its collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991....

Apart from Prypiat, the majority of abandoned towns and settlements are located in northern Russia (Komi
Komi Republic

The Komi Republic is a federal subjects of Russia of Russia ....
, Taymyr
Taymyr Autonomous Okrug

Taymyr Autonomous Okrug , or Taymyria, was a federal subjects of Russia of Russia , the northernmost in mainland Russia . It is named after the Taymyr Peninsula....
, Chukotka
Chukotka Autonomous Okrug

Chukotka Autonomous Okrug , or Chukotka , is a federal subjects of Russia of Russia located in the Far Eastern Federal District federal districts of Russia....
). They were deserted due to deindustrialisation and the economic crisis of the early 1990s. Other notable ghost towns are attributed to the post-Soviet conflicts. An example is Agdam
Agdam

Agdam or Agdam or Aghdam may refer to:*Agdam city, Azerbaijan*Agdam Rayon, Azerbaijan*Agdam, Khojavend, Azerbaijan*Agdam, Tovuz, Azerbaijan...
, Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan , is the largest and most populous country in the South Caucasus, located partially in Eastern Europe and partially in Western Asia....
. Semi-deserted towns are situated in Abkhazia
Abkhazia

Abkhazia is a disputed region on the eastern coast of the Black Sea. Since its declaration of independence from Georgia in 1991 during the Georgian?Abkhaz conflict, it is governed by the International recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia Republic of Abkhazia....
, notably Tquarchal, Ochamchira, Gagra
Gagra

Gagra is a town in Abkhazia, the breakaway republic of Georgia , sprawling for 5 km on the northeast coast of the Black Sea, at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains....
, the biggest being Sukhumi
Sukhumi

Sukhumi, also spelled as Sukhum is the capital of Abkhazia, a de facto independent republic, which is internationally recognized as being an autonomous republic within Georgia , except by Russia and Nicaragua, which regard it as an independent state....
.

In European Russia
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
, many villages have been depopulated since the 1940s.

Asia


Pakistan
Harappa
Harappa

Harappa is a city in Punjab , northeast Pakistan, about 35 km southwest of Sahiwal.The modern town is located near the former course of the Ravi River and also beside the ruins of an ancient history fortification city, which was part of the Cemetery H culture and the Indus Valley Civilization....
 and Mohenjo Daro, two ancient cities in current day Pakistan
Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia and borders Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046 kilometre coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and People's Republic of China in th...
, have such good quality bricks displaying the creativity of the ancient people, that they still stand to their original forms up to 75%.

India
In addition, numerous cities in India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
, such as Vijaynagar, Bhangarh
Bhangarh

Bhangarh is a town known for its historical ruins, situated in the Alwar district of the state of Rajasthan, India....
, Dhanushkodi
Dhanushkodi

Dhanushkodi is a town/village at the southern tip of the Rameswaram island, at the eastern coast of the Tamil Nadu state of India.Dhanushkodi is situated in the South-East of Pamban....
, and others, have been known to have been destroyed or turned into ghost towns.

Japan
Hashima Island
Hashima Island

Hashima Island , commonly called Gunkanjima is one among 505 uninhabited islands in the Nagasaki Prefecture about 15 kilometers from Nagasaki, Nagasaki itself....
 was a Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
ese mining town from 1887 to 1974. Once known for having the world's highest population density (in 1959 at 83,500 people per square kilometer), the island was abandoned when the coal mines were closed down.

Oman
The city of Sap Bani Khamis is a abandoned town, previously inhabited by thieves.

Sri Lanka
Kilinochchi
Kilinochchi

Kilinochchi is a small city in the Kilinochchi District, part of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. Kilinochchi is situated at the A9 road some south-east of Jaffna....
.

Other
There are many ghost villages in Iran
Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
, Syria
Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
 and Lebanon
Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of Lebanon or Lebanese Republic , is a country in Western Asia, on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea....
 abandoned as a result of migration to major cities. Most of these towns are in ruins and a few serve as tourist attractions. In addition, the Syrian city of Quneitra
Quneitra

Quneitra is the largely destroyed and abandoned Capital of the Quneitra Governorate in south-western Syria. It is situated in a high valley in the Golan Heights at an elevation of 1,010 metres above sea level....
 has become a ghost town after the 1967 Six Day War and subsequent Yom Kippur war in 1973.

Africa

Actions by government forces and killings by armed gangs created several deserted villages in the Central African Republic
Central African Republic

The Central African Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It borders Chad in the north, Sudan in the east, the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the south, and Cameroon in the west....
 from the years 2005 to 2008. Examples are Goroumo
Goroumo

Goroumo is a village in the Central African Republic prefecture of Ouham-Pend?, close to the western border with Cameroon, that in 2008 was attacked by Outlaws who killed almost all the male inhabitants....
, Beogombo Deux and Paoua
Paoua

Paoua is a town located in the Central African Republic Prefectures of the Central African Republic of Ouham-Pend?.The town is the birthplace of former president of the Republic Ange-F?lix Patass?....
.

Angola
Ilha dos Tigres. This town lies in a zone which is ideally suited for ecologic projects. It was mentioned in the 'Unknown Africa-Angola' documentary

D.R. Congo
Goma
Goma

Goma is a city in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the northern shore of Lake Kivu, next to the Rwandan city of Gisenyi. The lake and the two cities are in the western branch of the Great Rift Valley, and Goma lies only 13 to 18 km due south of the crater of the active Nyiragongo Volcano....
. Goma is again a safe ghost-town now that the volcano eruption has passed. Still, however, the town lies in ruins. Nastrid was a mining town abbandoned in the late 19th century.

Mali
Though not completely abandoned, Chinguetti
Chinguetti

Chinguetti is a ksar or medieval trading centre in northern Mauritania, lying on the Adrar Plateau east of Atar, Mauritania.Founded in the 13th century, as the center of several trans-Saharan trade routes, this tiny city continues to attract a handful of visitors who admire its spare architecture, exotic scenery and ancient libraries....
 could be considered a ghost town.

Morocco
In Morocco
Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 34 million and an area just under 447,000 km2....
 a significant archaeological site, Chellah
Chellah

File:Chella Rabat Morocco roman street.jpgChellah, or Sala Colonia is a necropolis and complex of ancient and medieval ruins that lie on the outskirts of Rabat, Morocco?s Ville Nouvelle, or modern section....
, was inhabited successively by Phoenician
Phoenician

Phoenician may refer to:*Phoenicia, the ancient civilization*Phoenician alphabet*Phoenician languagePhoenician may also be:*A native or resident of Phoenix, Arizona...
s, Romans and native rulers: however, Chellah was almost totally abandoned and became a ghost town in the 13th century AD, when the ruling dynasty relocated to Fes
FES

Fes may refer to:* Fes, Morocco, also known as Fez, a city in Morocco* Persona 3 FES, an 'add-on' disk for Shin Megami Tensei:Persona 3.FES is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:...
; the site was resettled by the Merinid Dynasty within the next century and re-used as a necropolis
Necropolis

A necropolis is a large cemetery or burial place . Apart from the occasional application of the word to modern cemeteries outside large towns, the term...
 and mosque
Mosque

A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. Muslims often refer to the mosque by its Arabic name, masjid, ? . The word "mosque" in English refers to all types of buildings dedicated for Islamic worship, although there is a distinction in Arabic between the smaller, privately owned mosque and the larger, "collective" mosque ,...
.

Namibia
Outside Luderitz, Namibia
Namibia

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in southern Africa on the Atlantic Ocean coast. It shares borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east, and South Africa to the south....
 there are two ghost towns, Elizabeth Bay and Kolmanskop
Kolmanskop

Kolmannskuppe is a ghost town in southern Namibia, a few kilometres inland from the port of L?deritz. It was a small mining village and is now a popular tourist destination run by the joint firm NAMDEB ....
. Both were diamond mining towns and have been partly covered by the shifting sands of the Namib Desert
Namib Desert

The Namib Desert is a desert in Namibia and southwest Angola which forms part of the Namib-Naukluft National Park. The name "Namib" is of Nama language origin....
.

Tunisia
There is also the ancient city of Carthage
Carthage

Carthage refers both to an ancient city in present-day Tunisia, and a modern-day suburb of Tunis. The civilization that developed within the city's sphere of influence is referred to as Punic or Carthaginian....
, which was rendered a ghost town by the Romans, revived by the same empire, and then destroyed again a few centuries later, with Tunis
Tunis

Tunis is the Capital of the Tunisian Republic and also the Tunis Governorate, with a population of 1 200,000 in 2008 and over 3,980,500 in the municipal area....
 becoming the central city. Suburban settlement later occurred in the Carthage area.

Ethiopia
Dallol is a former mining town in Ethiopia. It is located in the Dallol crater, where the temperature can rise as high as 104 °Fahrenheit (40 °C).

Ivory Coast
Grand Bassam, Ivory Coast was the French Colonial capital of Ivory Coast until 1896, when it was abandoned by the French Colonial Government. Commercial activity gradually weakened until the city became a virtual ghost town in 1960, when the Ivory Coast became independent. Today the city has revived somewhat as a tourist and crafts center, but still has the aura of a ghost town, because large areas of the city, including some of its largest buildings, have been empty for decades.

Ghost towns in popular culture


Film

  • The 2006 adaptation of Silent Hill
    Silent Hill (film)

    Silent Hill is a 2006 horror film directed by Christophe Gans and written by Roger Avary. The story is an adaptation of the Silent Hill series of survival horror games created by Konami....
     drew inspiration from Centralia, Pennsylvania
    Centralia, Pennsylvania

    Centralia is a Borough in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, United States. Its population has dwindled from over 1,000 residents in 1981 to 12 in 2005 and 9 in 2007, as a result of a mine fire burning beneath the borough since 1962....
    , which was rendered a ghost town after a coal mine fire.


  • The 2008 comedy Ghost Town
    Ghost Town (film)

    Ghost Town is a 2008 in film Cinema of the United States paranormal comedy film directed by David Koepp and starring the English comedian Ricky Gervais in his first leading role in a movie....
     is about a man who dies on the operating table but is revived, then discovers that he has the ability to see and converse with ghosts.


  • Much of the remake of The Hills Have Eyes
    The Hills Have Eyes

    The Hills Have Eyes may refer to:*The Hills Have Eyes *The Hills Have Eyes , a 1977 film by Wes Craven*The Hills Have Eyes Part II, the 1985 sequel...
     takes place in desert towns abandoned due to nearby nuclear weapons testing.


Video games

  • The 1999 Playstation
    PlayStation

    The PlayStation is a 32-bit history of video game consoles video game console released by Sony Computer Entertainment in December .The PlayStation was the first of the ubiquitous PlayStation ....
     game Silent Hill
    Silent Hill

    is a survival horror video game media franchise video game developer and video game publisher by Konami. The first four games in the series were created by Team Silent who have abandoned the series to work on other projects....
     takes place in a ghost town of the same name. It has spawned four sequels and is loosely based on Centralia, PA.
  • The 2000 Playstation
    PlayStation

    The PlayStation is a 32-bit history of video game consoles video game console released by Sony Computer Entertainment in December .The PlayStation was the first of the ubiquitous PlayStation ....
     game Dino Crisis 2
    Dino Crisis 2

    Dino Crisis 2 is a third-person shooter for the Sony Playstation, developed by Capcom Production Studio and published by Capcom in North America, released on September 13, 2000 and publish by Virgin Interactive in Europe, release on November 4, 2000....
     takes place around Edward City, an abandoned city due to a research disaster.
  • The 2000 PlayStation
    PlayStation

    The PlayStation is a 32-bit history of video game consoles video game console released by Sony Computer Entertainment in December .The PlayStation was the first of the ubiquitous PlayStation ....
     game Vagrant Story
    Vagrant Story

    is a Japanese-developed console role-playing game developed and published by Square Co. for the Sony Computer Entertainment PlayStation video game console in 2000....
     takes place in a ghost town named Leá Monde.
  • The 2003 PlayStation 2
    PlayStation 2

    The PlayStation 2 is a History of video game consoles video game console manufactured by Sony. The successor to the PlayStation, and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3, the PlayStation 2 forms part of the PlayStation of video game consoles....
     game Fatal Frame 2
    Fatal Frame

    Fatal Frame, known as Project Zero in Europe and Australia, and as in Japan, is a survival horror video game series, so far consisting of four games and a spin-off....
     takes place in a small, ghostly Shinto village in rural Japan.
  • The 2003 arcade game
    Arcade game

    An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, typically installed in businesses such as restaurants, public houses, video arcades, and Family Entertainment Centers....
     Johnny Nero: Action Hero
    Johnny Nero: Action Hero

    Johnny Nero: Action Hero is a arcade only game that is by developed by I.C.E known for the air hockey and other virtual reality games and published by Play Mechanix....
     features a Western movie-themed stage where a ghost town is filled with evil spirits, which the hero must eliminate.
  • The 2004 game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
    Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

    Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a Nonlinear gameplay action-adventure game computer game and video game developed by Rockstar North. It is the third 3D computer graphics game in the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise and fifth original game overall....
     features several ghost towns.
  • Parts of the 2007 games S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Call of Duty 4 take place in the abandoned city of Prypiat.
  • The 2007 Xbox 360
    Xbox 360

    The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft, and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the History of video game consoles of video game consoles....
     game Halo 3
    Halo 3

    Halo 3 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie exclusively for the Xbox 360. The game is the third title in the Halo and concludes the story arc that began in Halo: Combat Evolved and continued in Halo 2....
     has a downloadable map pack that contains a multiplayer map named "Ghost Town".
  • The 2007 Wii
    Wii

    The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo. As a History of video game consoles console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3....
     game No More Heroes features a ghost town.
  • Numerous ghost towns littering the landscape are a major feature of the 2008 game Fallout 3
    Fallout 3

    Fallout 3 is an action role-playing game released by Bethesda Game Studios, and is the third major game in the Fallout . The game was released in North America on October 28, 2008, in Europe and Australia on October 30, 2008, and in the United Kingdom and Ireland on October 31, 2008....
    , which has a post-apocalyptic setting.


Music

  • The 1981 song by The Specials
    The Specials

    The Specials are an England 2 Tone ska revival Musical ensemble formed in 1977 in Coventry. They have had Chart-topper in the United Kingdom, and their music is featured in film and television soundtracks....
     entitled "Ghost Town
    Ghost town

    A ghost town is a town or city that has been completely abandoned by human inhabitants, usually because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as flood, government action, uncontrolled lawlessness or war....
    " was a commentary on Coventry
    Coventry

    Coventry is a City status in the United Kingdom and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. With a population of 303,475 at the United Kingdom Census 2001 , Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom....
     in the 1980s, the city in which the band originated.
  • Ghostown, a 1979 album by Irish band The Radiators From Space
    The Radiators From Space

    The Radiators From Space are an Republic of Ireland punk rock band . The band formed in 1976 in Dublin, consisting of Philip Chevron , Pete Holidai, Steve Rapid, Jimmy Crashe and Mark Megaray....
    , is a concept album
    Concept album

    In popular music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical". Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being musical improvisation or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing to narrative....
     documenting the sense of social and cultural isolation felt by many Dublin
    Dublin

    Dublin is both the largest city and capital of Republic of Ireland. It is located near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and at the centre of the Dublin Region....
    ers throughout the 1970s.
  • The modern jazz guitarist Bill Frisell
    Bill Frisell

    William Richard "Bill" Frisell is an United States guitarist and composer.One of the leading guitarists in jazz since the late '80s Frisell's eclectic music touches on progressive folk, classical music, country music, noise music and more....
     also has an album entitled "Ghost Town" (2000).
  • The rock group Shiny Toy Guns
    Shiny Toy Guns

    Shiny Toy Guns is a Grammy-nominated United States Rock music band originally from that formed in 2002 in . They have released three versions of their first studio album We Are Pilots, which featured three singles that peaked inside the top 30 in the Modern Rock Tracks....
     has a song "Ghost Town" Released as single late 2008


See also

  • Abandoned village
    Abandoned village

    An abandoned village is a village which has for some reason been deserted. In many countries many thousands of villages were deserted at several periods in history, for a variety of causes....
  • Deserted medieval village
    Deserted medieval village

    Deserted medieval village sites are abandoned village which have been abandoned for one reason or another over the years, usually leaving little but the remains of earthworks or cropmarks....
  • List of ghost towns
    List of ghost towns

    The following is a partial list of ghost towns....
  • Rotten borough
    Rotten borough

    The term "rotten" or "decayed" borough referred to a parliamentary borough or constituency in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland which had a very small population and was used by a patron to exercise undue and unrepresentative influence within parliament....
  • Unused highway
    Unused highway

    An unused highway may reference a highway or highway ramp that was partially or fully constructed but was unused or later closed. An unused ramp can be referred to as a ghost ramp, stub ramp, stub street, stub-out, or simply stub....
  • Urban Exploration
    Urban exploration

    Urban exploration is the examination of the normally unseen or off-limits parts of urban areas or industrial facilities. Urban exploration is also commonly referred to as infiltration, although some people consider infiltration to be more closely associated with the exploration of active or inhabited sites....


External links

  • Photo report from an area (2008).


  • Individual places:
    • Map showing the towns buried under Quabbin as they looked in 1912 with original house locations and current reservoir water level


  • Chernobyl disaster-related:
    • (Note: some statements described as fact on this site are disputed)