Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The abandoned movie set of Cameron's 'The Abyss'

One of the locations used for the filming of the 1989 science fiction film 'The Abyss' was Cherokee Nuclear Power Plant, an uncompleted nuclear power plant on Owensby Road, near Gaffney, South Carolina. There, director James Cameron constructed the largest underwater filming set ever built. It took 7 million US gallons (26,000 m3) of water to fill the tank to a depth of 40 feet (12 m). 

After filming, the set was left abandoned, as the cost of deconstruction was considered too high. It became a destination for urban explorers until it was finally demolished in 2007. 



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Wednesday, January 16, 2013

An abandoned igloo hotel in Alaska


Build along George Parks Highway, near Cantwell, Alaska, this bizarre hotel has become a roadside attraction. It was constructed in the 1970's in an igloo shape, to pay homage to the Inuits but it never opened due to building code violations. Since then, it has been used by different owners as a gas station and gift shop.






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Thursday, January 10, 2013

The flooded ruins of Villa Epecuén


Villa EpecuĂ©n was a tourist village located in the Buenos Aires Province of Argentina. Built in the shores of Lago EpecuĂ©n, a lake with salt levels 10 times higher than the ocean's and known for its therapeutic powers, it reached a population of 5,000 in the 1970's. There were 280 businesses, including lodges, guesthouses, and hotels. 

On November 10th, 1985 long lasting wet weather conditions caused the enormous volume of water to break through the rock and earth dam and inundated much of the town under four feet (1.2 meters) of water. By 1993, the slow-growing flood consumed the town until it was covered in 10 meters of salt water. 

Nearly 25 years later, in 2009, the wet weather reversed and the waters began to recede. The ruins of Villa Epecuen started coming back to the surface. Only one local, the 81-year-old Pablo Novak returned back to his old town. 




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Thursday, January 3, 2013

The largest -and loneliest- shopping mall in the world

New South China Mall located in Dongguan, China has the title of the largest shopping mall in the world based on gross leasable area but it might also be the world's emptiest one. Today, out of its 659,612 square metres (7,100,000 sq ft) of leasable space -and 892,000 square metres (9,600,000 sq ft) of total area- only about 1% of it is occupied, leaving the areas away of the building's entrance deserted. 

The mall has seven zones modeled on international cities, nations and regions, including Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, Venice, Egypt, the Caribbean, and California. Features include a 25 metres (82 ft) replica of the Arc de Triomphe, a replica of Venice's St Mark's bell tower, a 2.1 kilometres (1.3 mi) canal with gondolas, and a 553-meter indoor-outdoor roller coaster. While the mall has 2350 leasable spaces, only 47 are occupied.

The low occupancy of the world's largest mall is blamed on its location, away from the city's center, and the difficult access as there is no highway close to the mall and it's only accessible by car or bus.