Wednesday, July 31, 2013

An abandoned underwater strip club in Israel


'Nymphas Show Bar' used to be "the only the underwater bar and restaurant in the world". Situated in the Israeli Red Sea resort town of Eilat, it was built 5 meters (16 feet) below the surface of the sea and 70 meters (230 feet) away from the shore. 23 windows surrounding the restaurant allowed its guests to enjoy a panoramic view of the seabed. The restaurant (called 'Red Sea Star') operated as a strip club for a while until it finally shut down in 2012. 


SEE ALSO: More abandoned strip clubs around the world // More abandoned underwater places // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES 
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Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Detroit, a city in decay

Last week, the city of Detroit, Michigan filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. That was the latest episode in what is a long and painful decline of a once prosperous city. The automobile industry has shrunk, jobs have been lost, and the population has been reduced. During the last 60 years, Detroit has lost 60% of its residents. A significant amount of houses and other building has been left vacant making Detroit the American capital of urban decay. 

French photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre met online in 2002, drawn by their love of abandoned places. They soon started visiting ruins in the suburbs of Paris taking photos separately but later decided to collaborate. Together, they've photographed urban ruins from all around the world. Their project "The Ruins of Detroit" is a 5-year collaboration, beginning in 2005. More information on their website: marchandmeffre.com



SEE ALSO: More abandoned places in Detroit and around Michigan // More abandoned places in the United States // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES 
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Michigan Central Station

Ticket Lobby, Michigan Central Station

Ballroom, Lee Plaza Hotel

Woodward Avenue

Old Lobby, Michigan Theater


Thursday, July 18, 2013

Saddam Hussein's abandoned palaces

During his nearly 24-year stay in power, Saddam Hussein built dozens of palaces (between 80 and 100 according to different accounts) across Iraq. Palaces were built -most of them after the end of the 1991 Gulf War- in every major city as an expression of his authority. These palaces provided housing not only to the dictator of Iraq and his family, but also to his party officials, friends and countless mistresses. U.N. documents list eight main Saddam Hussein palace compounds containing more than 1,000 buildings -- luxury mansions, smaller guest villas, office complexes, warehouses and garages -- and covering some 32 square kilometres (12 square miles) in total.

The grandiose architecture and the luxurious environment, dominated by marble surfaces and gold was supposed to support the image of a powerful leader for his followers and that of an eccentric dictator who was out of touch with the reality of his citizens for the rest of the world.

After the Fall of Baghdad in 2003, some palaces were occupied by the American army, while others were heavily looted by Iraqi citizens. By now, all of them have been handed over to the Iraqi government. Some of them will be maintained, others repurposed, sold to developers or demolished.




SEE ALSO: More abandoned places in Iraq // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES 
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Thursday, July 11, 2013

The Carrie Furnace in Pennsylvania


Along the Monongahela River in the Pittsburgh area industrial town of Rankin, Pennsylvania, stand the remains of Carrie Furnace. The Carrie Furnaces were built in 1884 and operated until 1982. Furnaces 6 and 7, which are all that is left at the site today, reached their peak production in the 1950's and 1960's when they were producing 1000 -1250 tons of iron a day.

The industrial site is under redevelopment during the last several years that will allow visitors to climb a series of walkways around the towers and see close hand the furnaces that set world records in the production of iron. 

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Friday, July 5, 2013

1 Year of Deserted Places!

It's been exactly 1 year since the hot summer afternoon I started this blog by putting together photos of an abandoned villa, not far from where I live. And here we are today, after 55 posts and more than 550,000 visitors from almost 200 countries.

To celebrate the occasion, I made a list of the top 10 most popular posts during the last 12 months.

Thanks everyone for visiting and don't forget you can follow us on twitter or like us on facebook to stay in touch! :-)


1. The Haunted Hotel at Tequendama Falls




The most popular post of this blog was visited more times than the other 9 posts combined! Hotel del Salto, built in a magnificent location near Bogota, Bolivia, had been abandoned since the early 90s but is still being visited by thousands of tourists. A friend of the blog who visited the hotel a few months ago confirmed it has now been turned into a museum, and taking also a few pics for the blog.



2. The Abandoned Movie Set of Cameron's 'The Abyss'




To film some underground scenes of his 1989 film, 'The Abyss', director James Cameron used an uncompleted nuclear power plant in South Carolina. The cost of deconstructing the set afterwords though was considered too high, so the set was left abandoned becoming a destination for urban explorers and also the 2nd most popular post on this blog.

3. Detroit's Abandoned Houses



Detroit is a city well-known for its deserted places. Photographer Kevin Bauman took photos of those beautiful homes for his series '100 Abandoned Houses' which was very popular with the visitors of this blog. 



Featured in the latest James Bond movie, Hashima is an abandoned island off the coast of Nagasaki in Japan. It was built to house workers in an underwater coal mining facility and it was once the most densely populated place on earth. Today it's in the process to become an UNESCO World Heritage Site. Since 2009, small groups of tourists are able to visit the island.



Spreepark used to be the only theme park in East Germany and it really has a fascinating history! Closed since 2002, the park has now become a destination for urban explorers and graffiti artists. 



It's a secret not many know. Under the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in Manhattan there is a secret subway platform once used by VIPs (most famously Franklin D. Roosevelt) who wanted to make an entrance or exit the hotel without being seen or having to go through New York's traffic.



Villa Epecuén was a very popular Argentinian tourist village until 1985 when an enormous amount of water broke through a mountain lake and completely submerged the town. In 2009 waters began receding and the ruins of houses and streets came to surface.


8. Prypiat, the Ghost Town of Chernobyl


Prypiat, the town housing workers at the Chernobyl nuclear plant and abandoned after the terrible nuclear accident, is a dream destination for many urban explorers. Some guided tours are now allowed within the city but the safest way to visit it, is through these magnificent photos



Mainly due to the economic crisis which was also felt in the advertising market, many billboards around the streets and towns of Greece are now empty, carrying no message



A mistake Greek government made during the preparation of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games was not making plans for the future use of most of the sites built exclusively for the Games. The results can be seen in these photos

~


Monday, July 1, 2013

Mike Tyson's abandoned mansion

Having made more than $300 million throughout his career, boxing legend Mike Tyson was able to afford a lavish lifestyle, buying numerous mansions and cars. When he filed for bankruptcy in 2004 he was already deep in debt. 

Problems though had started years earlier. In the late 90s he lost ownership of his 5-bedroom, 60 acre property with an indoor pool, basket ball court and on-site tiger cages near Southington, Ohio to an entrepreneur who was arrested on drug related charges a year later. Then, the mansion fell into the hands of the authorities as its state was deteriorating due to neglect and vandalism. 

These photos were taken in 2007. Today, the property has been restored and it's privately owned again. 


SEE ALSO: More abandoned houses // More abandoned places in Ohio // More abandoned places in the United States // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES 
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