Deserted Places

Thursday, July 11, 2013

The Carrie Furnace in Pennsylvania

flickr.com/Devon Christopher Adams

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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flickr.com/Dauvit Alexander

flickr.com/Youngstown Steel Heritage

boringpittsburgh.com/Veronica Varos

flickr.com/Tiffany Komec

Alkis Konstantinidis/EPA/bernardinai.lt

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

Arturo Aparicio/Panoramio

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'

io9.com

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

100 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.

4. Hashima, the Ghost Island of Japan

haikyo.org

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.

5. Spreepark: An Abandoned Amusement Park in Berlin

Norbert Löv/flickr.com

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.

6. The Secret Train Platform Under the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan

gothamist.com

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.

7. The Flooded Ruins of Villa Epecuén

lostresorts.com

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

Ric Wright/bbc.co.uk

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.

9. Empty Billboards in Greece

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.

10. Athens Olympic Games Sites, 8 Years Later

Jamie McGregor Smith / New York Times

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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ilicitohio.com

Monday, June 24, 2013

The Spanish ghost town of Ciudad Valdeluz

Ciudad Valdeluz is a suburb 60 kilometers (37 miles) northeast of Madrid, Spain. It was meant to be city of 30,000, but only 1,000 people took up residence there after construction halted in 2008 with 75% of the city unfinished due to the economic downturn.

Today, Ciudad Valdeluz resembles a ghost town with the few residents being served by a supermarket, a corner shop and a medical center open twice a week. A security patrol watches over the deserted streets and the empty buildings.

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flickr.com/Aurélien PIC

Monday, June 17, 2013

The Film City in the heart of the desert

boingboing.net/Jethro Stamps

In the heart of the Qatar desert, deep in the Zakreet peninsula and away from the construction and gridlock of the capital Doha, lays the Film City, an abandoned movie set built as a mock up of an ancient Arabian village. The existence of Film City remains a mystery as no one seems to know why or when exactly it was built. Some say for a big Hollywood production, others for a Qatari soap opera, while others claim it was built for Qatar’s 2022 World Cup promotional video.

SEE ALSO: More abandoned film sets around the world // More abandoned places in the desert // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES
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flickr.com/erickespinosa

flickr.com/muscolinos

flickr.com/erickespinosa

flickr.com/Expression of Interest

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

The abandoned Six Flags New Orleans amusement park

It's been 8 years since hurricane Katrina swept through New Orleans, living the city in ruins. The eastern part of the city where Six Flags amusement park is located since 2000 was badly flooded. The park itself was submerged under 4-7 feet (1-2 meters) of water when a combination of rainwater and sea water overflew from Lake Pontchartrain due to Katrina's massive storm surge.

80% of the park buildings were demolished while all of its rides except of Batman: The Ride were destroyed. Six Flags expressed its wish to break early from the 75-year lease with the City of New Orleans but this won't happen before all insurance claims are settled. Until then, the park remains closed.

SEE ALSO: More abandoned amusement parks and abandoned theme parks around the world // More abandoned places in Louisiana // More abandoned places in the United States // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES
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flickr.com/kparson

Friday, June 7, 2013

Abandoned villas in the Greek islands

As the economic crisis hit Greece, the development and sales of many hotels and villas in the Greek islands has been postponed. Many buildings have been left unfinished, waiting for a better time, sooner or later.

Dutch photographer Patrick Van Dam travelled around Greece for this project. He says:

The projects were developed on the most wonderful and unique locations. On hillsides with breathtaking sea views or on mountains surrounded by olive trees, enclosed with privacy and serenity.

The architectural lines combined with the ash-grey concrete structures are an attractive contrast against the rough, red-coloured rocks, the warm yellow high grass and the olive green bushes and trees. This almost abstract scenery shows a unique synergy between architecture and nature. It creates a new and intriguing landscape in which failure, poverty and hopelessness are easily forgotten.

Source

SEE ALSO: More abandoned houses around the world // More abandoned places on islands // More abandoned places in Greece // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES
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Patrick Van Dam