2013 was the second year of this blog and a great one. Just a couple of days before it's over, I went through the 49 posts of this year and I chose the 13 best ones; some of them among the most popular and other were my personal favourites.
Thanks everyone for visiting the blog during the past year. Remember you can always follow us on twitter or like us on facebook to stay in touch.
Wishing a happy 2014 to each one of you! :-)
1. Holy Land USA: An abandoned Bible theme park
Holy Land USA used to be the largest tourist attraction in Connecticut during the 60's and 70's. The Bible-inspired theme park remains now abandoned and slightly creepy.
2. An abandoned mansion in the Philippines
"The Ruins" as the locals call it, is an abandoned mansion located in Talisay City, Philippines. Build in the 1900's by a sugar baron, it was set alight by US forces during World War II and left abandoned for many decades.
3. The abandoned Six Flags New Orleans amusement park
The New Orleans Six Flags amusement park was a victim of hurricane Katrina which left the city in ruins in 2005. The park was damaged heavily by the flooding and until today its fate remains uncertain.
4. Mike Tyson's abandoned mansion
Mike Tyson made a lot of money during his career but his lifestyle led him to declare bunkraptcy in 2004. A few years earlier he had already lost ownership of his 5-bedroom luxurious villa in Ohio, which was subsequently left abandoned for many years.
5. Saddam Hussein's abandoned palaces
Saddam Hussein built dozens of palaces around Iraq for himself, his family, his party officials and his mistresses. After the US-led invasion of 2003, many of the palaces were occupied by the American army while other were left abandoned.
6. Detroit, a city in decay
During last year, the city of Detroit, Michigan filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. French photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre spent 5 years in Detroit photographing the ruins of a once prosperous city.
7. 25 abandoned former Yugoslavia monuments
These futuristic monuments found around former Yugoslavian countries were commissioned by president Josip Broz Tito in the 1960's and 1970's to commemorate sites where World War II battles took place or where concentration camps stood.
8. Inside the Fukushima evacuation zone
Damir Sakolj/Reuters
Two and a half years after the devastating Japan earthquake and tsunami, as well as the nuclear disaster that followed, Reuters photographer Damir Sagolj returned to the region to document the lives of those affected by the tragedy. Even today, tens of thousands of survivors live in temporary housing as the area surrounding the nuclear plant remains too contaminated by radiation.
9. An abandoned railway in the middle of Paris
The 'Chemin de fer de Petite Ceinture' or "little belt railway" run around the French capital, on tracks built between the city's forts, encircling 19th century Paris. The railway fell into decline from the 1930's and by 1985 all parts of the line were shut down.
10. Kolmanskop, the ghost town of the desert
The ghost town of Kolmanskop lies in the middle of the Namibian desert. It used to house approximately 1,000 diamond miners and their families but as it usually happens, the town was left abandoned once the diamond field was exhausted.
11. SS Ayrfield, Sydney's floating forest
SS Aurfield, an old Ship floating in Homebush Bay, west of Sydney, Australia has been turned into a floating forest by nature.
12. An abandoned morgue in Belgium
Mortuarium Schoonselhof in Antwerp, Belgium was left abandoned during the 90's. Tools and chemicals in the autopsy room, weren't moved before the location became known to photographers in 2006.
13. The abandoned mill in Sorrento, Italy
In the town of Sorrento in southern Italy, there's a deep canyon, also known as 'The valley of the mills'. There, between thick vegetation there's the an old mill, functioning from the middle ages till sometime around 1866.
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