Tagged: ghost town

From Beach Resort Paradise to Rotting Ruins: Crumbling Mediterranean Ghost Town

September 13th, 2013 Permalink

Imagine yourself on an island in the Mediterranean with beautiful white sand beaches, warm weather, fantastic places to shop, fine dining, and modern luxurious hotels that are frequented by the vacationing rich and famous. Then boom, the island is invaded and you must flee for your life from that slice of paradise. From tourist hotspot to ghost town, it’s a No Man’s Land with ruins that are rotting away. This happened: the island is Cyprus, the year was 1974, and the area was known as Varosha, a section of Famagusta. The crumbling vacation resort is a “forbidden zone” that has been stuck in time and slowly decaying for nearly 40 years. Sure, you could cross the “Buffer Zone” to see what that moment in time looked like when people fled and Varosha was abandoned, but if caught . . . trespassers will be shot on the spot. [36 Photos]

Varosha is a beach paradise and crumbling vacation resort where trespassers will be shot

Varosha in Cyprus is a both a beautiful beach paradise and a crumbling vacation resort where trespassers will be shot. Wait, what? You read it right. The photographer explained, “Perhaps the most haunting and downright weird tourist attraction on Cyprus, the abandoned Maras district (known in Greek as the ‘Varosia’) really is a sight worth seeing. The Varosia is a lingering reminder of the relatively recent year of 1974, when the Turkish invasion took place and this whole area was barricaded off with barbed wire, becoming something of a no-man’s land. The beach and crumbing high-rise tower blocks remain unused and make the Varosia area of Famagusta appear rather like a ghost town, with just a tiny portion of this former leading beach resort being still occupied.” You can see both in the “postcard” above. Photo #1 by bass_nroll

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Chernobyl Exclusion Zone: Adrenaline & Radiation Urbex, A Good Day to Die Hard?

March 15th, 2013 Permalink

The Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster happened 27 years ago on April 26, 1986. After the explosion, a radius of 18.6 miles (30 km) was setup as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. That “zone of alienation” is becoming more frequently seen in popular culture; it was seen in the 2013 film A Good Day to Die Hard, in the 2012 Chernobyl Diaries and also in the 2011 movie Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The area is featured in hundreds of documentaries and even early on in the 1998 film Godzilla as a researcher studies the mutational effects of radiation on native earthworms. It’s the nightmare setting for several video games. Although urban explorers have been coming to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone for years, Ukrainian officials opened the zone for tourists with “special permission” in 2011. Whether you call it reverse eco-tourism, terror tourism, or an adrenaline rush urban exploration, it would undoubtedly be surreal to experience. Some claim it’s haunted, while others think it’s a dream setting for playing a zombie apocalypse-like paintball gun war. Thanks to those that were brave enough to take up their cameras and Geiger counters, we can take a virtual tour of the Exclusion Zone. It includes Prypiat, Prypiat amusement park, Polissya hotel, the Red Forest and more places stuck in time as everyone was evacuated with no time to pack. This is what visiting the Chernobyl disaster after almost 27 years looks like, since criteria for this photo essay included being creative commons photos taken as recently as possible with as many different radioactive areas as possible. Enjoy!
[69 Photos, 8 Videos]

Pripyat - Lenin Square during fall season in 2012

Pripyat – Lenin Square during fall season in 2012. In April, it will be 27 years after the Chernobyl disaster and the emergency abandonment of Pipyat and other areas also known as the 30 Kilometer Zone, extending in a radius of 18.6 miles (30 km) from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Photo #1 by Michael Kötter

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Dry Tortugas: Coastal Fortress, Coral Reefs, Marine Life, Shipwrecks & Sunken Treasure

August 3rd, 2012 Permalink

About 70 miles west of Key West, Florida, lies Dry Tortugas National Park which is world-renowned for picturesque blue sea waters, white sands, brightly colorful coral reefs, abundant marine life, and legends of shipwrecks and sunken treasures. There are seven small islands in the 100-square mile park, but it is mostly open water that is accessible only by boat or seaplane. Dry Tortugas is also famous as the home of magnificent and historic Fort Jefferson, the largest masonry building in the Western Hemisphere. Though it was not finished, the fort has more than 16 million bricks that make up the massive 45-foot-high, three-level hexagon, coastal fortress that has 2,000 architecturally beautiful arches. [44 Fabulous Photos]

Fort Jefferson aerial looking east

Aerial of Fort Jefferson on Garden Key, part of Dry Tortugas National Park. The park is located at the farthest end of the Florida Keys, closer to Cuba than to the USA mainland. NPS says, “To reach this remote ocean wilderness one must travel by boat or plane over 68 nautical miles of open sea.” Garden Key is the second largest island in this chain. Photo #1 by National Park Service

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Abandoned Russian Riviera: Resort Paradise to Ruins [46 PICS]

June 21st, 2011 Permalink

Once upon a time, in a subtropical climate on Georgia’s Black Sea coast, there were glorious scenic wonders like beautiful beaches, lush wooded mountains, and buildings of grandeur at a resort paradise known as the Russian Riviera. But a bloody war erupted in Gagra and countless thousands were murdered, an extermination of the Georgian people. Gagra became a war-torn paradise resort in ruins. Now this “Russian Riviera” is an abandoned ghost town. [46 Photos]

Abandoned Gagry Beach - Paradise Gagra Resort to Ruins

Abandoned beach at paradise Gagra in Russia, resort to ruins. After several centuries of wars, in the late 1800s, the town was “discovered” by a member of the Russian royalty. Prince Peter of Oldenburg saw the potential of the subtropical climate and built Gagra into a resort on the Black Sea. He added a park with tropical trees and even imported parrots and monkeys to give it an exotic feel. It’s the warmest city on the Black Sea coast and beautiful beaches stretch on for miles. Like any posh resort in a warm location, both the beach and the surrounding mountains added to its charm and made Gagra a popular tourist destination. During World War II, it served as a health resort in Imperial Russia during the days of the Soviet Union for the rehabilitation of wounded soldiers. From then onward, Gagra grew in popularity and reputation into the “Russian Riviera.” Photo #1 by Svetlana Grechkina

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Devoured By The Desert: Creepy Kolmanskop Ghost Town (21 PICS)

March 31st, 2011 Permalink

There is a slowly sinking city in the desert of southern Namibia, Africa, a ghost town called Kolmanskop. In the 1900s, diamonds were discovered just sitting upon the sand, waiting to be found, so people from all over the world with diamond fever flocked from the port of Lüderitz to the once desolated lonely desert. Kolmanskop became a mining town, but after the First World War when diamonds sales dropped, the sand-clearing squad failed to show up. That was the beginning of the end; Kolmanskop turned into a ghost town being buried by sand and trapped in time. The TV show Destination Truth visited this ghost town since it is highly rumored to be haunted. They were not disappointed, having captured EVPs of ghosts whispering, seeing shadows, hearing footsteps, and having the fluff scared of out them in Kolmanskop. [21 pictures]

Kolmanskop

In Namibia, Africa, not too far from the port city of Lüderitz, the ghost town Kolmanskop is slowly sinking, being buried by sand to be trapped in time. Photo #1 by Michiel Van Balen

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Ghost Town: Bodie Historic State Park

February 25th, 2011 Permalink

Bodie State Historic Park is a California gold-mining ghost town with over 170 buildings which are protected in a “state of arrested decay.” That means officials won’t fix up the abandoned buildings, but they won’t let Bodie fall to dust either. Bodie was too wicked to ever truly die. More than 1,000 remote acres make up the once violent, lawless and booming gold mine town in the Wild West. Nearly 200,000 yearly visitors come to roam the ghost town of Bodie. We love these pics! [13 Photos]

stormy day at the Bodie Historic State Park

A stormy day at the Bodie Historic State Park which was once a violent and lawless booming California gold mining town in the Wild West. Several phrases were born to describe the essence of Bodie and its inhabitants who flocked there to find the motherlode: “Badman from Bodie” fit the infamous and remote town. It’s said that a little girl found out her family was moving to Bodie and wrote in her diary, “Goodbye God, I’m going to Bodie.” The phrase stuck and became famous. A preacher called Bodie, “A sea of sin, lashed by the tempest of lust and passion.” Photo #1 by Photographersnature.com

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