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Journey through the eerie silence of long-abandoned towns that time forgot. These haunting ghost towns from around the globe tell stories of booming pasts, tragic disasters, and sudden desertion. Explore deserted streets overtaken by nature, crumbling buildings frozen in time, and dark histories that still echo through the empty husks of once-thriving communities. Dare to uncover the chilling beauty of forgotten civilizations?
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00:00Hashima is a tiny island with a big story to tell.
00:04Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're looking at 20 of the all-time creepiest ghost towns
00:10from around the world.
00:11Their homeland in the south of the country seems frozen in time, as if the war had just
00:15ended.
00:17Number 20, Sisko, Utah.
00:21Well, we're in Sisko, Utah, which is a ghost town.
00:26It's high desert, which means it's a really harsh environment.
00:30Found in the high desert of Grand County, Utah, Sisko began in the 1880s as a crucial water
00:37refilling station for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad.
00:41It then evolved into a major hub for livestock and rode the wave of a 1920s oil and gas boom.
00:48However, the march of technological progress ultimately spelled the town's doom.
00:53The transition from steam to diesel locomotives meant trains no longer needed to stop for
00:59water, drying up the town's primary purpose.
01:02The final nail in the coffin came when the newly constructed Interstate 70 bypassed Sisko
01:07entirely, starving its businesses of passing road trippers.
01:12The town was abandoned by the late 20th century, and its crumbling shacks, rusted vintage cars,
01:17and eerily quiet desert atmosphere had made it a backdrop for classic road movies like
01:23Thelma and Louise.
01:24Thelma!
01:28What?
01:30I want you to call Daryl.
01:33What for?
01:34Number 19, Terlingua, Texas.
01:37If you move here from another place, don't expect to come out here with 50 bucks in your
01:43pocket and a half a dozen 2x4s because you ain't gonna make it.
01:47Terlingua began its life as a quiet Mexican village on Terlingua Creek before the discovery
01:52of Cinnabar in the 1880s transformed it into a booming mining district.
01:57By the early 1900s, the population skyrocketed to around 3,000 residents as miners extracted
02:04quicksilver from the harsh Texas landscape.
02:07However, the mines eventually played out, and by the end of World War II, the town was
02:11largely abandoned.
02:12The population has since dwindled to just a few dozen people, and today, Terlingua stands
02:18as an eccentric day stop thanks to its proximity to Big Bend National Park.
02:23The crumbling ruins of mining operations, the Old Town Cemetery, and empty adobe structures
02:29stand as silent monuments to its prosperous past.
02:33They go, wow, look at this place, it's fantastic, we gotta live here.
02:37I know in your mind you're probably thinking, there's nothing here.
02:43But, they find a way, and they're happy, and they're content doing it.
02:46Number 18, Bechuan, China.
02:50Nowhere was the destruction worse than in the city of Bechuan, a city that was leveled and
02:55will never be rebuilt.
02:56How do people overcome that kind of devastation?
02:59Unlike towns abandoned to economic decline, the old Chinese city of Bechuan was wiped out
03:05in one single devastating moment.
03:08On May 12, 2008, a massive 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck the region, leaving nearly 90,000 people
03:16dead or missing.
03:18In Bechuan alone, about half of the residents died.
03:21Because the ruins sat on a dangerous fault line, the site was deemed too hazardous to
03:26rebuild, and the survivors were taken away.
03:29As such, the shattered city was frozen in time, transformed into a memorial and museum.
03:34Visitors can now walk along streets lined with collapsed buildings and overgrown rubble,
03:39giving them a true and visceral sense of the end of the world.
03:42This is, or was, Bechuan.
03:45Some 13,000 people, about half the population, were killed here by the earthquake.
03:49Today, the whole area has been fenced off, and Bechuan has literally become a ghost town.
03:54Number 17, Deception Island, Antarctica.
03:58With the increasing number of operators at Deception Island, a small Norwegian prefabricated
04:04house and post office was erected for the British magistrate, and Deception Island became the
04:09first port of entry to Antarctica for all ships working in the area.
04:14Located in the remote waters of Antarctica, Deception Island was once the site of a bustling
04:19whaling operation called Hector Station.
04:22Established in 1912 by a Norwegian company, the station effectively boiled whale fat into
04:27oil and housed around 150 workers during the summer months.
04:31But the factory was entirely abandoned in 1931, owing to the collapse of whale oil prices
04:37and the invention of open ocean factory ships, which made land-based whaling stations like
04:42Hector obsolete.
04:44Though the British military later used the remains as a research base, a violent volcanic eruption
04:49in 1969 destroyed the facilities and buried the largest cemetery in Antarctica under a volcanic
04:56mudflow.
04:57The once-bustling factory town is now nothing but rusted iron tanks, tilted structures, and
05:02old boats half-buried in volcanic ash.
05:05Deception Island's varied human history has been partially masked by nature, but is preserved in places.
05:13The Norwegian Hector Whaling Station is the most obvious, but some of the old British buildings
05:18can still be seen.
05:19Number 16, Hotawan, China.
05:22It was a struggle to maintain life in such a remote place, and 20 years ago, the last
05:28of the residents departed.
05:30Located on China's Shenshan Island, Hotawan was once a prosperous fishing village that boasted
05:36a population of over 2,000 residents in the 1980s.
05:40But the demand for larger vessels eventually outgrew the small bay, and mainland jobs offered
05:46better opportunities.
05:47So the village experienced a rapid exodus in the 1990s, and by 2002, it was officially
05:53depopulated and left to the elements.
05:56What makes Hotawan so uniquely unsettling is how quickly and completely nature has reclaimed
06:01it.
06:01Lush, vibrant green ivy and climbing vines have swallowed almost every brick and pathway of
06:07the town, camouflaging the empty houses against the coastal hills.
06:28Number 15, Kayakoy, Turkey.
06:32Once known as Lavisi, Kayakoy was a thriving town of around 6,000 Greek-speaking Christians
06:38who lived harmoniously alongside Turkish Muslims.
06:41This peaceful existence ended abruptly with the compulsory population exchange between
06:46Greece and Turkey in 1923, which uprooted millions based solely on religion.
06:51The Greek residents of Kayakoy were forced out, and the Muslim refugees sent to replace
06:56them found the steep hillside unsuitable and quickly left.
06:59And with that exodus, Kayakoy became a true ghost village.
07:03The town remains remarkably preserved to this day, despite being neglected, with roughly
07:07500 windowless stone houses and faded churches cascading down the hillside.
07:13Number 14, Wittenoom, Australia.
07:16In my heart, Wittenoom's still home.
07:20Somehow or other, it's in our soul and our spirits.
07:23Wittenoom is a stark reminder of the deadly cost of industry.
07:27Nestled in the Pilborough region of Western Australia, it began as a prosperous mining town
07:32in the 1940s when blue asbestos was discovered in the nearby gorges.
07:37At its peak, nearly 900 people lived among the mine tailings.
07:40Unfortunately, prolonged exposure to the highly toxic fibers devastated the population,
07:45leading to the eventual closure of the mine in 1966, and thousands of former residents have
07:50since died from asbestos-related diseases.
07:53The Western Australian government forcibly removed the final few residents by 2022 and wiped
07:58the town from official maps as it stands as the largest contaminated site in the Southern
08:03Hemisphere.
08:04This is the Corpus Delicti.
08:06That's blue asbestos.
08:09Look at this.
08:11And it's all over everywhere.
08:14Number 13, Plymouth, Montserrat.
08:17Nicknamed the Emerald of the Caribbean, Montserrat is an island of raw beauty shaped by the power
08:22of a volcano and polished by time.
08:24Often referred to as a modern-day Pompeii, Plymouth is the only ghost capital in the Americas.
08:30The Georgian-era city was a lively hub of 4,000 people until the Soufriere Hills volcano awoke
08:37in 1995.
08:38Over a period of two years, cataclysmic eruptions sent pyroclastic flows racing down the island's
08:45natural valleys directly into the capital.
08:47Plymouth was buried under ash that measured up to 39 feet in some areas, and the city
08:53was completely evacuated.
08:54Today, Plymouth sits entirely abandoned within a highly restricted exclusion zone.
08:59You can still see the upper floors of some of the multi-story buildings, but continuous
09:03mud flows have been burying the city even deeper, and the famous church spire that could
09:07once be seen has disappeared beneath the rising ground level.
09:11July 18th, 1995 was a regular Tuesday in the evening.
09:18I think most people started hearing what sounded like a jet engine.
09:25We couldn't really figure out what was happening.
09:28Number 12.
09:29Centralia, Pennsylvania.
09:31This once vibrant mining community has been disappearing for decades.
09:36A fire burning deep beneath the ground is to blame.
09:39Once a bustling 19th century boomtown with 14 active coal mines and over 2,500 residents,
09:45Centralia was sealed by the most unlikely of fates.
09:48In 1962, a fire started in the town's landfill and ignited the labyrinthine coal tunnels zigzagging
09:55hundreds of feet beneath the surface.
09:57The fire caught a massive coal seam inside these tunnels and proved impossible to extinguish.
10:03By the 1980s, the ground was collapsing in scorching sinkholes, and noxious plumes of carbon
10:08monoxide were issuing from the streets.
10:10It forced a government-mandated evacuation, and almost every building has since been raised.
10:16Smoke still billows from fissures in the earth, and the fire is expected to burn for
10:20centuries.
10:20As the fire burns, it's oxidizing the sulfur in the pyrite, and so you're getting sulfur
10:26dioxide from that.
10:27You're also getting probably carbon monoxide, because it's not burning completely.
10:31There's not enough oxygen down there.
10:33It's a real witch's brew coming out of that pipe.
10:35Just the nasty stuff.
10:37Nasty stuff.
10:38Yeah.
10:39Number 11.
10:40Pyramiden, Norway.
10:41I never thought of visiting it, because I knew that it's a ghost town, so nobody lives
10:51here, and besides, it's too far, and I had no idea how to get here.
10:55Named after the pyramid-shaped mountain that towers above it, Pyramiden is an abandoned
11:00Soviet coal mining settlement located on the Svalbard archipelago.
11:05Founded by Sweden in 1910 and later sold to the Soviet Union, Pyramiden became a bustling
11:10community of 2,500 inhabitants with a cultural center, theater, and uniquely enough, the
11:15northernmost monument to Vladimir Lenin.
11:18But mining operations abruptly ceased in 1998, and the settlement was entirely abandoned within
11:24months.
11:24The extreme Arctic cold has perfectly preserved the town's infrastructure, and it now stands
11:29as an open-air museum with fully furnished dormitories and 24-hour cantinas.
11:35Here, I'm a person, and everybody knows me.
11:38In St. Petersburg, I'm just one of 5 million people.
11:44Number 10.
11:45Verosha, Cyprus.
11:46The disputed area of Verosha is truly something to behold.
11:50Trapped in the past, this town was abandoned 46 years ago, and no one has lived here since.
11:59Sealed off and neglected, its buildings are decaying and roads crumbling.
12:04On one side are the idyllic white sand beaches and blue waters of Famagusta.
12:10But swimmers need only turn their heads to see the military blockades and fences and the
12:15distant sight of an abandoned city, its gray tower standing utterly abandoned.
12:20In its heyday, Verosha was a popular tourist destination, visited by the likes of Richard
12:26Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. However, tourism stalled following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus
12:31in 1974, and the city's inhabitants fled the area.
12:35The Geneva peace talks have collapsed.
12:37The Turks have lost patience, have given up words in favor of war.
12:42They will take what they want of Cyprus by force of arms.
12:45Verosha has remained abandoned since the mid-70s, although a population of 226 was reported
12:52in the 2011 census. In 2020, some parts of Verosha were finally open to the public.
12:58And authorities have continuously expanded public access across the beachfront and more
13:03city blocks, turning the area into a popular destination for dark tourism.
13:07Hundreds of people have come to visit, curious to see this famous ghost town.
13:12Number 9. Hashima Island, Japan
13:15Located 10 miles from Nagasaki is Hashima Island. The island spans 16 acres and contains both a
13:22famous seawall and crumbling concrete apartment buildings. It began its life as a seabed coal mining
13:29facility operating from 1887 to 1974, coincidentally the same year that Verosha was abandoned.
13:36Mines were built. People came. The money flowed.
13:41The island's population peaked in 1959 with over 5,200 permanent residents.
13:47Unfortunately, Japan began replacing coal with petroleum throughout the 60s,
13:52and work on Hashima Island soon dried up, forcing its inhabitants to leave for better opportunities.
14:08It has remained barren ever since, although the island is open for tourism. It has also been
14:13used as a filming location for TV and movies, and it served as Raul Silva's hideout in Skyfall.
14:19Hello, James. Welcome. Do you like the island?
14:24Number 8. Consono, Italy
14:26Back in the early 1960s, Italy was experiencing an economic boom, and a rich entrepreneur named
14:32Mario Bagno had visions of a Las Vegas in Italy. He purchased a plot of land and began building the
14:39so-called City of Toys, which was meant to attract tourists from nearby Milan. Like Vegas, Consono was
14:45filled with kitschy buildings and attractions. However, an unforeseen tragedy struck the city,
14:50with the main load reading into Consono being washed away in a storm. It spelled doom for
14:56prospective tourism, and construction on Consono was permanently halted, despite many of its
15:01buildings nearing completion. The site is currently accessible, but visitors certainly won't find the
15:07glitz and glamour of Italian Vegas.
15:09Number 7. Kolmanskop, Namibia
15:12Found in Africa's Namib desert is a sandy ghost town by the name of Kolmanskop. Afrikaans for
15:18Kolmans head, Kolmanskop was founded in the early 20th century, when German miners looking for diamonds
15:24settled in the area. The village had it all, including a casino, theater, and even Africa's first tram.
15:30The town grew quickly, fueled by the enormous wealth hidden beneath the sands.
15:36The area began to decline in the late 1920s, when a greater source of diamonds was found
15:41hundreds of miles to the south in Orangemund, prompting many of its inhabitants to pack up and
15:46move. When they were abandoned, it left this really striking environment with these quaint
15:52European cottages just taken over by the orange sand. Furthermore, the price of diamonds was
15:58dramatically decreasing. The village was abandoned for good in 1956, and today many of its buildings
16:04have been reclaimed by the desert, its hallways overflowing with invading sand dunes.
16:09Number 6. Krakow, Italy
16:11The beautiful Krakow was a victim of plumbing. Found in the Italian province of Matera,
16:17the area of Krakow has been inhabited since at least the 8th century BCE, and reached a population
16:23of over 1,000 in the 1500s. Unfortunately, poor infrastructure in the water and sewer systems
16:30eventually resulted in a series of devastating landslides, and much of Krakow was evacuated
16:36in the early 1960s. It was abandoned entirely after the 1980 Irpinja earthquake, which killed up to 5,000
16:44people and displaced 250,000. Today, Krakow is a popular film location, appearing in the likes of
16:51Quantum of Solace and the Passion of the Christ.
16:56Number 5. Bodhi, California
16:59A man by the name of W.S. Bodhi discovered gold east of the Sierra Nevada in 1859,
17:07prompting the creation of a small mining camp. The Standard Company then founded a deposit of
17:12gold-bearing ore in the area, and a boomtown was quickly established as people flocked to see their riches.
17:18Located high up in the Sierra, Bodhi had a similar population to L.A. in the 1870s,
17:23and similarly ambitious dreams, and a lot more gold.
17:27By 1897, Bodhi had a population of 10,000. However, the early 1900s brought about record
17:34low mining profits, and the closure of the Standard Consolidated Mine. Despite a severe drop in
17:40population, Bodhi remained operational until 1942, when the local post office ceased operation,
17:46and the last gold mine was ordered closed. It is now an authentic Wild West ghost town,
17:53full of blowing sand and dust, creaking wood planks and empty saloons.
17:57When people come here to Bodhi, what are the first comments or what do they notice right off the bat?
18:03I would say in general people are surprised by how many buildings are here.
18:06Normally you think of the town of a ghost town.
18:09Number 4. Akarmara and Gagra, Georgia. War and strife take their toll,
18:14and so they certainly have in the highly disputed region of Abkhazia, Georgia,
18:19particularly in the abandoned urban area of Akarmara.
18:22A mountainous region in the heart of the Caucasus on the Eastern Black Sea coast.
18:26Abkhazia was once a popular Soviet holiday resort.
18:29The town of Gagra in the region found popularity in the early 20th century,
18:33when a member of the Russian royal family established a resort in the area,
18:37which eventually became a tourist destination and holiday getaway for wealthy Soviet citizens.
18:42But like the hard-up mining town of Akarmara,
18:45Gagra suffered horribly in the War of Abkhazia in the early 90s, with some buildings remaining in ruins.
18:51While the larger resort area of Gagra has somewhat rebounded,
18:55and hotels are still open to primarily Russian sun-seeking vacationers,
18:59Akarmara is essentially abandoned, complete with crumbling buildings and rusting vehicles.
19:04Number 3. Chacabuco, Chile.
19:07Like Gagra, the abandoned town of Chacabuco is steeped in a disturbing history.
19:12It's found within the Atacama Desert of northern Chile,
19:15and was founded in the mid-1920s as a booming nitrate town.
19:19Unfortunately, the invention of synthetic nitrate proved to be detrimental to the town's economy,
19:25and it was abandoned in 1938.
19:28In 1973, the Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet, turned Chacabuco into a prison camp,
19:34and it held nearly 2,000 Chilean prisoners.
19:37Today, Chacabuco stands eerily abandoned, both a shell of its once prosperous self,
19:42and an unsettling reminder of Pinochet's dictatorial reign over the country.
19:46Number 2. Oradour-sur-Glan, France.
19:50Located in central France, Oradour-sur-Glan was a thriving little village
19:55before Nazi occupation in World War II.
19:58This was Oradour in the summer of 1944.
20:01This film was made shortly before the massacre.
20:04People are out strolling.
20:09And the Allies are advancing through France.
20:11On June 14, 1944, the village was the site of horrible violence at the hands of the Waffen SS.
20:18Much of the town was razed and burnt, and it remains as such to this day.
20:22In the following days, surrounding towns, unaware of what had happened in Oradour,
20:27witnessed soldiers riding bicycles and scooters bearing the names of Oradour residents.
20:32French President Charles de Gaulle decreed that Oradour-sur-Glan would remain in its ruinous state as a
20:38tribute to its fallen citizens. Today, visitors are met with the horrible sight of crumbling and
20:43blackened buildings, rusting machinery, and abandoned everyday items like bicycles,
20:48sewing machines, and vehicles. Horrible reminders of lives prematurely taken.
20:53It's still not known why that SS company targeted Oradour for destruction.
20:58Number 1.
20:59Pripyat, Ukraine.
21:00Perhaps the most famous ghost town in the world,
21:03Pripyat, Ukraine was a closed city that housed the employees of the nearby Chernobyl nuclear power
21:09plant. By 1986, it had a population of nearly 50,000 residents. Of course, this was the site of
21:15the famous or infamous Chernobyl disaster, with fatal plumes of radiation blown into the atmosphere.
21:21The chain of disaster is now complete.
21:27Pripyat was evacuated following a lengthy and costly delay,
21:30and has remained abandoned ever since. It is the quintessential ghost town,
21:35complete with dirty and silent buildings, everyday items littering lived-in apartments,
21:40empty city squares, and even the famous Pripyat amusement park sitting rested, still, and overgrown.
21:46But Pripyat became a hotly contested area during the Russo-Ukrainian War,
21:50and today, Ukraine's 28th Chernobyl Regiment actively patrols the woods and keeps the exclusion zone protected.
21:58Last year, a Russian drone hit the outer layer of the concrete shell that keeps the damaged reactor from leaking
22:05radiation.
22:07Inside, it still holds 190 tons of plutonium and uranium.
22:12Amid the ongoing war, concerns over nuclear safety have not gone away.
22:18Have you ever been to these places? What did you think? Let us know in the comments.
22:27The