However strange it may sound, many are attracted by ghost towns, shrouded in terrible stories and dark past. These places evoke a number of questions, beginning with why they were chosen by otherworldly forces and that contributed to the fact that now no one wants to move here.
This is human nature, but it's hard for us to cope with our own curiosity and not stick our nose out of our business. In the world there are ghost cities, where tourists are happy to enter, but there are also points on earth that no one is advised to visit. Well, are you ready to mock your nervous system?
1. North-Brothe Island
This small island, uninhabited until 1885, belonging to New York, has a not very good reputation. In the 1890s, a hospital specializing in treating smallpox was moved here, and the most famous patient was Mary Mallon or Typhoid Mary. She vehemently denied having any diseases, including typhus. Moreover, despite the prohibitions of doctors, she refused to work as a cook. So that you understand the horror of the situation, during its work in the food industry, 50 people got infected from it, of which three went to the next world. Moreover, on this island in the 1950s, a clinic was opened for the rehabilitation of drug addicts. Many patients claimed that they were being held there against their own will. As a result, many people treated after discharge again started using drugs.
2. Tavarga, Libya
Since 30,000 people were driven out of these places, Tavarga remains an abandoned city, where the inhabitants are unlikely to return. Behind this city, for a long time, the reputation of a place in which they mocked the local black population, the place where the genocide on racial grounds ruled. To date, more than 1,300 Tawarga residents are reported missing, arrested. Some of them were subject to enforced disappearance. The city's population was tortured, ill-treated by the Libyan militia. So, many residents of Tawarga were beaten with whips, hoses, metal rods, electric shockers were used against them.
3. Ross Island, India
Originally it was inhabited in 1788. However, the unfavorable conditions of the island led to a high mortality rate. As a result, Ross became an abandoned area on which old houses, a church, shops, a hospital building and a large pool wrapped the foliage. In 1887, a correctional colony was established on its territory. Today it is an uninhabited area, where brave tourists visit each day.
4. Dallall, Ethiopia
This is one of the most inaccessible places on earth, which can only be reached via caravan routes, sent here to collect and deliver salt. And not far from this area is the volcano Dallall, the last eruption of which falls on 1926. By the way, the highest average annual temperature (+34 ° C) was noted here.
5. Thurmond, West Virginia, United States
In 2010, only five people lived on the territory of this ghost town. And once here life was boiling, and Thurmond was a city of railway workers. In the period from 19 to 20 century in this area was a resort, which attracted a lot of visitors. But after he burned down, the town began to decline and by 1950 was completely emptied.
6. Orodur sur Glane, France
During the Second World War, the peaceful population of the village was mercilessly destroyed. In June 1944, all the men of the village of Orudur-sur-Glan were taken to the sheds, where they began to shoot. Later the SS men doused those who survived by burning a mixture and set it alight. 197 people were killed, and five managed to escape. But the most terrible thing was that the invaders of all women and children were locked in a burning temple. After the civilians tried to get out of the blazing building, the Germans began to shoot innocent women and children. 240 women and 205 children were killed. Only one woman survived.
7. Terlingua, Texas
Here's to you a classic Texan ghost town, around which there are a lot of legends. At the beginning of the last century it was a working village, built near the mines where mercury was mined. However, over time, mercury stocks decreased, workers' incomes decreased, which led to the outflow of residents - in about 1940 there was practically no one left in the village.
8. Kahaba, Alabama, USA
Once Kahaba was the capital of Alabama. But because of the swampy and permanently flooded terrain in 1825, the central part of the state became the town of Selma. And when the Civil War began, the cases in Kahab went to decline. As a result, the blockade forced the local population to leave their homes. And in 1865 the city was completely destroyed by the flood.
9. Essex County Prison, New Jersey, USA
Built in 1837, the old prison building is one of the oldest in the district. It was so dangerous that its inhabitants had to leave Essex. That is why many confidential documents are still found here. Later, the old prison became a home for homeless drug addicts, who painted her graffiti.
10. Kennecott, Alaska
This abandoned miner's house was once the center that controlled the activities of several copper mines, but then the reserves of minerals dried up and by the mid-1950s the city was finally emptied. Now on its streets you can see only long extracted copper from the earth.
11. Nova Sidad de Quilamba, Angola, Africa
In this city there is a ghostly silence. Nova Sidad de Quilamba is a new development area that includes 750 eight-story houses, dozens of schools and over 100 retail outlets. It is located in isolation - 30 km from the capital of Angola, Luanda, and is designed for half a million people who have not appeared here. Imagine only: the building area is 5 000 hectares! Since the start of sales of the first batch of 2,900 apartments, 220 have been bought. The reason for this is too high prices and unrealistic conditions for taking a mortgage. As a result, this microdistrict is now empty.
12. Pyramid, the Arctic Circle
This is an old mining community that is located beyond the Arctic Circle. At first it belonged to Sweden, but in 1927 it was sold to the USSR, which has mined mineral resources here for 70 years. As a result, the mines were closed and the population was gone. It is rumored that due to the extreme colds, the Pyramid will be a ghost town for several tens of years.
13. Riolith, Nevada, USA
It is a small abandoned town that is not far from Las Vegas. At first, in 1905, it was built as a mining village, but a year later in connection with the panicky expectation of an earthquake that had previously affected San Francisco, Riolith stopped growing. After that the recession of the gold rush began and in 1920 the town was completely emptied.
14. Virginia City, Montana, United States
Once this place was home to 10,000 inhabitants. He, like many other American towns, was a mining community and, as soon as the reserves of minerals dried up, people began to leave their native walls. Today, Virginia City attracts many tourists who want to enjoy the atmosphere of the old Wild West. True, some argue that in the evenings on the streets of the city you can see wandering ghosts.
15. Gowan, Washington, USA
Govan was a modest farm town, in which 115 people lived happily. But the fire that happened here completely consumed the local market and the main road, as a result of which the local people left in search of a better life. And after the post office was closed in 1967, the city finally acquired the status of a ghost.
16. Centrailia, Pennsylvania, United States
In 1814, a tavern was opened on the territory of Santreilia, later the mining engineer Alexander V. Ria took up the design of the streets. Every year the city blossomed more and more. There were seven churches, five hotels, twenty seven saloons, two theaters, a bank, a post office and fourteen department stores and grocery stores. Also here the coal industry functioned. But 1962 was the beginning of the end. So, the local people set fire to a dump that was not completely extinguished. As a result, the fire spread through the hole in the mine to other abandoned coal mines near Centrelia. Attempts to extinguish the fire were unsuccessful. Over time, people began to complain about the deterioration in health, provoked by the release of carbon monoxide. In 1984, most of the residents left their homes. It still burns underground fire and it is believed that it will ravage another 250 years.
17. Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia
This Australian city is located on the Tasman Peninsula. Here in 1833 a prison was built, behind which fame was the most brutal on the continent. And in April 1966 in Port Arthur there was a massacre of residents and visitors of the city, during which 35 people were killed and 37 injured.
18. Boston Mills, Ohio, United States
Americans call it "City of Hell." Around him, there are many stories related to serial killers, and the satanic cult. Boston Mills was founded in 1806. Soon it became the National Park. Nothing is really known about its inhabitants. One thing is clear: at home they are boarded up, and the city is empty. But after a toxic substance leaked from rusted barrels in 1986, the evaporation from which caused the disease from one of the tourists, Boston Mills began to be called a city in which the government tries to hide the fact of chemical pollution.
19. St. Mary's College, Maryland, USA
But the Americans call the ruins of the former college of St. Mary the "Hell's Home". In 1890, its doors were open to boys, preparing to enter the seminary, but already in 1950, the college ceased to function. And in 1997 the fire burned most of the abandoned buildings, including the former buildings of the college.
20. Humberstone, Chile
This is an abandoned mining town, which is located in the Chilean Atacama Desert. Once it was the largest center for the extraction of saltpetre. Humberstone was founded in 1872, but as a result of depletion of reserves, since 1958 the local population began to leave the city limits. Today, he slowly rusts, falls apart and can not resist the harsh conditions of the desert. In 2005, Humberstone was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
21. Varosha, Cyprus
Once it was a popular tourist destination. He was even visited by Brigitte Bardot, Richard Barton, Elizabeth Taylor and many other celebrities. In 1974, there was a coup in the country, as a result of which Cyprus was split into Greek and Turkish parts. As a result, the Greeks who lived in tourist Varos were ordered to leave their homes, and in 1984 they forbade anyone to settle this quarter. As a result, now Varosha - a ghost, a place with cracked asphalt, empty apartments, where the balconies still hang clothes, for which no one will return.
22. Pripyat, Ukraine
After the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986, life in this city stopped. With a population of 49,000 people, Pripyat overnight became a ghost town, where never again to hear children's laughter. It forever remained frozen and after decades of its building, the attractions were engulfed by green foliage.
23. Colmanskop, Namibia
This city is located in the Namib Desert, which is 10 km from the Atlantic coast. Once upon a time, diamonds were found here, and a few years later Kolmanskop was built up into large houses. It had a school, a hospital and a stadium. But the reserves of the fossil quickly disappeared and as a result, through harsh conditions (lack of water, constant sandstorms), the population left this city.
24. Agdam, Azerbaijan
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Agdam plunged into chaos as a result of the appearance of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. The war began and the city was shelled. Once there lived 40,000 people, but then Agdam gradually left thousands of its inhabitants. Soon, the Armenian soldiers completely destroyed something that at least reminded something of the once boiling life here. Now it is a ghost town filled with rubble, which Armenian military uses as a buffer zone.
25. Isla de Las Munecas, Mexico
Leaving his wife and child, Don Julian Santana moved to an uninhabited island, which is located near Lake Teshuilo. There is a rumor that a girl drowned here before his eyes. To honor her memory, he collected dolls for 40 years and hung them around the island. Today, on the island's territory, hundreds of disfigured toys can be seen everywhere, whose unfavorable weather conditions and time have turned into something eerie. Ironically, in 2001, Julian Santana was found drowned in the same place where, as he claimed, a little girl died.