To Bathe in Filmic Waters

The Ghost Town; an apocalyptic inspiration for filmmakers since the very beginning. There is nothing more surreal than witnessing an abandoned place that was once alive and bustling with people,  it is a feeling that many writers have attempted to put into words – often with apocalyptic tendencies – though few have succeeded. From the 1948 Ghost Town Western Yellow Sky starring Gregory Peck to the deserted London streets of Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later, from the frightful tension found in popular nineties video game Silent Hill to the post-apocalyptic nothingness of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer-winning novel The Road, the theme is well-trodden, everywhere you may choose to glance. There is however some degree of foundation to this surreality; the ghost town is common among the Americas, especially in the Central and Southern states. Surveys suggest that there are around 6,000 abandoned sites of settlement in Kansas alone, but what can cause such large-scale loss of population? One of the main factors is depleting natural resources, linking to roads and railways bypassing certain places. Another more sinister cause can be disaster, whether natural or man made. This two-part list will detail some of the more famous and evocative places on Earth. Enjoy!

10. Bodie, California | An Original American Ghost Town

Founded in 1876, Bodie is the authentic American ghost town. It started life as a small mining settlement, booming into a town that attracted thousands thanks to the discovery of nearby mines. By 1880 Bodie boasted a population of almost 10,000 and at its peak, 65 saloons lined the town’s main street. There was even a Chinatown with several hundred Chinese residents. Dwindling resources proved fatal however, and although greatly reduced in prominence Bodie held a permanent residency through most of the 20th century – even after a fire ravaged much of the downtown business district in 1932. In 1961 Bodie was designated a National Historic Landmark, becoming a State Historic Park a year later after the few remaining residents moved on. Today, Bodie is preserved in a state of arrested decay. Only a small part of the town survives, but summer visitors can walk the deserted streets and witness the town’s interiors with their goods still intact.

09. San Zhi, Taiwan | A Pod-City from the Past

It may look like something out of a futuristic movie but this is actually an abandoned housing project in the area of ‘San Zhi’, just North of Taiwan.  This odd looking pod village was initially built as a luxury vacation retreat for the rich, but after numerous fatal accidents during construction production was halted, never to recommence. It was a combination of lack of money and lack of willingness that eventually closed the project, but the alien-like structures remain as if in remembrance of a lost race. Indeed, rumours in the surrounding area suggest that the site is now haunted by the ghosts of those who died during construction. Naturally, the local Government looked both to cover-up these happenings and distance itself from the project despite commissioning the site in the first place. The project will certainly never be restarted but Taiwan seems reluctant to destroy the site, perhaps because of the growing urban legend associated with it.

08. Varosha, Cyprus | A Beach Resort No More

These days Varosha is an abandoned city in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, though it once existed as a luxurious holiday destination and popular quarter of the city of Famagusta. In the year of 1974 Turkish forces invaded Cyprus and tore up the island, causing tourists and citizens alike to flee the city. The Turkish military then wrapped Varosha in barbed wire and has maintained complete control of it to this day. Such a hasty evacuation of the city means that this single moment has been preserved in dust for so many years, and despite the fact that its dilapidated buildings are slowly crumbling Varosha’s beaches are now home to rare sea turtles that nest there. Many plans have been drawn up to restore Varosha to its former glory – a famous tourist spot that once attracted the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Raquel Welch and Brigitte Bardot to its beaches -  but none have materialized.

07. Gunkanjima, Japan | An Island of Broken Dreams

Hashima Island (端島; meaning Border Island) is one of around 505 uninhabited islands in the Nagasaki Prefecture of Japan about 15 kilometers from Nagasaki. It is also known as “Gunkan-jima” or Battleship Island thanks to its high sea walls and began life in 1890 when a company called Mitsubishi bought the island and began a project to retrieve coal from the bottom of the sea. This attracted much attention, and in 1916 they were forced to build Japan’s first large concrete building on the island; a block of apartments that would both accomodate workers and protect them from hurricanes. In 1959 the island’s population had swelled to a density of 835 people per hectare, but soon enough this would plummet, petroleum would replace coal and Hashima’s mines would be systematically closed. The island was the location for the 2003 film Battle Royale II and inspired the final level of popular video game Killer7.

06. Balestrino, Italy | A Crumbling Hillside Paradise

Balestrino is quite a strange case in that it was extremely difficult to find any decent information on it – at least on the abandonment itself – and no one is quite sure when the town was established despite records dating back to before the eleventh century. Records of population go back to around 1860 when around 800-850 people lived there, mainly farmers who took advantage of the landscape to farm olive trees. In the late nineteenth century the North-West coast of Italy was struck by numerous earthquakes, one of which in 1887 would destroy a handful of villages in the Savona area and damage Balestrino. Finally in 1953 the town was abandoned due to ‘geological instablility’, and the remaining inhabitants (around 400) were moved to safer ground to the west. Today around 500 people remain in the town’s newer area which is a good kilometer down the road.

Please feel free to comment or indeed suggest your own Most Interesting Abandoned Places.

The second part of this list can be found here>>>