There’s something so eerie and breathtaking about the places that haven’t seen a human for longer than they can remember. Sadly, in our increasingly urbanized world, there are not many corners left like this.
So today, we are taking you on a walk through the mysterious abandoned places where time stands still, and where yesterday and tomorrow don’t exist. From ghost-like factories, ships, castles, islands, pools, and highways, below is a breath-taking collection that proves no force is as strong as that of nature. If left untouched, it swallows everything it crosses and that’s the whole beauty of it!
Scroll down, upvote your favorite ones, and be sure to check out more eerie pictures of abandoned places from this awesome subreddit with a whopping 1.4M followers!
#1 Built In 1655
#2 Abandoned Castle In Ireland
#3 Abandoned House In The Republic Of Karelia, Russia
We live in times of rapid urbanization. In fact, it’s projected that by 2050, more than two-thirds of the world population will live in urban areas. With a whopping population of 7.9 billion, it seems like no place on Earth is left untouched by humans. But as that likely will be the prospect in the coming century, today at least, we still have some no man’s lands and abandoned places to visit.
#4 Abandoned Winter Garden Of An Abandoned Mansion, France
#5 Very Impressive Abandoned Lighthouse (Aniva Lighthouse, Russia)
#6 The Beautiful Dietla Palace – Sosnowiec – Poland
“Abandoned spaces are eerily fascinating to us because they bring human culture and nature together in unexpected ways,” Lisa Yaszek, a Regents Professor of Science Fiction Studies at Georgia Tech, told Bored Panda. Lisa researches and teaches science fiction as a global language crossing centuries, continents, and cultures.
She explained further: “We tend to think of humans as active and nature as passive, and we assume that the monuments and cities we build by manipulating the material world and separating ourselves from nature will last forever.”
#7 Petrified Ladder In France
#8 Southern Gothic
#9 Most Impressive Ceiling I Have Encountered In An Abandoned Building
It turns out that our fascination with abandoned places may come from the fact that they “remind us that nature is also an active force that moves in strong, slow, and persistent rhythms that differ from but intersect with cycles of human time.”
“In short, these places remind us that humans exist in larger webs of being, and that we might not be the most powerful thing around. It’s both a humbling and exhilarating recognition—we are not alone here on Earth,” Lisa explained.
#10 Imperial Staircase Inside An Abandoned 18th-Century Palace
#11 An Abandoned Shopping Mall Is Taken Over By Fish
#12 Abandoned Spaceship Ropeway, Japan
Moreover, according to the professor, abandoned objects and places are also appealing because they invite imaginative play. “When we see worlds collide like this, we can’t help but wonder: what happened? How did things get this way? Then we get to exercise our deductive and storytelling abilities as we piece together clues to answer our own questions. Sometimes we do this for the sheer fun of it all.”
Lisa continued: “and other times, images of discarded objects and decaying places can even get us thinking about how we can make imaginative but real change in the real world: what economic, political, and social arrangements caused this to happen? How can I work with other like-minded people to make sure that doesn’t happen in my own part of the world?”
#13 Abandoned Train
#14 Abandoned Restaurant In Victorville, California
#15 Bob Jagendorf: Detroit Train Station
#16 Bethlehem Steel, The Factory That Built NYC
#17 Abandoned Indigenous House In Papua New Guinea
#18 Former Hydraulic Laboratory At Cornell University
#19 King Alfred’s Tower, Somerset County
#20 Abandoned Psychiatric Hospital
#21 My Great Great Great Grandfather Built This House
#22 Electric Car Company Lot Left To Rot After Bankruptcy
#23 Moorehall, House And Estate Built 1795 In Mayo, Ireland. It Burnt Down 1923 During The Irish Civil War And Has Been Abandoned Ever Since
#24 Flooded Church In The City Petrolândia State Of Pernambuco Brazil
#25 Abandoned Chuck E. Cheese Animatronic Found In A Landfill
#26 Staircase In Derelict
#27 “Michelangelo da Vinci” Restaurant In Italy That Was Closed In 2014
#28 Ever Seen And Abandoned Highway ?
#29 Military Housing In NJ
#30 Old Tanks Left Underwater
#31 Abandoned Airplane
#32 Nature Takes Over This Abandoned Industrial Building But Adds A Rooftop Pool
#33 Abandoned School Room
#34 An Abandoned School In Taiwan
#35 Neat Reflections Inside An Abandoned Factory
#36 Graveyard Of Disused Ships
#37 Found On A Hike Through The Woods In The Middle Of Nowhere, West Virginia. Nothing Else Around, No Buildings Anywhere
#38 This Was Once Someone’s Home
#39 Looking Down An Abandoned ICBM Silo In Russia
#40 Failed Housing Project Outside Of Tehran
