Ghost cities of the world share an eerie haunted quality that is part of what makes them so fascinating.
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Status: Unbuilt Location: Centralia, PA, US My Role: Designer
Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong. Inhabiting a block the size of the Tokyo Dome, Kowloon Walled City resembled a living, breathing creature, born from its inhabitants over its long lifespan. But the walled city was more than a physical conglomeration of buildings and people, it was an inadvertent symbol of the long struggle between China and Hong Kong, ruled by neither.
Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong. William Gibson character describes it best, in 1997's Idoru: There was a place near an airport, Kowloon, when Hong Kong wasn't China, but there had been a mistake, a long time ago, and that place, very small, many people, it still belonged to China. So there was no law there. An outlaw place. And more and more people crowded in; they built it up, higher. No rules, just building, just people living. Police wouldn't go there. Drugs and whores and gambling. But people living, too. Factories, restaurants. A city. No laws.
Creepiest Abandoned Cold War Missile Silo. Atlas F Launch Base, "Boquet 556-5", Lewis, New York, USA. A long way down: View to the bottom of the silo from level 10 The Atlas F missiles were the last and most sophisticated of the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). What’s more, the complexes built to house them, like this one in Lewis, NY, were among the strongest structures ever constructed – built to withstand all but a direct nuclear hit.
Punuk Islands: "The Graveyard of the Bering Sea" - artbybautista
Centralia Pennsylvania. This was a world where no human could live, hotter than the planet Mercury, its atmosphere as poisonous as Saturn's. At the heart of the fire, temperatures easily exceeded 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit [540 degrees Celsius]. Lethal clouds of carbon monoxide and other gases swirled through the rock chambers.- David DeKok, Unseen Danger: A Tragedy of People, Government, and the Centralia Mine Fire (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986)
The ruins of the future - artbybautista
Centralia...an opportunity to see a ghost town before it becomes one...
Ashland...and I looked deep down into the abyss of the disaster area...NOTE: Due to the presence of toxic gases from the mine fire, proceed at your own risk.
Punuk Islands: "The Graveyard of the Bering Sea" - artbybautista
Pripyat Ukraine: The shattered remains of the control room for Reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine.
The Amazing Inner Workings of CERN. Deep underground, over 330 feet (100 meters) below the Earth’s surface, a tunnel runs for 16.7 miles in an unbroken circle. Giant machinery dwarfs the figures of humans in jumpsuits and hard hats as they work. It could be a scene from a Bond movie, with the construction created by some evil genius out to destroy the world. But the aim of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is, of course, not destruction, but discovery – and discovery on a grand scale.
![Centralia Pennsylvania. This was a world where no human could live, hotter than the planet Mercury, its atmosphere as poisonous as Saturn's. At the heart of the fire, temperatures easily exceeded 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit [540 degrees Celsius]. Lethal clouds of carbon monoxide and other gases swirled through the rock chambers.- David DeKok, Unseen Danger: A Tragedy of People, Government, and the Centralia Mine Fire (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986)](https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/uq/uqec2maygbh8y3k4.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat "Centralia Pennsylvania. This was a world where no human could live, hotter than the planet Mercury, its atmosphere as poisonous as Saturn's. At the heart of the fire, temperatures easily exceeded 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit [540 degrees Celsius]. Lethal clouds of carbon monoxide and other gases swirled through the rock chambers.- David DeKok, Unseen Danger: A Tragedy of People, Government, and the Centralia Mine Fire (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986)")
