An arctic ghost town, Pyramiden

Pyramiden is an abandoned Russian settlement and coal mining community on the archipelago of Svalbard, Norway. Sweden founded if in 1919 and sold it to the Soviet Union in 1927. It's name comes from the pyramid-shaped mountains near the town. The town once had 1.000 residents, but in 1998 it was abandoned by Arktikugol Trust, the Russian state company who owned it, meaning that another ghost town was born. The town was abandoned in a hurry and things remain largely as they were in 1998. The residents were given just hours to pack their bags and leave.

The modern ghost town of Kangbashi

Usually, a ghost town is considered to be that human settlement, which after years of being inhabited, is eventually abandoned by people due to different causes, such as disasters or economic downturns. But how can an ultra modern city be turned into a ghost town right after it was built? Well, the answers finds itself in China, in the city of Ordos, where Kangbashi, one of the newest and most modern neighborhoods is absolutely empty.

Prypiat, the famous ghost town

On April 26th, 1986 an explosion in the reactor number four at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant would permanently change the face of Ukraine and Eastern Europe. Chernobyl remains in the collective memory of mankind as the worst nuclear disaster in the history of nuclear energy production. Maybe the man made disaster with the most impact on mankind. Radiation resulting from the explosion caused thousands of deaths in Ukraine, Russia and neighboring countries, but long-term effects of this catastrophe are more serious: the spread of cancer diseases, children born with birth defects, irradiation of agricultural land and more. All these form a sum of effects caused by a single event, which in turn generates more negative effects.

Post-industrial relics

This post has been sitting in the drafts section since June 2011. I wonder why I forgot about it. Well, that's not important now, the photos are nice and you will surely enjoy them.

The story of Hashima Island

Hashima is a small rocky island, situated near the coast of Nagasaki in Japan. Although tiny in size, the island is not unimportant, being Japan's main coal supplier for almost a century. Located above a huge coal deposit, which extends to the ocean, Hashima itself was an excellent opportunity to make a fortune, this opportunity couldn't be missed.

Centralia, Pennsylvania

In the past, Centralia could be described as a friendly town with 3,000 residents, who could enjoy common facilities: shops, churches, hotels and bars. As with other U.S. cities, Centralia was what could be called a "boomtown". The first inhabitants settled here in 1866, and the settlement rapidly flourished, after profits were incoming from mining going on in the hill area. In the particular case of this city, what helped it rise, also made it collapse.

Motorless city of Detroit

Some abandoned areas are part of some highly populated cities. How can a metropolis have an empty "heart"? Probably one of the most striking examples is the city of Detroit, which houses a totally abandoned neighborhood and fallen industry.

Humberstone and Santa Laura, Chile

All over the world you can find a lot of modern places, with a sad story, which resulted in their abandonment. We know them as ghost towns. Invariably, each one of them hides an interesting story. Some, like the chinese city of Beichuan, have been the victims of natural disasters. Others, such as San Zhi in Taiwan have been abandoned by some rather esoteric reasons. The stillness that surrounds these former human settlements seems almost tangible. In contrast with the deafening silence that dominates these lands, the omnipresent and chaotic noise that characterizes the big metropolises becomes even harder to imagine.

Now, let's talk about Humberstone and Santa Laura, in Northern part of Chile.

Changes are upon us!

We finally have a domain! Happy happy joy joy!

Seeing the number of visits that keep growing and growing, I decided to finally take the next step and get a domain. 

Unfortunately "hiat" seems to be a widely used term and all relevant domains are already used so I didn't have many name options to choose from, and still keep the reference to Hiat.

So, we are now a .org site, that will continuously inform people about the places that have been forgotten. A sort of derelict Wikipedia, hehe.

Please rate the posts again with +1's and Reactions, as they were deleted when the blog switched to the domain.

Also, many other changes are being planned.

Changes would include:

- Host changing

- Site redesign

- More informative articles

- Maybe a forum

- Photo submission

- Photo contests with prizes!

(Please suggest more or comment on these below.)

Don't forget to add the new link to your bookmarks!

Last cinema in town

This town had 2 cinemas that I am aware of. One was closed many years back, I remember playing there after it was closed. They eventually turned it into an athenaeum, which is nice.

The other is this one, closed in 2009 if I'm not mistaking. It's a filmless town now, like many other cities in Romania.

Forgotten trains in Russia

In this article I will feature photos made in Abkhazia, a small state on the eastern coast of the Black Sea. Although Abkhazia is no longer a part of the Soviet Union, and is considered a part of the Georgian territory, you can not ignore the fact that it was build by the Soviet Union. That fact makes the title. The Abkhazia station and everything in it, is in this position of decay since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, more than 20 years ago, because the new formed independent state cannot maintain and repair everything, by having a struggling economy.
Besides the trains, you need to also see the station, which will be in this article.

 

Forgotten trains in Romania

Romania, the wonder land, holds a pretty good amount of abandoned and forgotten trains, mainly cargo and passenger cars. It's not even a surprise, considering the amount of abandoned factories and buildings. 
Although the number of abandoned trains is considerable, I wasn't able to find many photo sources, so, for now, I'm gonna present to you the ones that I did find, mainly on train enthusiast forums. It's a collection I gathered, holding 39 photos of decaying metal. In the future I hope to visit some of these carriages myself, the ones that were not transformed into scrap metal. Yes, the majority of trains in this article are now scrap metal.