Huge machine abandoned in Russia

According to the author of the photographs, this is the Morozov coal mine, but I wasn't able to find more about it, maybe the translation is not good. Mining here dates from 1962 but recently stopped due to power outages and power companies failing to pay debts. All the excavated earth was carried through pipelines, and gradually created this huge quarry.
The excavator in the first picture is one of the hugest things you ever seen. Sadly, now, it's just another pile of rusted metal, but a glorious pile of rusted metal because of it's impressive size. It looks like a monster crane, compared to the other machines abandoned in the same area. It could make someone rich just by selling it as scrap metal (don't get any ideas government people).

Creepy graffiti in Prypiat

Prypiat, the fascinating abandoned city we all know by now, is not only being visited by tourists and urban explorers. Graffiti artists roamed it's streets numerous times, trying to convey the impact that the disaster had on this city, once inhabited by families with happy children with no worries, which had their lives turned upside-down when the disaster occurred. The artists show us the fear and sadness they, and the kids that had to leave home forever, felt.

Abandoned monuments in Yugoslavia

These monuments were built by several sculptors and architects in the 60s and 70s to commemorate sites where WWII battles took place or where concentration camps stood. In the 80s they were a major tourist attraction, but after the Republic dissolved they became just a pile of forgotten monuments. The structures once represented strength, but now they are slowly decaying and fading. Despite the fact that they were neglected lately, you can still feel what the artists tried to expose.

Podgarić

Demolished industry

These are some factories on Progresului St. in Bucharest. They are almost entirely demolished, but still attract several explorers. This particular explore didn't involve me sadly, but I need to expose this location further, to my readers.

I'll try and convince the author to take me to this place one day. Maybe I can capture even more of this place.

Source: Explorer reporting in!

The rusty Maunsell Forts

I heard of these forts about 2 years ago, but until recently, I couldn't remember how they were called.

I consider them fascinating mostly because they are abandoned, but almost unreachable. The kind of explore I will probably never have the opportunity to do. The internet has plenty of pics and info on the forts, and almost every urbex addict knows of their existence by now, but that didn't stop me from showing them to you once more.

The Maunsell Forts were small fortified towers built in the Thames and Mersey estuaries during the Second World War to help defend the United Kingdom. They were named after their designer, Guy Maunsell. The forts were decommissioned in the late 1950s and later used for other activities. One became the Principality of Sealand; boats visit the remaining forts occasionally, and a consortium called Project Redsands is planning to conserve the fort situated at Redsand.

Sanzhi UFO houses

The Sanzhi UFO houses, or the Sanzhi pod houses, or the Sanzhi Pod city were a set of abandoned buildings that were shaped like pods, situated in the Sanzhi District, Taiwan.

Shime coal mine

Along with Prypiat, this location, meaning this tower in particular, is one of the most famous abandoned places on the internet. 

While Prypiat is fascinating the internet through the fact that it's a medium sized city, it's soviet and it's abandoned, Shime coal mine got it's fame through it's unique structure. It's one of those famous internet memes everyone know about. The internet made it a meme because they say it's the perfect zombie fortress, and I don't challenge that idea. It looks pretty zombie safe.

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.