At seven billion people, the global population is now bigger than it’s ever been which is perhaps why it’s so surprising to find there are still so many places left to discover.
Perhaps what’s more surprising than that, however, is the number of places that were once inhabited but have now long been abandoned.
All of the following were once, in their own way, busy, thriving areas of human activity but now stand empty and give an eerie insight into what our planet would look like sans mankind. Take a look at the places you can’t cruise to anymore…
Oradour-sur-Glane
The village of Oradour-sur-Glane in Haute-Vienne was almost completely destroyed by the Nazis on the 10th June 1944 when 642 of the village’s residents were sadly massacred.
A new village was built nearby, but the ruins were deliberately left as a memorial by then-French President Charles de Gaulle.
Now it is completely unique in Europe as a fully-preserved, ruined village that was the site of the worst Nazi massacre on French soil.
The Paris Catacombs
Holding the remains of over six million people, this underground ossuary has the unofficial title of the World’s Largest Grave…
In 1786, the former Tombe-Issoire quarries were blessed and turned into the Paris Catacombs- it took two years for all the bones from the Les Innocents to be transferred here!
It was already a tourist attraction by the advent of the 19th century and is today part of the official Paris Musees institution.
Hashima Island
Hashima Island (sometimes known as Battleship Island in English) is an abandoned island about 15 km off the coast of Nagasaki.
Known for its undersea coal mines, the island was deserted in 1974 when the mine closed and is now a major Japanese tourist spot with talk about it becoming a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Cape May Bunker, New Jersey
With seven-foot walls, this bunker is another holdout from WW2 sitting rather incongruously on a beach in New Jersey.
It was never meant to be a permanent structure but has now become a local attraction for sightseers to the area.
Aniva Rock House Lighthouse, Russia
The Aniva lighthouse was built by the Japanese in 1939 on an island located between the sea of Japan and Russia’s Sea of Okhotsk.
Since then numerous territorial disputes led to some half a million Japanese residents being evacuated during WW2 and the island has remained abandoned ever since.
Eilean Donan
Eilean Donan is a small island at the junction of three lochs in Scotland. The small castle on the island was built in the thirteenth century before being destroyed in the Jacobite rebellion of 1719.
The ruins were rebuilt in the twentieth century to their current condition and have since featured in numerous movies, TV shows, commercials and pictures as the eponymous Scottish Highland castle.
Valley of the Mills, Sorrento
Completely abandoned now a mill has stood in this valley in Sorrento in one form or another since at least 900AD! It came from the biggest eruption that shook the Mediterranean…
Although rumour has it, it’s possible to gain access to the remaining part of the Deep Valley through a trapdoor…will you find out?
What do you think of these 7 creepy places you can’t cruise to anymore? Which one would you most like to visit? And which ones are you pleased you won’t be witnessing?
