1. Sanzhi District, Taiwan
The “Sanzhi UFO houses” were a major development project for some pretty unusual-looking vacation homes, which was abandoned in 1978 before it could be completed. The site was demolished in 2008, and is now being redeveloped.
2. Craco, Italy
Craco was a medieval village built high up on a steep summit for defensive reasons, but recurring earthquakes eventually made it impossible to sustain. Today, less than 800 people live there in a commune, while the majority remains eerily uninhabited.
3. Oradour-sur-Glane, France
Oradour-sur-Glane was a village destroyed by a German military unit in 1944, killing 642 of its inhabitants. Although a new village was built nearby to replace it, today the original village stands as a memorial.
4. Kolmanskop, Namibia
Formerly a bustling diamond mining town, after the market declined, inhabitants began leaving the town after WWI; by 1954, it was completely deserted. As it was an enclave for German colonialists for many years, the architecture is not only out of place, but its abandonment enhances it even more.
5. Pripyat, Ukraine
After the infamous Chernobyl incident, the entire city had to be abandoned in 1986 due to nuclear radiation.