Urban exploration - part 3

My third post here covers what seems to be the best places for urban exploration all over the world.

Gunkanjima, Japan
It's one of those places, that seems to look like from a postapocalyptic movie. Between 1887 and 1974 it was a coal mining facility. During that time it was a property of Mitsubishi that wanted to retrieve coal from the bottom of the sea. That big concrete building there was built in 1916 for workers which were growing in numbers. Because of the coal being replaced by petrolum, in 1960s and 1970s more and more coal mines were being closed all over the Japan and Gunkanjima's one wasn't an exception. 1974 was the last year there were any inhabitants there. After about 35 years of closure, the island was opened for visitors in 2009. You can visit



Varosha, Cyprus
Varosha's history is complex as the history of the whole Cyprus. It is Famagusta's city district. Starting at 1970 this place was a number one to visit when going to the Cyprus. It was a biggest holiday resort there especially for wealthy people. Elizabeth Taylor and Brigitte Bardot were Varosha's fans. Sad part starts on 1974 when Turkey invaded Cyprus in response to a Greek military junta backed coup. Since that day, the island is divided into 2 parts seen on the map below. One is Turkey's territory, second is part of the Republic of Cyprus. It's amazing that Nicosia -- the capital of Cyprus -- has a country's border in the center (seen on picture below). Turkey wasn't interested in keeping this place as a holiday resort. No one can live there, no one can do anything there, no one can there without a permission. Sad to see that such a lovely place changes that way.




Balestrino and Craco, Italy
These are two small, stoned villages in Italy that were established in 19-th century. There were couple hundreds villagers in each of them. Both severely suffered from earthquakes in 1990s and are left deserted since then.