1. Fordlandia, Brazil
Established by Henry Ford – the founder of Ford motors – in 1927, Fordlandia was intended to be a huge rubber plantation in the Amazon forest. Ford planned a corporate city surrounding it with every kind of imaginable luxury. Swimming pools, a golf course, bungalows, and even a place for practicing national American dances – all these were supposed to be a part of the corporate city. But the idea of liquor ban infuriated the native workers who threw the cars into the river and chased away the managers into the jungle in 1930. Since then, the city has been abandoned.
2.Varosha, Cyprus
Varosha was a modern tourist area in the early 1970s in north Cyprus. Its luxurious beaches and hotels attracted celebrities including Brigitte Bardot and Elizabeth Taylor, who took sunbaths right on the Varosha beach. But, with the invasion of the Turkish in 1974, things changed drastically and the entire population fled the area in fear of a massacre. Ever since, due to tense political situations, the area has remained abandoned.
3.Pripyat, Ukraine
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster of 1986 caused a city-wide leak of nuclear radiation. Once a township of thousands of plant workers and their families, Pripyat had to be evacuated immediately.
4. Villa Epecuén, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina
The erstwhile tourist village of Villa Epecuén on the shores of Lake Epecuén was very popular during the 1920s – early 1980s. However, when the dam holding back the lake’s waters failed in 19085, the entire village was flooded. Though the water receded, what remained of the village has been abandoned since then.
