(In Pics) Eight Ghost Towns, and Why They Were Abandoned

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Ghost Towns are strangely haunting to us. The empty buildings, which we know to be empty and devoid of life, seem to watch us still, with figures hidden just out of sight, similar to a school or a mall after everyone has gone home.

Such places, reduced to their shells, hold nothing but memories of the places they used to be. Here are eight such ghost towns, and the lost stories on which they were built.

1. Akamara and Tkvarcheli

Near the river Ghalidzga in Georgia, Tkvarcheli was home to some 22,000 people as recently as 1989. A booming coal town, it found itself in the middle of the War in Abkhazia in the early 1990s. Besieged by Georgian forces, the town held out with *Russian* *aid, but could not be saved. Today the ghost town of Akamara, within Tkvancheli, is home to only 35 residents (Alaexis /* *CC BY-SA 2.5*)

2. Kuldhara, the Haunted Village

*Kuldhara* *is an abandoned village situated in the Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan in Northern* *India. It was inhabited by Paliwal Brahmins who specialized as priests, teachers, physicians, and as kings. However, by the 19th century, it was abandoned and has acquired the reputation of a* *haunted* *site. It is believed that the abandonment was due to the lack of water access and the atrocities of an official named Salim Singh (Dishita Bhowmik /* *CC BY-SA 4.0*)

3. Oradour-sur-Glane: The D-Day Massacre

*On 10 June 1944, just four days after the D-Day Allied landings in Normandy against* *Nazi* *occupied* *France*, a German SS division surrounded the small village of Oradour-sur-Glane and ordered everyone to assemble in the main square. The men were then shot and burned, and the women and children trapped in a barn which was set on fire. 190 men, 247 women and 205 children were killed, and the town was razed, standing empty to this day (Dna-Dennis / *Public Domain*)

4. Aceredo, Drowned for Profit

*Aceredo* *was one of four villages drowned under a man-made reservoir in 1992 in northwest* *Spain*. The residents maintain that they were given no choice and that they were forced out of their homes, many of which they had lived in for their entire lives. In 2021 receding water levels revealed the remains of the city and supported these claims, as evidence such as possessions still in houses and places laid at tables suggest the people were removed suddenly and without warning (Estevoaei / *CC BY-SA 4.0*)

5. Dhanushkodi: Cursed by Nature

On the extreme southern tip of India, hard by the crossing to the island of Sri Lanka, Dhanushkodi was a bustling market town situated in an unfortunate area. Unknown to the residents, Dhanushkodi was built in a highly unstable area, and in 1964 it was swamped by a cyclone. Waves 7 m (23 feet) high were dashed against the town by winds as fast as 280 kmh (170 mph), killing 1,800 people and stranding the town. Today it is almost completely abandoned (Artqu / Adobe Stock)

6. Lake Nyos and the Lost Town of Chah

*In 1986, seismic activity released a pocket of carbon dioxide from deep under the bedrock beneath* *Lake Nyos* in Cameroon. The bubble rose to the surface and engulfed the surrounding area, suffocating everyone nearby. 1,746 people were killed overnight, including the entire town of Chah, and nobody knew anything about it until visitors the next day found everyone dead (Ppong.it / *Public Domain*)

7. Val Jalbert: From Ghost Town to Model Town

*Val Jalbert was founded in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec,* *Canada*, in 1901, a bustling community built around the local paper mill. However when the paper mill closed in 1927 the entire population, robbed of their income, left the village and sought their fortunes elsewhere. Today, with over 70 buildings untouched by time or modern revisions Val Jalbert is considered one of the best preserved ghost towns in the world (Clifden / *Public Domain*)

8. Pripyat and Chernobyl

*50,000 people used to live here, in the most famous ghost town of them all. Pripyat, along with the 14,000 people in the nearby town of* *Chernobyl, was evacuated in the days following the explosion of the fourth reactor of the nearby* *nuclear power* plant, Ukraine’s first, on 26 April 1986. Chernobyl had a long history, dating back to the 2nd century AD, and had been a major center for Hasidic Jews in the 16th century. Only 1,000 people live in Chernobyl today, and nobody lives in Pripyat (RealLeo / *CC BY-SA 4.0*)

Top Image: Cars lie abandoned in the ghost town of Oradour-sur-Glane, declared a national monument after the Second World War by Charles de Gaulle. Source: ChGuss / Adobe Stock.

By Joseph Green

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Joseph Green

Joseph Green is editor for Historic Mysteries, which combines his background in English Literature with a lifelong fascination for the strange and the unexplained. Read More