Ten of the Saddest Love Quotes Ever

Love is perhaps the only feeling in the world that is always coupled simultaneously with hope, sadness, etc. It is also probably the only thing in the world that exists in the heart of every living organism. It is one of the most deeply felt emotions in the world and surely the most touching of all. Despite all of this information the question ‘What is love?’ is still partly unanswered. It is majorly accepted as the sparks that ignite when you meet the right person, also as the chemical reaction to another person that is totally unintentional and lightens you up from within. Yet, there also exists a need to fall in love. Let me explain, how many times does it happen to you that you watch a romantic film, a beautiful tale unravels and you feel your heart melting. How many times have you cried at a sad ending and celebrated at a loving reunion? And how many times have you wished for the same to happen to you? Countless i am sure! Though the aim is not to make the readers sad, but like i said with love comes hurt so I gathered for you the ten most touching sad quotes about love..

10. SAD QUOTE 10

“My worst enemy is my memory”.
Memory – technically and medically speaking, is referred to the ability of organisms to store and recollect life’s experiences and information. Without our memory, we will not be able to manage our lives. Nevertheless, if you have been through a heart rending time with a partner in your life that you no longer see, this same helpful memory turns into a mighty enemy. The time that you have spent with the person in reference haunts you. The places you have visited, the things you have shared, the talks that you have had come bouncing back and once it starts, it is impossible to stop it. The most teasing thing is the fact that these memories make you sad and yet you do not want them to go away because in most cases, its only the memories that are left and hence they are important. The only reminder of what was once a huge part of you.

9. SAD QUOTE 9

“Sometimes it’s better to push someone away, not because you stopped loving that someone but because you have to shield yourself from pain”
People say that it is impossible to live without a person. It is not impossible to live without someone. Considering the fact that we are closest and most loved by our parents and we continue living even when they depart from the world, it is perhaps logical to conclude that one can survive with out anyone. But yes, it is a choice we seldom make. Once in love, no matter how hard it becomes, we keep hanging on. Why we hang on is not always evident but why we can’t let go is pretty obvious. It’s a bitter fact, that sometimes you need to move away, to push someone further apart from you and no, not because the feelings have vanished, but only because the pain is now over powering the love.

8. SAD QUOTE 8

““I love you” means that I accept you for the person that you are, and that I do not wish to change you into someone else. It means that I will love you and stand by you even through the worst of times. It means loving you even when you’re in a bad mood, or too tired to do the things I want to do. It means loving you when you’re down, not just when you’re fun to be with. “I love you” means that I know your deepest secrets and do not judge you for them, asking in return that you do not judge me for mine. It means that I care enough to fight for what we have and that I love you enough not to let go”
This quote describes, to quite an astonishing extent, what love actually stands for. Reading the lines in the quote above might make you very nostalgic and it might seem like something unbearably hard to do. When you actually love someone from the bottom of your heart your only preference is to see them happy. And like they say, their happiness might come from an act of love that rips your heart into pieces. What breaks my heart is to realize the fact that most of the times,on all of those pieces, the name is still the same.

7. SAD QUOTE 7

“You’ll never know pain until you look into the eyes of someone you love, and they look away”
We have seen it in the movies and we have read it in those mushy romantic novels, it often happens that the lead actress or the heroine falls in love with the lead actor or the hero only to find out that he is in love with someone else. We are accustomed to watching movies that end up with the two of them getting together and realizing their love. Sadly enough, the same cannot be said for real life. What is depicted on reel is not exactly what happens in reality where people have spent entire ages in love with a person for whom they meant nothing. For those of us who have been through this particular experience know how much it hurts.

6. SAD QUOTE 6

“When you are important to another person, that person will always find a way to make time for you, no excuses, no lies, no broken promises”
It is a very pleasing thought to know that the one who will love you truly and the one who thinks you are important, will never lie to you, will never break your heart, and will always have time for you. It is a strong contradiction that occurs when you actually get into a relationship, specially relationships that eventually end. All throughout you feel as if there would be no one more important or more loving than the one you are with only to realize that it was all fake. It pains to know that a person who thinks you are important might let you fade out of their life.

5. SAD QUOTE 5

“Time goes by a lot slower when you miss the one you love”
Nostalgia at the thought of someone is not uncommon. When you are in love, the wait is never ending. It feels as if you are miles apart and when you are finally together you are never together enough. Seconds pass in minutes and minutes in hours specially when you need to be together. The worst part, time stops mattering when you know that your wait will never end.

4. SAD QUOTE 4

“Love sometimes comes like a dream and leaves like a nightmare”
Love takes one sixth of a second to happen, but it takes eons to forget and that too if one is lucky. In the beginning it’s all smiles, and roses, and happiness, and joy and when it fades away, all that remains is a terrible and unbearable loneliness. When love walks away it leaves behind this nagging nightmare which doesn’t end even after you are wide awake until it becomes a part of you life.

3. SAD QUOTE 3

“I dream because there’s no other way I could see it happen”
When reality becomes too bitter, one escapes to dreams, and when dreams become too fantasized we move back to reality and reality hurts us again. However, when you find no other solution and there seems to be no way out, you can always escape to your dreams. Though it may seem very pathetic, but sometimes that is exactly how sad and ruined you become.

2. SAD QUOTE 2

“Someone asked me if I knew you, a million memories flashed through my mind and I whispered .. not anymore”
Relationships are beautiful till they go on. The worst part is when you are in a relationship and it eventually ends. And ends not in a manner which allows the two involved to remain friends, but ends on a scale that shatters every link. So much so that you pass by each other and it is as if nothing ever existed.

1. SAD QUOTE 1

“Tears are words the heart can’t say”
It is heard that the one who loves you will never make you cry and then there are people who say that the one who loves you will make you weep. So what to believe? It is a sad fact that no matter what happens in the end it is the tears that just keep flowing. When you are out of words to express the turmoil going on inside you, it is the tears that do the talking. Tears signify helplessness, hope, sadness, hurt, pain, and a lot more, simply to say you have had more than you can take.

Top Ten Gangster Females of the World

Remember the movie Godfather that was based on a novel by the same name? And the character itself “Godfather”, was a highly iconic character. But do not limit your brains to the prospect of Godfathers only. Yes! there exist Godmothers as well. Women with knuckles of steel that can apparently beat the hell out of you. We are talking about real life and not movie life female mob bosses and gangsters, women that most men would die at the sight off and no, not because they are drop dead gorgeous but just because they are that harmful and ruthless. Read below to find out the ten women who are still considered some of the most terrifying females in the world.

10. BONNIE PARKER

In between the years 1931 to 1934, a couple by the name Bonnie and Clyde became very famous as outlaws. They committed crimes in the United States. It is rumored that Bonnie fell in love with Clyde on sight and then joined his gang on the road. They made headlines all over the country and stayed on the wanted list for a long time. Bonnie was an accomplice to everything that Clyde did but they were known for their politeness. Well it’s not unusual to find a few decent gangsters now is it.

9. JUDY MORAN

The Moran family is an organization in Melbourne, Australia which can turn the otherwise peaceful city into dodge city. The most impressive thing about his feared family is the person who holds the reign. Judy Moran is the stealthy yet stubborn female mob boss. She is 66 years old and is considered as the family matriarch because of the varied types of responsibilities that she has. She is known to bake cookies for her boys when they come back from a day of “errands” and despite that soft corner, she will rip the ears off anyone who crosses her way. She certainly looks like that!

8. JULIE LUCAS

Coming back to gangster women who did it for love, we have Julie Lucas. Being the home-coming queen she fell in love with home-coming king and then later married him. The king being Frank Lucas who had turned the city of North Carolina from Harlem to a heroine haven. From their various acts they had gathered enough loot to live a lavish lifestyle that included Mercs and Diamonds. Julie’s loyalty to her husband and his business was proven when she spent five years in prison for it. She was caught again in 2010 when she tried selling cocaine to an informant. Well like they say, old habits die-hard.

7. XIE CAIPING

The city of China named Chongqing recently made a crackdown attack on all of the operating dark business and arrested more than 1500 suspects. The jewel in that case was the capture of Caiping. She has been known to be the leader of around 16 man ho’s strong and owned a large string of illegal casinos. Her job was to beat up cops and to bribe city officials plus what ever else it took to keep the cops off of her casino’s and their illegal activities. How good she was at her job is justified with the fact that the criminal round-up included her brother-in-law who was actually an official cop. No wonder she had strong connections.

6. HELEN GILLIS

She is basically famous for being a part of the “Baby Faced Nelson” gang. It is a well-known fact that she was completely loyal to the man that she had married and therefore participated in everything that he did which included bank robberies and crime all over the country. They became part of the Dillinger gang in 1934 and in the spring of the same year FBI agents flagged them to Wisconsin. There was a shoot out which killed Baby Faced Nelson, he died in his wife’s arms. After her husband’s death she no longer continued and handed herself in.

5. SANDRA BELTRAN

If you take one look at her mug shot and then contemplate that with the fact that she was known as the “Queen of the Pacific” you will not be able to help but imagine her with a pirates cap on her head and a skull on a dagger in the other. Well due to no fault of her own what so ever because she was born and raised this way. She was trained to be a Mexican Godmother (wouldn’t have been that terrifying if it were Hawaiian Godmother or Barbadian Godmother but oh well) and to top it all her uncle was considered the person on top of the ring of the Mexican drug dealers. She also helped others in developing and coming up with smuggling routes over the pacific coast of Mexico.

4. ROSETTA CUTULO

She is in this list mainly because she is the sister of Raffaele Cutolo, the mob boss of NCO (Nuova Camorra Organizzata) which was (in 1980′s) considered to be the biggest and most powerful crime family in Italy. She took over the business when her brother got caught and cuffed. While he served in prison, she not only followed orders from him but also made her own deals with the likes of mobsters from South America and Sicily.

3. MARIA LICCIARDI

She was the boss of the bosses of the Naples underworld and came to reign after two of her brothers along with her husband were arrested. Under her rule the family business became more lucrative and organized. From 1993 to 2001 she was the head of the Licciardi clan and introducing prostitution into Camorra was perhaps her mainstream contribution.

2. MARIA LEON

At the sweet little age of 44 she is the mother to 13 kids. And like all good mothers, in between nap times and changing diapers she single-handedly became the owner and controller of a trans-US-Mexican drug trafficking and human smuggling operation. Now if we are not sadly misinformed, that is not the type of business that allows one to take maternity leaves. Given that, Miss Maria seems to have accomplished quite a lot for herself to say the least.

1. GRISELDA BLANCO

Ok this one makes the first position on this list because she began her sorry ass career at the age of 11 when she kidnapped and took for ransom a kid from a wealthy family. And that is not all, she shot the kid when the family did not pay the ransom. Talk about being heartless you freak! She moved to Columbia in the 70′s after which she started her own drug business and later moved to Miami in fear of being indicted. She dreamed of turning Miami into the Cocaine capital of the US in spite of which she master minded around 200 murders. The three dead husbands of hers are touted to be a part of the whole figure of murders to her name. So when crime fighters touted her as being a “Sociopath” and “Ruthless” we just took them to be short terms for the statement “She is a crazy bitch”!

Ten People Who Survived Against Nature

Nature can be very tricky and really violent at times. Thank God if you haven’t been trapped in by one nature’s vicious traps. Imagine a bright sunny day after a lot of rain and you decide to take a short trip or a hike. You find a nice spot, you got your songs with you, you got a nice picnic packet. You have fun and suddenly you realize that the sun is setting and you should probably get going when you fall off a cliff, break your foot and get trapped. You got no network to call for help, and it’s no one is really around to hear you scream for help. What would you do in such a situation? I am sure it is sounding a little familiar to you. Read on to find out about other stories that involve the horrors of nature.

10. YOSSI GHINSBERG

‘The toughest moment was after a few days, when I realized that I was completely alone’.
Three other people along with this guy went to the Amazon jungle. They found a hidden tribe. Tensions built up and the group broke up. They came across a waterfall and while one his friend made it to shore, Ghinsberg floated downstream. The next 19 days were torture. He had to survive a jaguar and swarms of termites. He had fruit in the jungle and raw eggs from bird’s nests that kept him going. He was almost drowned by a flood. He was found by one of his friends finally. The other two, Marcus and Karl, were never found.

9. STEVEN CALLAHAN

‘At sea I am reminded of my insignificance – of all men’s insignificance. It is a wonder feeling to be so humbled’.
He sailed out from Canary Islands. Six days later, the boat sank because it collided with an unknown object at night. He escaped onto a life raft that measured about six feet. He managed to survive for 76 days; that’s when he was rescued. He had to face sharks, sunburn, physical deterioration and mental agony. He speared fish and birds for food.

8. COLBY COOMBS

‘I just had to keep my eyes open and ignore the pain’.
He, along with his two friends, was climbing Alaska’s Mount Foraker. It happens to be 17,240 feet. That’s when an avalanche struck. They were forced down 800 feet. They crashed into a river of snow. His friends died. Coombs suffered a concussion and fractured his ankle. He also fractured his vertebrae and broke his shoulder blade. He walked down five miles in the next six days and reached camp. He still climbs.

7. ERIC LE MARQUE

“I remember falling back into the snow, looking at my feet and going, ‘You’re going to lose your feet.’”
Poor guy was lost in the Sierra Nevada for seven days. He was boarding at the Mammoth Mountain when a blizzard threw him off. He failed to find his way back and spent the night in the woods. Unfortunately because of all the snow his feet were frostbitten. He used his MP3 player to find a radio signal which he used as a compass to get the hell out of there. His legs were amputated.

6. TAMI OLDHAM ASHCRAFT

‘When the wind’s howling that hard, it’s picking up spray right off the top of the water. There’s so much spray, you can hardly see anything. It’s like being in a blizzard’.
She was on 44-foot sailboat with her boyfriend in 1983. They came across a category four hurricane; the waves were as high as fifty feet and the winds as fast as 160 mph. the boat was capsized and Tami lost consciousness. She had lost her boyfriend when she woke up. She used celestial navigation to get back to the coast 1,500 miles away in 41 days.

5. RICKY MEGEE

‘If you have to [drink urine], I suggest you let it cool down first. It doesn’t taste very nice’.
The poor guy stopped to help a couple. Their car had broken down. Next thing he knew was that he was waking up next to rocks with dirt all around. He was drugged and robbed by the couple. He suffered from exposure to sun and malnutrition for the next two months. He ate leeches, lizards, insects, frogs and snakes to keep him alive. He had to drink his own urine. He was 105 pounds at the time of his rescue.

4. ARON RALSTON

‘Judging by my degradation in the last 24 hours, I’ll be surprised if I make it to Tuesday’.
You guys should know all about this story. An entire movie was made based in this true incident. The movie was called ‘127 hours’. I still can’t believe he found the courage to actually cut his own arm off and to imagine that the process took an hour. That must have been one long and painful hour.

3. BETHANY HAMILTON

‘Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That’s what little girls are made of; the heck with sugar and spice.’
She went to surf when she was thirteen years old back in November in the year 2003. She went to the Makau Beach in Hawaii. Her arms were dangling in the water and she was lying on her surf board. That’s when a something like a fifteen foot tiger shark attacked her. Her left arm was ripped off totally from the shoulder. She was able to paddle all the way to safety with only one arm to her friends.

2. JAMES MORROW

‘I think my head was so far down his throat that I touched his taste buds’.
He was 45 years old when his head was inside an alligator’s throat. He was a snorkeling in Jupiter Run. He was only adjusting his snorkel and that’s when an alligator grabbed hold of him by the throat and started shaking him violently for a period of around twenty seconds. His chest was punctured and one his lungs damaged serious. Dents are still clear on his head from where the alligator held him. The snorkeling mask saved his life really otherwise God knows what would have become of his face.

1. KOOTOO SHAW

‘I thought I was going to die. I thought I was going to be gone’.
He worked as a hunting guide and he was helping a group of hunters from Wisconsin. Three days had passed since they had been on the hunt. Shaw was sleeping in a tent when at four in the morning a polar bear attacked him. The bear was killed by another hunter and the injuries that Shaw suffered resulted in him getting 300 stitches. Shaw recalls, ‘He had his claws under my neck for a while, I could hear his breathing, then he let his claws off and he was till jumping on top of me, up and down four times.’

Ten Awesome Tattoos Guys should Get

To be honest, I am not really a big fan of tattoos and to go through such extreme levels of pain to get something I don’t like to begin with is something I’m really not interested in and another reason being that I do not want to pay someone to physically hurt me and then scar my body for life. Well, that still doesn’t make these tattoo things from looking cool till a certain level. Of course, people don’t really understand when to stop and they end up covering all or most of their body which I think is not cool. But, read on and find out about ten of the most amazing tattoos you should consider, if at all you are thinking of getting a tattoo.

10. BLUEBIRDS

I know it looks a little weird to have cute little bird tattooed on your body. If you are a sailor and you have travelled around 5,000 miles on the sea, you probably have one of these because that’s what sailors do usually. If you have 10,000 miles, you probably have two on either side of the chest. These are usually done in the color blue and both the birds face each other. Jay Popoff and Shifty Shellshock have one and it really doesn’t look that bad. You don’t have to have the bird looking all happy. You can get the artist to make it really mean looking too.

9. THE SKULL

This is another one of my favorite tattoos. It just looks so damn good. If I absolutely had to get a tattoo, I’d probably get that ‘Captain Jack Sparrow’ skull from ‘POTC’ series; it’s epic. The skull represents human death; however, the tattoos don’t always represent magic, death or destruction. This tattoo also represents the term ‘memento mori’. It is Latin for ‘remember you must die’; which I think makes sense. People who have suffered deep loss will be found with this tattoo as the most the common one. Eminem has one of these bad boys.

8. THE DRAGON

A dragon is a mystical creature. It represents power, fierceness and wisdom. Not everyone can pull off a dragon tattoo and I mean this in every possible way. I mean people can actually laugh at you once you walk out of the shop with your brand new dragon tattoo and it doesn’t matter how absolutely cool it looks. Rocker Lenny Kravitz has one on his body. The head of the dragon starts on the upper left part of his chest, it goes over the shoulder and finishes on his arm.

7. GIRLFRIEND’S NAME

This tattoo is interesting. You can get it when you first start a relationship. Some guys get this tattoo on after they are done with a relationship. Tattoo artists say that this tattoo is very popular on the Valentine’s Day. A tattoo is something permanent, so you understand the meaning of getting this tattoo and exactly how touched your girlfriend will be if you get one. Johnny Depp used to have this tattoo. It said ‘Winona forever’, however, now it says ‘Wino forever’.

6. HEART WITH MOM

The heart basically represents the core of our being; the most important part of our very existence. It has been associated with importance so much so, that the heart symbol now represents love. I am sure you understand why you would get this tattoo. This tattoo represents that you are a sensitive guy and folks believe me, there is absolutely nothing wrong with expressing love for your mother so openly; seriously. Johnny Depp has this tattoo, only instead of Mom, his tattoo says Betty Sue (his mother’s name).

5. PINUP GIRL

This particular girl needs no introduction really. The pinup girls were used by the soldiers back during the WWII. They used to hang these pictures on their walls to remind themselves of home. People who are old school and into rock should get this tattoo; it’s perfect for them. You know Travis Barker, from Blink-182? He has this tattoo.

4. CROSS

This is the ultimate symbol of Christianity and this has been and still is one of the more popular tattoos that survived the test of time. No matter what age you are in, ever since tattooing first began, the cross has been there. There are many different designs to the cross, but they all represent the same cross. Just in case you are curious, Ben Affleck, Justin Timberlake and Moby, all have the cross tattoo.

3. CHINESE/JAPANESE CHARACTERS

These come in on a number three when you consider popularity although, if it were my personal list, they would go right at the top on the number one spot. These characters are made up of symbols and each and every symbol represents something. The only thing is that these symbols look so cool. Most often than not, people will choose the Kanji characters that are actually Japanese (good going). These tattoos represent mystery and hidden meaning because let’s face it, not everyone understands these characters.

2. TRIBAL

This particular style of tattooing is known as the ‘tribal style’. This includes the solid black color, really nice contouring and curves and really amazing edges. These tattoos were used by tribes in ancient history and while now we have medals and stars to represent it, back in their time, the design and style of the tattoo used to represent their status and rank. Not only are these tattoos gotten to make one look cooler and different, but also to inflict fear in the other person. I just love the art.

1. NAUTICAL STAR

If you look on a compass (not the geometric one) you will find this ‘star’ straight up at the North position. It used to represent the North Star at some point which was also known as Polaris. The North Star was very crucial to navigation back in those days. Today, this tattoo is a symbol that represents luck. You can have it big, small, colored or 3D, it really doesn’t matter. It should however, resemble a five-pointed star and you should know that this little guy is really popular these days.
There you go folks, that’s all for the tattoos. If you had to get one, which one of these would you definitely get?

World's Most Expensive Cities for a Hotel Room

 

If hotels in Moscow look as awesome as its monuments we don't mind shelling out for a room.

Revolution swept the Russian czars out of power in 1917, but, judging by the room rates, Russian hotels have never quite let go of the country's aristocratic past.

Hotels in Moscow are by far the world's most expensive and have been so for nearly a decade, according to a biannual study by Hogg Robinson Group (HRG).

Out of 50 major travel destinations surveyed, the Russian capital has had the highest average room rate for eight years straight.

Visitors typically pay about US$407 a night at a Moscow hotel.

In our list of the world's 15 most expensive hotel suites, we found that the Ritz-Carlton Suite costs US$18,000 per night.

Travel marketer Viacheslav Shirokov says that hotel demand is simply much higher than supply in Moscow and there is a lack of mid-range hotel options.

Lagos is second on the list of most expensive hotels with an average room rate of US$341.
Security is a concern in these destinations, especially in Lagos where travelers are willing to pay a higher room rate for a five-star hotel.

These top cities are also business hotspots catering to corporate travel. The survey is indicative of where companies are channeling their travel budgets.

"Businesses are not necessarily spending less on travel, but they are certainly looking for ways to make existing budgets work harder," says Stewart Harvey, group commercial director at HRG.

European cities show a decrease in room rates amid an uncertain economic climate, particularly in Barcelona where prices dropped by nearly a quarter.

A total of 23 cities show a year-on-year increase in rates, compared to 33 cities in 2011.

The HRG survey is in its 20th year. The data is based on industry intelligence, actual room nights booked and rates paid during January to June 2012.

Top 10 most expensive cities to stay in and their average hotel room rate:

1. Moscow, Russia: US$407
2. Lagos, Nigeria: US$341
3. Geneva, Switzerland: US$340
4. Zurich, Switzerland: US$332
5. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: US$323
6. New York City, New York: US$320
7. Sydney, Australia: US$312
8. Hong Kong, China: US$306
9. Paris, France: US$304
10. Washington, D.C, United States: US$302

24 Tales of Ghost Towns and Abandoned Cities

What in the world could cause an entire city to be abandoned? Some become unlivable due to environmental disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis to nuclear meltdowns (as with Pripyat, shown below). Others become the center of military activity and remain contested and uninhabited as a result – or are simply left as memorials to the terrible events that took place in them. Still others are simply deserted when they outlive their usefulness as trade outposts or mining towns.


This Halloween, forget the plastic cape and cheesy costume. Why not find and explore the real relics and strange structures of an actual ghost town or abandoned city instead? From Azerbaijan to Japan, Italy to Siberia and Cyprus to China, here are twenty-four haunting real-life ghost villages, towns and cities from around the world.  

Abandoned Medieval Town of Balestrino, Italy

The origins and much of the history of this slow-built settlement in Tuscany remain unknown, constructed in pieces over many centuries. In the 1100s it was owned by the Benedictine abbey of San Pietro dei Monti. Today the beautiful small town-on-the-bluffs features a castle at the top and partially walled city sprawled on the olive-treed hillside around – but all are completely abandoned. Due to seismic instability the residents were moved out decades ago, leaving behind a perfectly preserved but piecemeal museum of modern and medieval history. Still, visit it soon: the next earthquake in the area may be the last this old town ever sees.

Abandoned City & Commune of Oradour, France

During the heat of conflict in World War II, a few informants told German troops that one of their own officers was being held in a nearby French town. What ensued was a terrible massacre that only spared a handful of men and women who managed to escape. Children and women were rounded up into a church and burned alive, men were shot in the legs to die slowly in a barn. Today, the remains of the old city still stand as a memorial to the events of that terrible day and the new commune of Oradour has been relocated to a nearby area.

Abandoned Island City of Hashima, Japan

Hashima is one of the most remarkable of a series of hundreds of deserted Japanese islands. Once a thriving coal-mining city its population density grew to be the highest on the planet, with workers crammed vertically in ever-growing buildings and walked daily through ever-narrowing streets. Following a drop in coal production the entirely island amazingly shut down though most of its structures still stand. Currently the island is being renovated to create safe tourist paths through the rubble and tilting buildings but for now daring (and illegal) exploration is possible only by hiring a willing private boat driver to take a look.

Abandoned Desert Ghost Town of Kolmanskop, Africa

A series of structures seemingly displaced in space in time, the remains of a diamond-mining settlement in Africa sits abandoned and partly covered by long-gathered dunes of sand. Tourists have a difficult trek to get to Kolmanskop to see what remains of its strangely Germanic architecture – and then wade through the drifts to get a glimpse of the inside of its structures. Like any good German town the area had a hospital, ballroom, power station, school, theater and casino. When the diamond market crashed it was simply left to be covered over with the sands of time.

Abandoned Area of Varosha, Cyprus

The area of Famagusta known as Varosha has a rich history of prosperity despite of long-standing conflicts in the region. In the 1970s, however, the Turkish invaded and claimed the tourist territory as their own. They erected fences with warnings and forbade the return of any residents. After decades of disuse the structures have fallen into a serious state of disrepair and are in many cases no longer habitable by anyone save the sea turtles which call some beach-side structures home.

Abandoned Gulag Concentration Camp

A gulag is a strange type of ‘city’ – more like a nightmare town where work goes unrewarded and the pension plan is deadly. This Soviet gulag was used as a work and prison camp and still has remnant buildings and relics from its desertion. After all, it is difficult to turn something so structured and with such a storied past into anything else that might be more useful.

Abandoned Town of Centralia, Pennsylvania

No list of abandoned cities and deserted towns can be complete without some discussion of one of the strangest and most infamous example: Centralia. This once-thriving town had a mine fire decades ago … but it never went out. Warning signs that something was still wrong included: smoking highways, heated underwater gas tanks and person-swallowing sinkholes. Over time most of the town’s residents have moved on though a few insist on staying despite the slowly-spreading and still-burning fire that creeps below.

Abandoned Flooded City of Quabbin, Massachusetts

The Quabbin Reservoir is the now the largest body of water in Massachusetts. However, the area it now occupies once had four small towns and a network of roads and rail tracks running through it – all of which were flooded or displaced by the filling of the area with water. While some public structures, memorials and graves were moved out of the way many still sit today at the bottom of this body of water. Some nearby structures sit above the waterline but were abandoned without the adjacent buildings that sustained their use.

Abandoned War-Torn City of Agdam, Azerbaijan

Once the proud 150,000+ capital city of Azerbaijan this dense and thriving city was taken by the Armenians and utterly trashed, vandalized and then abandoned. However, the Armenians still claim the territory as their own so no one has returned to reclaim the wrecked and ravished ruins of the city. However, some explorers still make their way to photograph what is left of this city whose residents may never see it again.

Abandoned Resort Town of Yashima, Japan

Yashima is a high and open plateau on one of the main islands of Japan. During peak economic years in the 1980s investors decided to create a resort village complete with a half-dozen hotels, curio shops and a rail line to the top of the peak of the city. When the economy fell on harder times and they could not bring in the tourist dollars the entire village was shut down, leaving many shops with eerie remnant collections of collectible tourist goodies and leaving furniture and other relics in the hotels and other support buildings.

Abandoned Disaster City of Beichuan, China

A sudden and devastating earthquake leveled or unbalanced virtually every major building in Beichuan, leaving thousands dead and tens of thousands displaced to public buildings in nearby cities. Due to the extent of the damage it is unclear whether this city will be rebuilt or simply left to go to ruin – its reconstruction would require the leveling of most or all of the buildings that remain from the disaster.

Deserted Floating City of Oily Rocks, Azerbaijan

Off the coast of Azerbaijan sits what remains of one of the strangest organically-evolved cities in the world. Oily Rocks started with a single path out over the water, built on the backs of ships sunken to serve as foundations. This system of paths grew and evolve to serve the oil-drilling industry and eventually were widened to create space for houses, schools, libraries and shops for the workers and their families. Today, most of it sits abandoned and some paths and buildings have sunk back under the surf never to be seen again.

Deserted Village of Villa Lago Epecun, Argentina

After the detouring of a river which permanently rose the water level in and around this haunting town in Argentina as deserted. Perhaps most striking is the fact that many of the structures now, once again, sit above the waterline. Bare dehydrated trees still line the streets in the parts of the town that sit up over the water and are still without inhabitants.

Deserted Town of Castelnuovo de’ Sabbioni, Italy

The mysterious deserted village of Castelnuovo is thinly guarded by a half-broken fence. Located in Tuscany up on a little hill near Arezzo, one of the strangest features of the abandonment is strange quizzes scrawled on the walls of many of the buildings since the area’s desertion – Myst-like puzzles in a likewise abandoned village.

Deserted Walled Medieval Town of Craco, Italy

The deserted walled medieval town of Craco had a village located on its site as far back as the 500s AD. Over time, however, it was plagued by, well, plagues … as well as agricultural droughts, rogue banditry and finally insurmountable seismic activity which threatened to bring the whole town down. In the 1960s the last of the residents were evacuated for fear of an earthquake that could level the entire site and the town has since sat entirely abandoned high up on a 400-foot cliff.

Wild West Ghost Town of Bodie, California

Bodie was a quintessential frontier town of the Old West, complete with dozens of saloons, a red light district and a Chinatown. Stories of its history include tales of barroom brawls, stagecoach robberies and other Wild West debauchery. Founded during the Gold Rush the town thrived through the early 20th Century but was subsequently deserted and now is preserved and partially restored to its original state.

Deserted Ghost City of Humberstone, Chile

Humberstone Chile was built around the rush to produce sodium nitrate as fertilizer. However, when the American economy went bust during the Great Depression demand dropped and by the time the world economy had recovered sufficiently most interested had shifted to other fertilizers leaving this town quite literally in the dust. Structures left behind include an abandoned swimming pool, schools, grocers a market place and a theater.

Deserted Mining Town of Pyramiden, Sweden

A thriving coal-mining town sold by Sweden to the former Soviet Union in the early 1920s fell victim to a classic case of soviet state-run company decision-making. Once the town was deemed insufficiently necessary and productive for the government’s purposes it was summarily and suddenly evacuated in its entirety. The population left many relics and furniture items behind which tourists can see through the windows – but not up close as visitors are forbidden (for safety reasons) from entering.

Deserted Mining Town of Sewell, Chile

The town of Sewell was constructed at the dizzying height of 6,000 feet high up in the Andes Mountains in Chile. Once home to 15,000 workers who traveled most of the way by rail and then walked the rest the town has now been abandoned for decades. The brightly-colored buildings, however, largely still stand – a tribute to what was once the most extensive underground copper mine in the world.

Abandoned Mountain Town of Sardinia, Italy

Little is available online about this picturesque deserted mountain mountain with brightly painted doors and largely intact structures. Know more? Feel free to discuss and link in the comments!

Deserted Resort Village of San Zhi, Taiwan

The full story of this deserted village is not fully known but many have speculated that it was built to be an exquisite and futuristic holiday village on the water. However, its construction was plagued with problems and was eventually haunted. The strange fiberglass shells of its smoothly circular structures have slowly weathered and in many cases fallen off. Local culture believes that the place may be haunted and locals avoid it.

Deserted Walled City of Kowloon, Hong Kong

Kowloon Walled City was a loophole, a glitch never meant to exist. It grew organically devoid of building codes and largely absent of legal oversight, a kind of organic tent city times one thousand. As it grew without rules some areas were cut off entirely from natural light and air, crime ebbed and flowed and everything grew densely packed until the government finally intervened – evacuating the city and demolishing what remained.

Ancient Sunken City of Alexandria, Egypt

Lost for 1600 years the fabled city of Alexandria was lost – until just 16 years ago. The famed stage of historic interactions between Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Marc Antony and Octavius was lost under the water. The royal residences, as archeologists discovered, were slowly sent to the bottom of the sea after a series of earthquakes and tsunamis. The ancient Alexandria had over 500,000 residents and was known for its library with over 700,000 scrolls.