25 Amazing Abandoned Places Found On Google Earth

What you see here might not look like much, but at one time it was one of 6 Nike Missile Defense sites in Hawaii. Off the island of Oahu, this specific site is called OA-63 and housed the Nike 24H/16L-H missile. In 1970, the military decommissioned the site.

The Hawthorne Plaza Mall covers six blocks along Hawthorne Boulevard; it’s been vacant and abandoned since the 1990’s. First build in the 1970’s, it was a popular location for shopping and going to the theater. Once a downswing came two decades later, it never revitalized. What’s cool though is that it’s decrepit exterior has been used by both Taylor Swift and Beyonce music videos.

Originally an old mining town in Montana, Bannack was once a territorial capital and kept on going until the 1950’s. It soon became a ghost town and became Bannack State Park, which is now open to tourists.

The Packard Automotive Plant, built in the very early 20th century, was once one of the most advanced automobile factories on the planet. Now, it’s a dilapidated wonderland for graffiti and paintball.

Once a top of the line facility to treat mentally ill and handicapped children, the Forest Haven Asylum fell to decay after financial cutbacks in the 1960’s. It’s now an eroded nightmare of rust and graffiti.

Dating back all the way to 540 CE, Craco was once a monastic center and center of education with a university, castle, and plaza. People lived there until 1963 when they were forced to relocate. It now stands as an ancient ghost town.

Michigan Central Station used to stand tall as a huge epicenter for travel. Today, it’s an eyesore and sad reminder of the Motor City’s economic collapse due to the failing auto industry.

Built by the communists in East Berlin in 1969, Spreepark did well for itself until the fall of the Berlin Wall. When the park was taken over by Norbert Witte, things declined due to poor management and illegal drug smuggling activities. It shut down in 2002.

In 1926, it seemed like a great idea to spend a million dollars on City Methodist Church in the thriving Gary, Indiana. During it’s heyday, the church served some 2,000 people. However, once the economy dried up and people left, the church was abandoned and is now a destroyed ruin.

Grossinger’s Old Hotel started out as a family run business in 1917 and grew to become a popular vacation spot for New Yorkers with around 150,000 people visiting every year. However, its prominence came to end when airplane tickets became cheaper and people decided to vacation elsewhere.

Opened in 1949, the Joyland Amusement Park in Witchita, Kansas had been a popular spot for decades until financial trouble lead to its closure in 2004. Since then, its broken-down roller coasters and structures have become the unofficial playground for paintballers.

Once a mental health hospital, the Riverview Hospital in Canada closed its doors in 2002 and has been abandoned ever since. It’s become a popular site for filming television shows like X-Files and Fringe. Of course, there are many rumors of it being haunted.

Situated where both the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers meet and a popular hub for trains, Cairo, Illinois was once a thriving, bustling town. However, economic decline and racial unrest was its inevitable undoing. It went from a population of 15,000 in the 1920’s to 2,000 in 2010.

No, the Buzludzha is not a flying saucer but a monument erected after a group of Bulgarian socialists met in 1891 to reform the government. Since 1989, it’s been left to waste away and no plans have been made to demolish or replace it.

Originally built in 1981 on the tip of Marco Island in Florida, the Dome Homes were supposedly self-sustaining and built to withstand hurricanes. Unfortunately, they didn’t consider changing the landscape and the erosion made the homes unlivable.

The story goes that a Frenchman with a lot of money decided to build a huge outdoor cinema on the Southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. Apparently the locals weren’t happy about the whole idea. So what did they do? Sabotage the generator on opening night of course. The cinema has never shown a single movie and it sits abandoned.

This theme park in New Orleans, LA was first called Jazzland but was bought out by Six Flags in 2002. Unfortunately, the park only lasted another three years before Hurricane Katrina struck, shutting down the park and leaving it abandoned indefinitely.

With construction beginning in the 1980’s, Hovrinskaya Hospital never admitted a single patient, though it would have potentially had the capacity to house 1,300. Construction halted and left behind was an eerie skeleton that was left to become destroyed by weeds and graffiti. Legends say a Satanic cult called “The Club of Nimostor” lived there.

Port Lockroy started as a base for French explorers in Antarctica and was a popular refuge for whalers. The military expanded the site during World War II, but eventually it was abandoned in 1962. Today, it’s a heritage site and tourist destination.

Because of the meltdown at Chernobyl in 1986, Pripyat, Ukraine, a city of 49,000, had to be totally evacuated, leaving it abandoned and taken over by forests and wildlife. You can now take guided tours and, of course, also see it on Google Maps.

The Antarctic hut of famed explorer Robert Falcon Scott can be found and explored with a click of a button. (You can even go inside!) Built about a century ago, many of the same artifacts remain inside. Unfortunately, it’s likely to be covered by snow in the near future.

Witley Court was first built in 1655 by English ironmaster, Thomas Foley, but later came into the hands of William Ward in 1833 who remodeled it into a more grand estate. Many lavish parties were thrown at the estate; it even hosted King Edward VII, who was then Prince of Wales. Unfortunately, a great fire turned it into a shell and Ward decided not to repair it.

Near Mexico City, there’s a house sitting on an island surrounded by decomposing dolls. The former owner of the house hung them up by the hundreds in honor of a girl he saw drowning. Now abandoned, the house is a popular, and eerie, tourist attraction that you can also visit on Google Earth.

With submarine coal deposits discovered on Hashima Island, a mining colony was built in the early 1900’s. Needing to house the miners there, they built tall apartment complexes and it quickly became one of the most densely populated areas in the world with 6,000 people. Of course, once the coal ran out, it became a ghost island and dwindled into decay and ruin. It’s now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

During the Cold War, a nuclear attack from the Soviet Union or China was a serious threat. President Nixon announced a safeguard program to protect our missile sites in the event of an attack. They erected the Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex in North Dakota. When it was first operational on October 1st, 1975, it only lasted 24 hours before Congress shut the program down, claiming it ineffective. It cost 6 billion dollars.