Pripyat, Ukraine
In the early morning hours of April 26, 1986, Reactor No. 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, releasing a radioactive cloud that spread over much of Europe and western Russia. The disaster affected the lives of millions of people, 350,000 of which were permanently evacuated from their homes in the immediately surrounding area. Pripyat became a ghost town overnight.
Kolmanskop, Namibia
Kolmanskop declined after World War I when the nearby diamond-field slowly depleted. The town was ultimately abandoned in 1954. The desert consumed the town, with insides of houses knee-deep in sand.
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