I am a big fan of Urban Archeology -- looking at the history of abandoned and older buildings. I just found out about an amazing place, Hashima Island off the coast of Nagasaki, Japan.
From Brian Burke-Gaffney:
Hashima: The Ghost IslandHashima Island is also known as Gunkanjima. (Hashima is its formal name.) Here is an amazing collection of photographs of Gunkanjima (Hashima Island). Here are six of them -- I reduced the image size, visit Yuji's site for all of the full-size images.
Seen from a distance, Hashima Island might be mistaken for the Japanese counterpart of Alcatraz rising from the ocean like a ragged slab of concrete, or perhaps a gambling resort with deserted hotels. Few casual observers would ever guess that, only 40 years ago, this tiny island was the site of a thriving community with the highest population density on earth.
One among 505 uninhabited islands in Nagasaki Prefecture, Hashima lies in the East China Sea some 15 kilometers from Nagasaki, its naked crags striking a stark contrast with the verdant peaks of nearby islands. A closer look reveals clusters of unpopulated high-rise buildings pressing up against a man-made sea wall, a battered shrine at the top of a steep rock cliff, and not a single tree in sight.
The clue to the island's mystery lies in coal mining. Reached by long descending tunnels, coal beds below the bottom of the ocean near Hashima disgorged huge quantities of high-grade coal for almost a century. But in 1974 the inhabitants abandoned the island to the wind and salt spray, leaving behind only unneeded belongings and a few stray cats that could not be captured.
