Echoes of Civilization: 8 Abandoned Cities You Can Actually Explore

Pripyat was the city most affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, an infamous incident that released massive amounts of radiation out into the world. "The accident forced entire towns to abruptly empty out, and the area within a 19-mile radius of the plant was deemed uninhabitable for at least another 180 years.

Nearly $200 million worth of copper was processed in Kennecott, a self-contained mining town located in Wrangell–St. Elias National Park, from 1911 to 1938, according to the National Park Service. As these stories usually go, the residents cleared out once the copper resources started to dwindle and most of the buildings have now been abandoned for around 60 years.

Bone-chilling ghost town: Pyramiden, named for the pyramid-shaped mountain looming nearby. Pyramiden came to prominence in the 1930s, when the Soviets took ownership of the area's coalfields and quickly began mining operations.The biggest hit came in 1996, when an airplane flying from Moscow to Svalbard crashed en route, killing all 141 passengers on board, many of them Pyramiden residents. The tragedy slashed morale and the site was fully abandoned in 1998.

On June 10, 1944, German troops raided the village of Oradour-sur-Glane and murdered 642 men, women, and children, National Geographic reports. After the massacre, the military set fire to churches, barns, and homes, leaving behind only a few surviving residents. The village has remained untouched since the horrific incident, serving as a shrine to those who died that June day.

The town of Kolmanskop was once a hotspot of diamond mining and extravagance in 1908. But once the fair-weather inhabitants discovered more diamonds south of Kolmanskop, the site instantly became a ghost town.

In the early 1900s, miners built a town right on top of a whole lot of gold-bearing quartz rock—which would go on to produce 750,000 ounces of gold from 1.5 million tons of quartz, according to New Zealand's Department of Conservation. The isolated city thrived until the main mining shaft collapsed in 1951, forcing residents to abandon their town.

Once home to 10,000 people, Bodie boomed in the late 1880s after gold was found in the hills surrounding Mono Lake. Not long after though, Bodie transitioned into a period of steady decline (as mining towns are wont to do) until reaching ghost town status around 1915, according to California Department of Parks and Recreation records.

Founded in the eighth century, the hilltop town of Craco had a rough go of things for several centuries, falling victim to earthquakes, wars, and the Black Plague. The final straw was a landslide in 1963, which forced all remaining residents to evacuate.