Top 10 Most Terrifying Abandoned Places Worldwide

Originally known as Jazzland, the amusement park opened in 2000. Three years later, Six Flags Entertainment Company acquired the park and renamed it Six Flags New Orleans (SFNO). From a renowned entertainment spot, SFNO was abandoned after Hurricane Katrina submerged 80% of New Orleans in August 2005. The historic storm struck the southern U.S. coast, submerging SFNO in about 2 meters of water and destroying much of the infrastructure catering to the entertainment needs of residents and tourists. Suffering severe damages, SFNO had to shut down. In 2006, Six Flags declared bankruptcy, sealing the fate of one of New Orleans' most famous locations. There have been eerie rumors about the park, with many visitors claiming to hear distant laughter or screams. With such a desolate and haunting appearance, the park has been used as a backdrop for several zombie-themed movies.

In 2008, Southern Star Amusement announced plans to revive SFNO, but the project was later canceled. A similar idea from Nickelodeon, the American cable and satellite television channel, also made little progress. In 2011, New Orleans considered building the Jazzland Outlet Mall shopping center at the SFNO site. However, the city canceled the project two years later. After numerous unsuccessful attempts, SFNO remains an abandoned site to this day. However, the park is not entirely forgotten; instead, it has become a setting for several films, including 'Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters,' 'Jurassic World,' 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes'... After years of abandonment, SFNO has become a destination for adventure enthusiasts. However, this is not recommended due to the park being completely reclaimed by nature, especially the presence of dangerous alligators.

Pripyat City, now part of Ukraine, was once a part of the Soviet Union during the disaster in April 1986. Built from the 1970s to serve the workers of the power plant, Pripyat was home to around 30,000 people. In the past, this place was beautiful. At that time, it was considered one of the most livable cities in the Soviet Union. There were many schools and hospitals, sports and cultural centers. So it was once an ideal city. These once-facilitated buildings are now abandoned, crumbling, and rusty. Many photos by McMillan - capturing an empty swimming pool or crumbling churches - show how the city's residents were suddenly evacuated.

If you suddenly discover this city, you wouldn't understand what it is, even couldn't imagine that it was once a national symbol. Pripyat symbolizes our fading memories of the Soviet Union into history. Playgrounds and models of swing sets, slides for children also bear the marks of time. The children who used to play here are now in their 30s or over 40s. As humans disappear, nature begins to encroach on the buildings. In the gloomy atmosphere of the photos, one can also see the emergence of trees and blooming flowers. Today, this place is still a restricted area, although birds and animals have come here to live a lot. Although not yet safe for human habitation, Pripyat has been allowed to open its doors to visitors.

One of the famous attractions when visiting the capital Bogota, Colombia, the Hotel Del Salto is located in the self-governing area of San Antonio Del Tequendama. Built in 1923 and designed by architect Carlos Arturo Tapias, it is known as La Casa Del Salto Del Tequendama (the house by the Tequendama Falls) due to its unique location right on the edge of a deep gorge, facing the magnificent Tequendama Falls. With French-style architecture and tall windows, this house is considered an icon of joy and elegance of the 20th-century elite citizens. By 1928, the house was partially renovated to become the Hotel Del Salto. In its golden age, this was one of the favorite tourist and resort destinations of the upper class. In July 1950, the investors planned to rebuild the hotel into an 18-story building to expand the business; however, for some reason, this plan was halted, and Hotel Del Salto still retains its old architectural style to this day.

Hotel Del Salto operated for about 60 years, but as time went on, the building became old and dilapidated due to lack of renovation. Besides, the Bogota River next to it began to be heavily polluted, making this area less and less desirable. From the early 1990s, Hotel Del Salto was abandoned. During the next two decades, almost no one wanted to venture to a place that was both gloomy and chilly, hiding many dark rumors like Hotel Del Salto, except for the desperate. In addition to its eerie appearance, the mysterious green moss-covered Hotel Del Salto has many stories of lingering souls of the departed. The reason is also because this hotel is a favorite place for those who want to end their lives. Perhaps that's why Hotel Del Salto attracts even more people who want to come here for suicide.

Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital, built from 1898 to 1930, comprises 60 different buildings located southwest of Berlin, Germany. It was constructed as a sanatorium for those suffering from lung-related diseases, especially tuberculosis patients. During World War I, it was used as a military hospital for the German army. Around 1915-1916, Beelitz-Heilstätten treated a young wounded soldier in the Battle of the Somme, who later became the dictator, Adolf Hitler. In World War II, Adolf Hitler continued to use this place as a hospital to treat the Nazi army. Under the harshness of war, the Beelitz-Heilstätten complex was bombed by the Allied forces.

In 1945, the hospital became a base for the Soviet army. Beelitz-Heilstätten functioned as a military hospital of the Soviet Union until 1995, after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Erich Honecker, the leader of East Germany, also lived here in 1990 before fleeing to Moscow, Russia, to avoid prosecution for Cold War-era responsibilities. Today, a part of Beelitz-Heilstätten has been rebuilt for Parkinson's disease research and neurofunctional restoration. However, most of the area with sections like the surgery room, psychiatric treatment room... remains abandoned. With its mystery and spookiness, this abandoned hospital in Berlin has become an attractive destination for the curious. Many walls are 'decorated' with graffiti. In 2002, this place was used to film the famous movie The Pianist.

Penitentiary Prison now looks quite desolate and rundown after years of closure and abandonment. Once a place that housed and tortured many notorious criminals, ESP is considered one of the most haunted locations in the United States. The ESP prison in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania operated for 142 years before being closed and abandoned in 1971. Upon completion, it was the largest and most expensive building ever constructed in the United States. FSP became a model for 300 prisons worldwide. The prison's solitary confinement area was considered the most terrifying as it drove many to madness. This is where infamous American criminals like Willie Sutton and Al Capone were once held. ESP fell into disarray due to the overwhelming number of inmates, one of the reasons the 142-year-old prison was closed.

In the past, ESP was known for its extravagance. Each prisoner was housed in an individual chamber with a built-in heating system in the walls. They had running water, private sanitation, and a glass window for sunlight to filter through. At that time, the White House still heated with coal and did not have running water. This made the prison the most expensive structure in the U.S. back then. With secure security, ESP was used to house some of America's most fearsome criminals. However, in 1945, 12 prisoners organized a bold escape. They dug a 30-meter tunnel through the facility's wall system to flee. Many years after being abandoned, the prison has become a tourist destination for adventure-seeking visitors.

CRACO is an abandoned town and municipality in the Matera province, in the southern region of Italy, Basilicata. It was deserted in the late 20th century due to a faulty pipeline project, causing the town to be abandoned due to landslides. The abandonment turned Craco into a tourist attraction and a famous filming location. Graves found in the area date back to the 8th century BCE. Around 540 BCE, this area was inhabited by Greek colonists moving inland from the coastal town of Metaponto. The town's name may originate from 1060 CE when this land was owned by Arnaldo, the Archbishop of Tricarico, who called the area Graculum, meaning 'lightly plowed field' in Latin. The long-standing association of the Church with the town had a significant impact on its residents.

From 1154 to 1168, control of the village was transferred to a noble, Eberto, likely of Norman origin, who established the first feudal control over the town. Later, in 1179, Roberto of Pietrapertosa became the owner of Craco. Under Frederick II, Craco was an important military center, and the Castle Tower became a prison. Craco is about 40 km (25 mi) inland from the Gulf of Taranto. The town is built on a steep hill for defensive reasons, giving it a prominent and distinctive appearance from the surrounding area. The center, built at the highest point of the town, faces a steep slope to the southwest, where newer buildings are located. The town sits atop a 400-meter-high rock face overlooking the Cavone River Valley. Throughout the area, there are many unvegetated clayey hills called calanchi, formed by strong erosion.

At the edge of the world, there still stands a movie theater, a church, and a ghostly wharf. Snow and ice have eroded and buried once-charming houses. Those who once lived here have long departed, or their final resting places remain unknown. This place, once inhabited by about 500 whalers and their families, now hosts only penguins, seals, and a handful of wandering tourists. A century ago, the icy city of Grytviken was the bastion of the renowned whaling industry. The whaling station in Grytviken on the South Georgia Island in the Atlantic Ocean, a British territory, operated continuously for 58 years, enduring two world wars and a global economic crisis. It welcomed Antarctic explorers and was the site of the slaughter of countless whales for meat and oil.

Early in the 20th century, the whaling frenzy boomed, with dozens of companies racing to hunt whales in the Arctic. As whaling and processing whale meat became highly profitable in the North, in the southern South Georgia Island, there were six whaling stations, with Grytviken being the first to engage in this trade and the last one to close its doors. The process of slaughtering and processing whale meat was laborious, strenuous, and entirely manual: whales were harpooned at sea, towed ashore by winch cables after they died. Two strong men used an extremely sharp knife to slice the whale vertically from tail to head. The whale blubber surged on both the right and left sides, and the final step was skinning to harvest the thick layer of blubber.

The international railway station Canfranc is nestled deep in the Aragon River valley near the Spain-France border. Once a part of a border-expanding plan to promote commerce and international relations between the two nations. Inaugurated in 1928, both King Alfonso XIII of Spain and then-French President Gaston Doumergue attended, highlighting the significance of this rail project. The Canfranc Station represents architects' dreams with a structure of iron beams and glass. Surrounding it is a complex with a hospital, restaurant, and lodging for customs officials from France and Spain. The main hall inside the station has 365 windows symbolizing 365 days in a year, hundreds of doors, and a platform over 200m long. Canfranc was once the world's second-largest railway station and was dubbed the 'Titanic of the mountains' for its awe-inspiring grandeur.

However, the operation of Canfranc station did not go as smoothly as expected. The station suffered heavily from the economic crisis in 1929. A few years later, due to tense civil unrest, the Spanish government ordered the station's closure to prevent arms smuggling. For a long time, it only hosted around 50 train passengers per day, and the profits were insufficient to offset the enormous cost of its construction. After World War II, the French government also lost interest in Canfranc Station and decided to abandon it. Although not agreeing with France's approach, as they had previously agreed to jointly preserve the station, Spain did not invest a large enough amount to renovate it. In 1970, a train derailed, crashing into a bridge on the French mountainside, officially ending Canfranc station's operations.

North Brother Island is a mysterious piece of land spanning over 5 hectares on the East River, just a few miles from the bustling Manhattan, New York. This enigmatic island still carries traces of a dark and tragic past, along with not-so-fond memories of its inhabitants. North Brother first appeared on the map when Riverside Hospital was relocated to this island. The purpose of the hospital was to treat and quarantine those suffering from infectious diseases. The first residents of the island were victims of diseases such as smallpox, tuberculosis, yellow fever, and scarlet fever. The most infamous resident of the island, of course, was Mary Mallon, also known as Typhoid Mary. Mary was the first recorded carrier in the United States without showing symptoms of the typhoid bacteria.

This woman is believed to have infected over 50 people, with 3 fatalities. Despite denying being the source initially, she was still confined to this island for the next three decades, until the end of her life. After World War II, the island became a home for U.S. veterans and their families. However, due to inadequate living conditions and impractical transportation to the mainland, these families gradually abandoned the island. In 1950, the U.S. government turned North Brother into a rehabilitation center for American teenagers but quickly shut it down after 10 years of operation. From 1963 onwards, the island returned to a desolate state without a soul in sight, bearing the remnants of a lost world and many memories of sorrow, including Mary Mallon and the 1904 shipwreck that claimed over 1000 lives right next to the island.

When mentioning Kolmanskop, Namibians can't help but mourn a town that has been completely deserted and forgotten for almost a century. Nevertheless, this place still attracts tourists for its mysterious charm and oral legends. During its heyday, Kolmanskop thrived with a population of just over 1,000, mostly immigrant laborers. They worked and entertained together, but that's a distant past now, all submerged in a sea of desert sand. In 1908, when Namibia was under German control, a railway worker named Zacharias Lewala found a diamond in the sand. Soon after, the area was besieged, engulfed in a diamond fever, and people flocked to the Namib Desert.

'Diamond hunters' from far and wide converged here, expanding the scope, making the diamond search story richer than ever. By the end of 1914, digging in this area yielded about 5,000,000 carats equivalent to 1,000kg of diamonds. Kolmanskop became wealthy and prosperous thanks to diamonds but in the fashion of an eccentric town. They built vintage-style villas in European architecture, surrounded by a casino, school, hospital, cinema, swimming pool, and amusement park, like bustling towns found anywhere in the world. Due to water scarcity, equipment shortages, and the gradual depletion of diamonds, businessmen and workers began to leave, leaving a formally deserted town since 1954. The place truly became desolate before the unstoppable invasion of sand dunes, and a city in ruins emerged.