14 historic places that are now abandoned

It’s no surprise why this island of concrete and steel is nicknamed “Ghost Island”: No one lives here anymore. Also called “Battleship Island” for its shape, the site stands as a monument to Japan’s rapid industrialisation. With more than 5000 people crowded into high-rise apartment buildings in the mid-20th century, Hashima was one of the most densely populated places on earth. Most of those who lived here were coal miners and their families, although the island’s place in history is controversial because it was also the site of forced labour. In 1974, the mine was closed, and everyone up and left. Tours of Hashima to see the crumbling buildings are available; you can also catch the island in the 2012 James Bond film Skyfall.

It’s hard to believe, but this site of decomposing cabins was once the capital of Alabama. Now, it’s one of the creepy but real ghost towns around the world. The history of Old Cahawba (also spelled Cahaba) goes in fits and starts: Chosen as the state capital in 1820, the town was abandoned after flooding and the capital moved in 1826, but it reemerged as a distribution point for cotton shipping. During the Civil War, though, its railroad tracks were ripped up and the town was host to a prison for Union soldiers; after the war, another flood drove the remaining residents out. However, the town again found new life as a community for former slave families – at least until around 1900. Since then, the town has been in ruins but is now enjoying yet another rebirth as an archaeological park.

Abandoned castle ruins can be seen all over Europe, but the history of 13th century Castle Frankenstein is creepily curious because of its connection to the hidden origins of one of Halloween’s spookiest creatures. A real-life scientist named Johann Konrad Dippel conducted strange experiments here in the early 18th century – including, reportedly, on corpses. Could Dippel have inspired the fictional scientist who shares the castle’s name, and his monster? Although Frankenstein author Mary Shelley never mentioned the castle in her journals, she did pass by on a trip down the Rhine in 1814. Did she hear stories about Dippel from locals? Or perhaps her stepmother, a translator for the Brothers Grimm, read the tale and passed it on? In any case, after being abandoned in the 18th century and rumoured to be the home of a dragon, the ruins of the castle are now open to tourists.

This lovely hiking trail passes by the site of one of the worst train accidents and the deadliest avalanche in US history. Known as the Wellington Avalanche Disaster, the incident occurred when two snowed-in trains on the Great Northern Railroad were knocked off the tracks by what one witness described as “white death.” The snow buried the trains in the canyon below and killed nearly 100 people. Afterward, safer tracks and tunnels were built, but the old abandoned ones remain – some say they’re haunted, with hikers hearing screams and sounds around the crash site. It’s not safe to go into the tunnels, so don’t try it, but you can take a peek from outside.

This is not your average shipwreck. The SS Ayrfield, built in 1911 and used as a supply ship during World War II, was left to rot where it was moored in Homebush Bay after being decommissioned in 1972, one of many wrecks in the bay. This industrial area was contaminated with toxic waste, but eventually cleaned up, revitalised for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and now home to suburbs. But the ship had been reclaimed by mangrove trees, and so the “floating forest,” as it’s now known, was kept as it was – a strange juxtaposition of the man-made and the natural.

This article first appeared on Reader’s Digest.