It doesn’t
take long after a place is abandoned for nature to reclaim its land.
From a mining town swallowed by the sands of a desert, to an island
community willingly returned to its wild state, these 15 places
demonstrate the ecological power of the earth to retake our human
progress.
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TA PROHM, CAMBODIA
Long tree roots twine over the 12th-century temple Ta Prohm, crawling
through its doorways, slowing pulling apart its ornately carved stones.
Unlike many of the other temples of Angkor in Cambodia, Ta Prohm has
mostly been left to the jungle for centuries since its abandonment with
the fall of the Khmer Empire. Conservation efforts in recent years have
helped prevent a total loss of the historic site, but the root systems
of the silk-cotton trees and appropriately named strangler figs continue
their consumption of the sacred structures. |
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CHERNOBYL, UKRAINE
As with the 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdown in Japan, after which
thousands of wild boars and other animals like lynx and elks doubled
their populations in the abandoned communities, the 1986 Chernobyl
nuclear accident in Pripyat, Ukraine, saw ecology quickly respond to the
disaster zone. Chernobyl initially had its landscapes ravaged, earning
one woodland the nickname the Red Forest for the crimson needles of
dying trees. But three decades on, wolves, foxes, raccoon dogs, and
other animals are populous in the exclusion zone, and although
deformations due to radiation were not unusual early on, there's also
been recent evidence of adaptation, like birds who produce increased
levels of antioxidants needed to survive. |
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VILLA EPECUÉN, ARGENTINA
Many drowned towns were intentionally destroyed for reservoirs; Villa
Epecuén in Argentina was submerged through a freak incident in 1985 when
heavy rainfall broke a dam, flooding the popular spa town. While there
were no fatalities, many lost their homes, seemingly forever. Then in
2009, the weather shifted again, revealing dead trees and
saltwater-faded ruins. One octogenarian returned to his town, and is now
the only resident. His solitary life was featured in the 2013 short
documentary Pablo's Villa. |
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OKUNOSHIMA, JAPAN
After a chemical weapons manufacturing site shut down following World
War II, Japan’s Okunoshima island was overrun by bunnies. It’s unclear
how the long-eared hordes got to the place, now nicknamed “Rabbit
Island,” with some theorizing that they descended from former test
subjects, and others that they were pets let loose. Whatever the case,
they now number in the hundreds if not thousands, thriving in the
abandoned buildings and cheerfully hopping outside the Poison Gas
Museum. A popular 2014 video captured a stampede of them bouncing toward
one of the many tourists drawn to the island. |
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SS AYRFIELD, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Called the “floating forest” (although its floating days are long behind
it), the SS Ayrfield in Homebush Bay west of Sydney, Australia, supports
a flourishing mangrove forest on its steel hull. Built in 1911, and with
a storied past that includes transporting supplies during World War II,
the vessel was decommissioned in the 1970s. It remains in the Bay due to
the once-local, now-defunct, ship-breaking industry. Sometime in recent
decades, nature claimed its rusted body, and trees set down roots that
stretch into the water.
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PETITE CEINTURE, PARIS
The Petite Ceinture, or "little belt," is an 1852 railroad that once
circled Paris, until it was made obsolete by the metro and abandoned in
the 1930s. Wild flowers and other plants have since grown through the
train tracks and over the stone walls. Now 70 different types of animals
call the nearly 20 miles home, despite the railway relics being right in
the busy city of Paris. That lack of development may not be for long,
though, as bars, galleries, and events are planned for this metropolitan
nature haven.
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ROSS ISLAND, INDIA
Much like Ta Prohm in Cambodia, India’s Ross Island is being slowly
eaten by trees. However, this arboreal ingestion only started in the
1940s. Following both an earthquake and a Japanese invasion, the
19th-century English penal settlement administration buildings were
abandoned, the shells of buildings later laced with roots. Deer patrol
the old bunkers and bound through the ficus trees that continue to
tighten their grasp on the ruins.
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AÑO NUEVO ISLAND, CALIFORNIA
From 1872 to 1948, Año Nuevo Island in California served as a light
station to prevent shipwrecks in the hazardous waters. After the last
keeper departed and the fog horn was silenced, northern elephant seals
arrived in the 1950s, and were soon joined by sea lions and seabirds.
The populations are so dense, they’ve totally taken over the surviving
19th-century structures. The island is now an official wildlife
preserve, with researchers being the only humans allowed.
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