Ghost towns Clockwise from far left: Bodie State Historic Park, in California, the United States; Pripyat, near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine; Kolmanskop, in Namibia; So Lo Pun village, in Hong Kong’s northeast New Territories; Plymouth, Mont

Frozen in time, ghost towns stand as mute witnesses to gold rushes, wartime massacres and natural disasters.

Here are nine abandoned places that once bustled with life but now lie eerily silent.

The term “ghost town” is synonymous with the mid-19th century gold rush era. It usually refers to settlements in the western United States that teemed with activity until the gold ran out and the prospectors moved on. The area now known as BODIE STATE HISTORIC PARK was home to as many as 8,000 people, who had hurried to central California in 1859 upon learning that W.S. Body

(aka William Bodey) had struck gold.

Its heyday was from 1876 to 1882, after which began a long decline. As for Bodey, he froze to death in a snowstorm only a few months after his fortuitous find. These days, history buffs come to see faded remnants of the former boomtown: the wooden houses and school; the general store, saloon and, that most quintessential of Wild West facilities, the county jail.

The French village of ORADOUR-SURGLANE gained infamy during World

War II following a massacre that wiped out almost the entire population. On

June 10, 1944, German Waffen-SS troops slaughtered 642 residents, including more than 200 children, before setting fire to the village. Plaques and memorials honour victims of the murderous Nazi spree and the ruins of the deserted settlement, untouched for 80 years, continue to attract thousands of stunned sightseers. A year after the atrocity, the then French president, Charles de Gaulle, declared that the crumbling walls, rusting cars and burnt out shells of houses and shops should be preserved as a permanent memorial to the horrors.

Some settlements lie deserted not as a result of a calamitous event, but because the inhabitants chose to move elsewhere. Located off the east coast of China, a ferry ride from Shanghai,

HOUTOUWAN, on Shengshan Island, was once a thriving fishing community. Thousands made their living from the sea until economic reforms led to changes in the industry. People began to leave in search of better opportunities in urban areas and the population steadily declined. The final few, elderly, residents abandoned the village in the mid-1990s. Today, Houtouwan is a ghost town, but one with a new lease of life. The abandoned houses and narrow alleyways are veiled in vegetation, creating an otherworldly backdrop that attracts photographers. And the former villagers? An enterprising few return each day to sell bottles of water to tourists.

Founded in the early 20th century by German colonialists after the discovery of diamonds, KOLMANSKOP, in

Namibia, grew rapidly as prospectors flocked to the area in the hope of striking it rich. Before long, a prosperous mining community was flourishing in the desert. By the 1950s, however, other, more lucrative operations with richer diamond deposits led to Kolmanskop’s demise. Once considered the richest town in Africa, Kolmanskop lies at the mercy of searing sunlight and sandstorms, its stark beauty enticing artists, filmmakers and Instagrammers keen to capture the acute sense of desolation. Visitor permits are required but are easy to obtain.

In 1942, the British Ministry of Defence gave the residents of seven neighbouring villages in Norfolk, England, one month to pack up and leave, as the district had been requisitioned for World War II military training. The expulsion was intended to be temporary but the government broke its promise. After the war, the area became the STANFORD

TRAINING AREA and remains an infantry training facility. The lost villages: West Tofts, Sturston, Langford, Buckenham Tofts, Stanford, Tottington and West Tofts Heath can be visited on tours that run a dozen or so times a year. Each December, descendants of the exiled residents are invited to St Mary’s Church, West Tofts – one of four pre-war churches still standing – for a carol service.

An estimated 6,000 ghost villages dot Italy’s landscape, each with its own story to tell. In the southern province of Reggio Calabria lies the abandoned hilltop settlement of ROGHUDI

VECCHIO, which dates back to the 11th

century. Situated in a picturesque valley in the Aspromonte Mountains, Roghudi Vecchio suffered from earthquakes, landslides and floods over the centuries until, in the early 1970s, the mayor pronounced the village uninhabitable and ordered it to be evacuated. Today, curious tourists explore the narrow cobblestone streets and crumbling stone houses, squint through the keyholes of derelict properties and marvel at how nature is reclaiming the medieval village.

In 1997, PLYMOUTH, MONTSERRAT was destroyed in a catastrophic volcanic eruption that buried the Caribbean island’s capital city under metres of scalding mud and superheated ash. Plumes of smoke were propelled many kilometres into the air, prompting the evacuation of 5,000 residents. The southern half of the island was declared an exclusion zone and remains unsafe to visit, except on brief tours. The derelict houses look much as they did on the day Plymouth was abandoned for good. Mid-90s Caribbean fashions fill bedroom wardrobes and furniture stands intact. Kitchen cupboards are still filled with jars of sauces and condiments that might have been used for dinner on that fateful evening – if someone hadn’t knocked on the door and screamed at the inhabitants to run for their lives.

Perhaps the best known of all ghost towns, PRIPYAT was home to around 50,000 people until April 26, 1986, when reactor number four of the Chernobyl nuclear plant overheated and exploded. Citizens were ordered to evacuate the Soviet (now Ukrainian) city – although first responders stayed at the scene, a decision that would cost most of them their lives. Before February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, tours of the Chernobyl exclusion zone included creepy visits to Pripyat Middle School, the hospital, amusement park and forest where (highly radioactive) bears, deer, wolves and wild boar roam. Protective hazmat clothing was not required as visitors were exposed to radiation levels no higher than a dental X-ray. Touching anything at the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster was a no-no, however, and tourists were checked for radioactive particles when they arrived and again when they left.

Intrigued by haunting tales of solitude and sinister goings-on? The good news is you don’t need to travel far to explore abandoned villages. There are estimated to be at least 100 scattered throughout Hong Kong. Some bustle with hikers and returning residents each weekend while others are significantly more spooky. These are settlements where the term ghost village refers to a paranormal presence as much as a lack of inhabitants. SO LO PUN, in the northeast New Territories, ticks a number of supernatural boxes. It’s a derelict collection of moss-covered buildings with mildewing walls and broken windows located deep in a forest. Unexplained technical phenomena such as compass needles whirring erratically (So Lo Pun means “locked compass” in Cantonese) and the alleged absence of a mobile phone signal increase the eerie sense of unease. The rumoured disappearance of the entire population in a boat capsizing incident on a stormy night long ago adds to the legend and most spine chilling of all are the accounts of ghost sightings that an online “authority” swears are true.

Don’t go alone.