Abandoned cities and towns worldwide show the rise and decline of once-thriving communities and reveal varied causes of abandonment such as migration and resource depletion. Mesa Verde preserves Ancestral Pueblo cliff dwellings built into alcoves, with structures ranging from single-room storage units to 150-room villages like Cliff Palace; those inhabitants migrated in the mid-1200s, leaving the cliffside homes empty. Bodie, California, transitioned from a booming gold-mining town with thousands of structures and residents to a preserved ghost town within Bodie State Historic Park. Many abandoned sites now serve as photographic, archaeological, and tourist destinations.
Some 800 years ago, around the late 1190s, the Ancestral Pueblo people who lived in what's now southwest Colorado, began moving from the tops of mesas into dwellings they built into the sides of natural cliffs. Set in alcoves, these structures included single-room storage units for food, all the way up to 150-room villages, such as Cliff Palace, which once housed about 100 people. In the mid-1200s, the group began migrating to present-day New Mexico and Arizona, eventually abandoning the cliffside dwellings altogether.
Across the world, bustling towns and vibrant metropolises have been left eerily deserted, some seemingly overnight. These abandoned cities, which were once vibrant communities, now offer a glimpse into the past-and historic sites as such are both a photographer's paradise and a potential tourist's haunting experience. Whether nestled in lush forests or barren deserts, these towns bear the scars of time, showcasing human ingenuity while reminding us of the inevitability of decay.
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