9 ghost towns to visit, from China to Africa, Ukraine and Hong Kong – eerie reminders of war, disaster and loss
- An abandoned diamond mining town, once considered the richest in Africa, attracts artists, filmmakers and Instagrammers keen to capture its beauty
- In France, a village stands as a memorial to a wartime massacre, while a Caribbean town looks much as it did when it was abandoned during a volcanic eruption
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.
1. Bodie State Historic Park, United States
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.
