Over 70 abandoned trolleys, subways and buses have found home in a North Carolina forest. The trains, once filled with people, now sit decaying on winding tracks stretching through the snowy forest, infusing visitors with a certain apocalyptic feel. The trains are from big cities such as New York City and Philadelphia, but have been left to rot in this unusual graveyard.

credit: ttcfan4476

The abandoned military bases of the Kuril Islands give an amazing insight into recent past. The bay was used by the Soviet Navy as a secret submarine base between 1978 and 1994. It was a home away from home for 3000 Soviet naval personnel and their families until the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Now, amid the rusted skeletons of trucks and abandoned three-storey barracks,

credit: Austronesian Expeditions

In 1928, the Canfranc International Railway Station was the biggest rail station in Europe, and was the centerpiece of a railway between France and Spain. The mountainous line, with its complex passage of tunnels, bridges and viaducts, took 24 years to build, but after a chequered history which saw it commandeered by the Nazis during the Second World War, Canfranc International Railway Station has slowly slipped into disrepair and is now little more than a crumbling shell.

credit: Juanedc

The Palace of Culture was a typical structure of the Eastern bloc. A building was dedicated to sports, education and culture. The huge buildings were central point for people to enjoy all kinds of recreational activities in Pripyat. Pripyat (1km from the reactor) was designed as an exemplar of Soviet planning for the 50,000 people who worked at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant till 1986. But the result of soviet planning was the worst nuclear accident in history. Now Pripyat is in a radioactive exclusion zone unfit for human habitation. It must have been a beautiful place before the accident.

credit: Timm Suess