I’ve recently written about urban ruins in Detroit (it’s almost the “perfect” city for visiting abandoned structures, if you think about it). But for something a little more exotic and even sinister, you’ll have to fly to Russia. Here are the top seven “abandoned wonders” of the Soviet Union, courtesy of the good folks at the all things urban blog WebUrbanist.
- Promyshlennyi, an entire abandoned city–very gloomy feeling
- A once-secret military submarine base–feels straight out of James Bond’s Goldeneye
- A gulag–looks less scary without the guards who will shoot you on sight
- New (but abandoned) buildings–this can only happen in Russia
- Former missile silo–may be the only decommissioned missile silo open to tourists.
- Oceanside fortress–comes with miles of secret tunnels, free of charge
- Your generic giant satellites, mining scoopers, and other heavy machinery–the satellite is the size of a soccer field just to give you some perspective