In fact the place used to be so secret, no locals were allowed near it, no one with any sense would speak of it, and no local East German officials were informed of its various Cold War activities.

Now of course, the dusty secrets of the old Soviet Union are accessible to anyone that takes an interest.

So what did go on here, so close to the Iron Curtains edge?

A frightening enough thought for this Western author, Vogelsang was where the Soviet Union once had atomic weapons primed for Western Europe.

This was the atomic front line of the Soviet Cold War effort, with missiles ready to launch in retaliation for a preemptive strike or in preemption of an imminent retaliation.

Now the whole site is abandoned of course, and is a favourite for urban exploration.

Like all good abandoned buildings, the site is extremely eerie, especially when you consider its dark yet relatively recent past.

Curtains remain, fluttering through broken school, shop, and barrack windows.

Giant bunkers on the garrison’s outskirts stand empty and desolate, doors creaking forlornly, their stash of deadly nukes gone and with it their raison d’être.

Germany would rather forget this ghost town ever existed, despite the remaining Soviet art, the murals, or Lenin’s statue.

These images by photographer and writer, Ciarán Fahey are an important record of the site, as workers have recently been contracted to raise it to the ground.

[Image Credits: Ciarán Fahey ‘Abandoned Berlin‘]

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Codenamed 17/5001, this secret bunker was one of the communist world’s most advanced bunkers, built to protect the leaders of the former East Germany from a nuclear attack.

This three-storey bunker was built in a forest 25km (16 miles) north-east of Berlin, near Wandlitz. The same area contained the special colony where top East German officials were accommodated. There they enjoyed many benefits over the living standards of their fellow common-man ‘comrades’.

Honecker’s bunker reaches a depth of 70m (230ft) below ground.  85,000 tonnes of concrete were used while a four metre thick ‘blast cap’ over the bunker was designed to protect from explosions above. Complex filters shielded the bunker’s occupants from radioactive or biological agents.

Its submarine-like tunnels divided by heavy metal doors lead on to 170 rooms. It was fitted with a fountain, power generators, air conditioning and “springed” rooms able to cushion residents from detonations.

Its construction began in secret in 1978 and finished in 1983, It was intended to house the East Germany leader along with 400 of his staff. It is rumoured that Honecker himself visited the bunker only once and wasn’t happy with its environment.

Although urban explorers had found a way to enter inside earlier, the bunker opened for the first time to the public and for only 3 months in 2008. As can be seen from the photographs, the walls are now covered in mould and the decontamination chambers long-defunct.

[Credits: bunker5001.com, Lindi44, wanus/flickr.com, JonnyBKirchhain/flickr.com]

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Fascinating though the idea of an island only appearing a few months of the year may be, the phenomena is actually man-made. The water level of Muodaoxi River is controlled by the Three Gorges Dam. In spring, the reservoir has to supply water to areas downstream, meaning the water level recedes to expose ‘Turtle Island’.

The turtle shaped island rises from the waters only in spring

For nine months the island is either fully submerged or only has its tip exposed. The turtle shape is only fully visible when the water level is around 163 to 168 meters in depth. If the water falls much lower than this, the island becomes connected to the mainland, losing its unique turtle shape.

The water level is controlled by the Gorges Reservoir further upstream

The phenomenon has gained widespread attention of many Chinese tourists of late. Once the island appears, word spreads and people rush to the location, to take photographs from the nearby hills. “It’s a popular saying around here for the arrival of spring, we just say the turtle is coming,” said local resident Meng Liu.

The area surrounding the Muodaoxi River is a popular tourist destination

Locals celebrate the island as they believe that turtles signify longevity

[Image Credits: www.ecns.cn]

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The haunting yet beautiful image of a once popular grand hotel

The luxurious Hotel del Salto opened in 1928 to welcome wealthy travelers visiting the Tequendama Falls area, in Colombia.

It is easy to see why people once flocked here, the landscape is truly beautiful. The position of the hotel to enjoy the vista is second to none. Situated opposite the waterfall and on the edge of the cliff, it provided breathtaking views to its once many guests.

The luxurious Hotel del Salto opened in 1928

So where did it all go wrong? Unfortunately, due to non existent regulations of Colombian authorities, the Bogota river was allowed to become contaminated by industrial waste.

The reputation of the area as a tourist destination was badly damaged as a result, and people stopped coming.

The hotel has wonderful views opposite the falls

The hotel finally closed down in the early 90’s and was left abandoned ever since. Local rumour has it that the place is haunted, the fact that many people have chosen to commit suicide by jumping from the ravine, only adding to its mysterious ambiance.

The building has been abandoned for almost 25 years

The Bogotá river was contaminated by industry and tourists gradually lost their interest in the area.

The entrance to the abandoned hotel

Pollution in the Bogota river ensured the tourists stayed away

The once well travelled road past the falls and the hotel

Renaissance style ‘Old World’ architecture in decay

[Image Source: imgur]

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Karosto Prison in Latvia was a brutal military prison turned death camp throughout parts of the 20^th Century.

Both the Nazi’s and the Soviets used the prison to incarcerate hundreds of prisoners. Many of which never made it out alive as executions were common place.

Tapping into the general public’s taste for the macabre, this once hellish facility has now been turned into a prison-themed hotel, where guests can sign a non-waiver agreement to be treated like inmates.

Experienced staff play the parts of officers and guards in roles that enact violence

Is this plain sick, or a chance of enlightening insight into the experiences of some while parts of Europe battled under the tyranny of brutal regimes?

Located in the city of Liepaja, Karosta Prison has quickly become one of Latvia’s most unique tourist attractions.

Visitors that do not have sadomasochist tendencies, can opt for a simple tour of the old prison to learn of its gruesome history.

A prison cell where paying guests spend the night

Those that want that history to come alive in a role-playing sense, can book a room in one of the old cells. After signing the relevant forms they can then experience authentic prison life in Communist Era conditions.

This includes sleeping in a cell on an old mattress laid over wooden boards, eating prison food served through the barred doors, getting verbally abused by the guards dressed in period garb and forced to follow orders to the letter.

Guests can also book the night in cell 26 and experience conditions of pitch black solitary confinement.

Guests are forced to relieve themselves in prison condition toilets

Failure to comply to the strict code of conduct is punished through physical exercise and cleaning work around the prison.

Communist era artefacts are used in the rooms for authenticity

The Karosta Prison website reminds wannabe prisoners that going through this experience can be considered brutal, but that it is entirely their choice.

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It may seem hard to believe, however there is a village in India where each of the 300 odd buildings has doorways but no doors. The village is Shani Shingnapur, and the residents that live there leave their homes open to all. Local businesses and schools do the same.

Even the local branch of the United Commercial Bank (State owned UCO) has attempted to follow the village tradition with a lockless entrance, (however cash valuables and the 24hr ATM are secured.)

The Main Entrance to the Local Branch of the UCO Bank is Doorless

The residents of the village, which is situated in the state of Maharashtra, have chosen not to use doors because they believe that Shani, God of Saturn – will protect them. If anyone attempts theft from within the village their God will punish them.

The tradition to not lock up their belongings or their homes goes back countless generations. The legend began when a stone and iron slab was said to have washed up upon the shores of a nearby river after a flood. When the shepherds found the strange slab, they poked it with a stick and it began to ooze blood.

The local deity in the form of a black stone slab is a point of worship for many

That same evening, Shani appeared within the dream of the village head and revealed that the slab the shepherds had found was in fact his own idol.

He told the villager that the idol was so powerful that it did not need to be placed under shelter.

He also said that the villagers never needed to install doors again, because he would always protect them from any kind of danger.

Because of the legend, the residents of Shani Shingnapur believe that their temple is a “jagrut devasthan” (an “alive temple”).  The Shani God is seen as all powerful and this has kept the pious community relatively crime free.

However, that might be changing. A documentary filmed in the 1990s has helped the village rise to prominence, the impact being a large increase in tourism over recent years.

This has of course helped the village economically. Where once the villagers mainly relied on sugar cane farming as their main source of income, tourism has usurped such trade with several thousand visitors pouring in each day during high season.

They are there to pray to the deity, often bringing gifts such as mustard oil as offerings to Shani. Others are there to witness the spectacle and to see a village without doors. However, this has predictably led to other problems. Some of which may threaten the traditional village way of life.

With so many visitors to the village, crime is on the up. Those that do not believe in the local deity, and wish to take advantage of the resident’s traditions, find themselves in a place with very little security.

In 2010, a visitor reported that cash and valuables worth 35,000 rupees ($567) were stolen from his vehicle.

In 2012, gold ornaments worth 70,000 rupees ($1,135) were stolen from an unlocked cupboard in the house of a temple trustee.

And petty thefts are also on the increase with pickpocketing and vehicle thefts taking place from areas around the temple.

Furthermore it is believed that many thefts go unreported. The economy of the village revolves around the temple, so the no-theft claim is important for continuing its popularity.

Currently you will find the occasional doorway with planks blocking the entrance. This is to keep out wild animals. The sad fact is, if crime does continue to increase, some residents say they will have no choice but to install doors.

[Source / image credits: Sunder Iyer, Times of India, Friday Magazine, Wikipedia]

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Now, due to a combination of factors including sea-level rise, coastal erosion, and settling bedrock from the ice age, the town has been completely submerged beneath the waters. This poignant series of photographs, show the process of the last remaining house on the island, slowly disappearing into the ocean.

In the early 1900s Holland Island was a thriving fishing village, with over 70 homes.

This house would later become the last remaining structure to sink below the sea…

In geological terms, the sinking of Holland Island has happened incredibly fast.

The bedrock under the whole area became lower, as it settled following the last ice age…

Coastal erosion also played its part.

Then add rising sea-levels due to global warming.

And you have an island that is no more…

[Image Credits: Wikipedia, Imgur]

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The White Sands Missile Range – Home of Trinity Site and Museum

It’s a rather unusual museum.

All it has on display is a few pebbles of glass, a chunk of concrete about the size of a milking stool and a dilapidated, abandoned ranch house.

This museum is open to the public only 12 hours a year – 6 in spring; 6 in autumn. Admission is free, if you’re willing to drive out into New Mexico’s vast, barren and beautiful Jornada del Muerto Desert.

It’s called Trinity Site. It made a lasting impact on our entire world. It’s where the first Atomic Bomb was detonated.

The monument marking the spot of the world’s first atomic bomb detonation

The pebbles of glass on display used to be sand pebbles, but were baked into glass when sucked up into the massive fire ball that lit up this dark desert at 5:29 a.m. on July 16, 1945.

Visitors are permitted at this earth-shattering site between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. on the first Saturday in April and the first Saturday in October. There’s no guide, no speeches, no ceremony, but some photos hang on the steel mesh fence topped with barbed wire circling ground zero.

A military security guard will issue you an information pamphlet after checking your photo identification 27 kilometres from the site.

The remains of one of the tower footings used to hold the bomb

They recommend you bring your own water. After all, Jornada del Muerta is Spanish for “Journey of a Dead Man”.

Trinity Site is now part of the 2-million-acre White Sands Missile Range, the birth place of America’s space program.

The range has its own museum, which is also free and open most days, about 100 kilometres south of Trinity Site. That’s 100 kilometres as the crow flies. But the U.S. military frowns on tourists driving around on its missile testing range, so it’s actually a 320-kilometre circuitous route between the two museums.

The Trinity Site is now part of the 2-million-acre White Sands Missile Range

The missile range museum is crammed with information about America’s nuclear program, its pioneering ventures into space and the development of rockets as weapons. The old ranch house at Trinity Site is preserved because it was in the master bedroom where scientists under Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, assembled the bomb. It had been expropriated from the McDonald family, along with their huge spread, early in World War II so young pilots could be trained for bombing runs

The plaque attached to the site’s monument

The McDonald home was only 3.2 kilometres from the bomb blast. Its windows were blown out and the neighbouring barn lost its roof, but the house survives today.

The closest humans to the detonation were in the triggering bunker 9.4 kilometres from ground zero.

The concrete stump within the perimeter fence was one of four foot pads supporting the 30.48-metre-high steel tower that held the bomb, then referred to only as “the device.” The steel tower was evaporated in the 8154C temperature of the fireball.

The explosion carved out a crater 1.83 metres deep and 12.1 metres across and much of that sand was melted into glass. Glass marbles fell like rain drops from the mushroom cloud.

A small blob of Trinitite glass – made from the sand melted in the explosion

They would have made great collector items for kids’ games, except they’re radioactive. They’ve all been collected and buried, but for the few on display in a sealed glass case. Although the site is still considered radioactive, scientists claim you’ll absorb only one half of a millirem during a one hour visit to Trinity Site, but when flying from Toronto to Vancouver you’ll absorb two millirems. The average American absorbs 360 millirems a year from the sun and other natural sources of radiation, including medical procedures.

The old ranch house at Trinity Site is preserved. It is here that scientists under Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, assembled the bomb.

The Atom Bomb project and test was of course highly secret, but lighting up the desert in the dark of night did generate some questions among the hardy souls who ranched out in that wilderness. They were told an ammunition dump had exploded by accident.

A day after the second atomic bomb was dropped on Japan, the story of the Manhattan Project and the light in the desert was made public.

The debate about the merits of that project and its aftermath rage on today.

Inside the ranch house

Between Trinity Site and the White Sands Missile Range museum lies White Sand National Monument. This natural wonder of the world is 712 square kilometers of undulating dunes of pure white gypsum sand. For $3 U.S. per person you can drive into this national park and wander through what looks like the aftermath of a winter blizzard.

Outside the Master bedroom, where the bomb were assembled

Access to White Sands National Monument is from U.S. Highway 70, which cuts across the missile range and is closed to traffic for about an hour anytime a missile is launched.

Most of the wide variety of missiles tested at the range since the end of World War II – including an authentic V-2 rocket similar to the ones Germany fired off at Britain and Belgium – are on display in the museum’s back lot. There’s also a replica of Fat Man – the nickname given to the plutonium device detonated at Trinity Site.

Details about the McDonald Ranch House

Radiation at the site is said to be very low

[Source Images: Imgur]

[Source article: Copyright (c) Postmedia Network Inc.]

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Evidence of this can still be found in the sprawling ruin known as Prora. The complex is a dystopian resort that was meant to house German workers on their annual holidays.

Of course, this never quite played out to Hitler’s plans. Prora is now an eerie relic of another idea belonging to history’s most infamous madman.

Built in the late 1930’s, the Prora complex consists of eight identical buildings on the coast of Germany’s Rügen Island.

The buildings stretch for almost three miles down the beach. The original design proposed a seaward view from every single room, with hallways and all other facilities on the land-facing side of the rooms.

True to Nazi form, every detail was meticulously planned. Each room was to have two beds, an armoire, and a sink while bathrooms were shared on each floor.

The rooms were built in an effort to provide affordable vacation space for the average German worker, the ethos being that every working German deserved a day at the beach.

Prora was the first of a number of planned mega-resorts that fell within the “Strength Through Joy” mantra the Nazi leisure organization was operating by.

Hitler backed the giant resorts as part of the propaganda system of support he was trying to gain from the German public. (The effort was during the early years of his reign of power.)

His other incentive was the plan to use the seaside hotels as fall back military installations. In the end, Prora was never used for vacations or fortifications.

Everything came to a halt when World War II began in 1939. Once the war began, construction on the resort complex stopped, leaving the 10,000 rooms empty.

The planned swimming pools and grand theater similarly came to nothing. The complex was left largely empty during the war and for decades afterwards.

Prora briefly housed refugees and a home for the elderly among other short term uses, but by the 1990’s the monolithic row of buildings were completely deserted.

Today, Prora continues to be predominantly empty. Some rooms are used as gallery space, while another section houses a small museum devoted to the site.

The busiest portion of the complex houses Germany’s largest youth hostel.

Most recently it seems that there are attempts being made to turn some of Prora into luxury condos.

Turning Hitler’s vacation rooms for the common man into homes for the wealthy may be the best way to make sure Prora is purged of its checkered beginnings.

[Sources: Markus Horn – Fotografien, Amusing Planet]

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Unfortunately there are no shortage of Olympic villages around the world, where after the glory of the event they are left to quietly rot into the landscape. The site of the 1984 Winter Olympics based in Sarajevo, is no different.

Admittedly, Bosnia, the host country had a lot more on its plate at the beginning of the 90’s than the upkeep of a winter sports arena. The entire region spun into chaos due to a brutal multi-year war.

The conflict wreaked havoc on the the Olympic infrastructure built just a decade before.  While these structures look abandoned today, they stand as a visual reminder of how quickly the world can change.

It is difficult to imagine that the sites within the following photographs, and the events that took place there, were once the focus of over 100 million people.

The Olympic rings once stood proud above the village

The bobsled track overrun by nature

The abandoned bobsled tack at Mount Trebevic.

Graffiti covers the inside walls of the track.

The medal podium at the ski jump venue

The ski jumps laced in fog

The steps leading to the top of the ski-jump platform

The stands at the ski-jump venue

The hotel where the 1984 Olympians stayed

Outside Kosovo Stadium where the opening ceremonies were held.

Weeds and graffiti cover the walls of the Kosovo Stadium.

The Zetra Hall where figure skating was held.

The remains of Zetra Hall.

Graffiti on Zetra Hall.

Vucko, the official mascot of the 1984 Olympics

The abandoned ski jump at Mount Igman.

The end of the ski jump.

The ski jump will never be used again

A view down the length of the ski jump

[Image Source: imgur]

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