8 Striking Lost Cities and Structures Reclaimed by Nature
Over the course of human history, countless thriving cities have been lost, destroyed or deserted. Some were swallowed up by rising sea levels or flattened by natural disasters, while others were razed by invading forces. On occasion, cities were simply abandoned by their inhabitants who deemed it too difficult or draining a place to call home.
But what happens when a city is left eerily abandoned, its homes and buildings still standing without anybody to call them home? Nature takes over. Moss coats crumbling buildings, sand dunes swallow up whole houses and trees and animals clamber over once busy walkways.
From a former mining town swallowed up by the Namib desert to a rabbit-infested Japanese island, here are 8 historic cities and settlements that have been reclaimed by nature.
San Juan Parangaricutiro church, covered with lava from the Paricutin volcano. Michoacan, Mexico.
Image Credit: Esdelval / Shutterstock
On 20 February 1943, the ground near the Mexican settlement of San Juan Parangaricutiro started to shake, ash began to fill the air, and the town’s church bells started to ring uncontrollably. A nearby volcano, Parícutin, was erupting. Lava began to flow, making its way into the surrounding fields. Thankfully, the people of San Juan Parangaricutiro managed to evacuate before the lava hit – which took around a year after the initial eruption – and nobody there was killed.
The town was devastated by the eruption, however, with its shops and houses consumed by the flow of molten rock. When the lava cooled and dried, the church’s spire was all that remained standing, towering over the blackened landscape. The people of San Juan Parangaricutiro then set about building a new life for them nearby, while their former home eventually grew into a popular tourist attraction. People from far and wide come to clamber over the rock to see San Juan Parangaricutiro’s resilient church spire and facade.
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12 May 2023
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