All language subtitles for Abandoned.Engineering.S04E01.The.Worlds.Strangest.Ghost.Town.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-squalor_track3_[eng]

Voice over: Mysterious places
that have sometimes been destroyed

or left contaminated

or simply abandoned

in the furthest
reaches of the planet.

Some of the buildings look as
though they're clinging on to the rock

for dear life

if you walk out of the front
door it's just a sheer drop.

You've got bath
tubs full of sand,

the only thing that this is
home to now is the desert.

Casualties of war, natural disasters
or events far more surprising.

What was left behind
was so strange and eerie,

this town was now covered in a
layer of something really mysterious.

It's the victim of something
that most of us couldn't believe

could happen.

These are the worlds
five strangest ghost towns.

They are places now abandoned.

Their ruins shrouded in mystery.

But within their decaying
structures are the echoes of history

while many are
associated with dark times

they are also reminders of
human ingenuity and endeavour.

Now each haunted shell

is ready to be unmasked
to tell it's own unique story.

In the heartlands of
Argentina in South America

there is a strange
and eerie sight.

It looks like a post
apocalyptic landscape.

The only access is
down this potholed track.

It really gives you this feeling
of you know, this place is creepy.

Everything is dusted with white,

the remnants of trees look
like something fossilised.

You really can't tell what
created this strange ruin.

Walking down the
main arteries of the town

is a surreal experience,

it's as though someone
just snapped their fingers

and everything's gone
only slightly distorted.

It has this really
eerie ghostly feel to it,

staircases that lead to nowhere

or kind of corroded structures.

The parched barren landscape

gives us no real hints
about the town's history.

But the first real clues are
provided by the white substance

that clings to every surface.

You know it looks
like it could be ash,

you have to wonder
was it bombed?

If so why? By who?

Did anyone survive?

What happened to it?

There's swimming pools

and you can see the
remnants of cafes.

There's children's play
grounds with swings and slides

that are just almost
frozen in time

and look as though it's some
kind of a haunted film set.

So clearly this was not a
you know, a military site

or something like that

it was apparently a
lovely place in it's day.

It appears that this place could
have been burnt to the ground

or could that strange white substance
reveal a far more curious story?

Today the streets have a haunted
desolate almost forsaken feel

but incredibly there is still one
man who calls this ghost town home.

Translation: "I am Pablo novak

"the only resident
left in the ruins.

"I was born here,
my two brothers also.

"On the 25th of January
I turned 88 years old."

For the last ten years

Pablo has been
living here on his own.

The only resident who
refused to accept defeat.

Translation: "I stayed

"and I was sure someone
would come back eventually.

"It used to be so famous, so many
people used to come from all over."

Although it's a little
hard to imagine today

for more than half a century
this was a luxurious retreat

that catered for the
elite of Buenos Aires.

During that time many thousands
came for a break from life in the city.

A railway line was built
from there to Buenos Aires.

By the mid 20th century it had
grown into a lovely little resort

that you'd have as many as
25,000 people a year coming to visit.

What they all came in
search of is still visible today.

They were the supposedly healing
waters of a nearby lake and spring.

Those waters have since crept
into the heart of the settlement.

This is all that remains of
the town of villa epecuen.

Throughout history

humans have gravitated
towards hot Springs,

waters with a lot
of minerals in them,

with the idea that this
is good for your health.

Legend has it that
the lake was formed

from the tears of a great chief

who was crying over
the loss of his true love.

The therapeutic powers of the
lake had been famous for centuries

and it is said that these spring
could cure all sorts of things

from depression to rheumatism.

It started off as
a sleepy village

but then grew to this
bustling tourist resort.

But those who flocked to the
town to take advantage of the waters

probably had no idea that
they also held hidden dangers.

So the town just
kept on growing,

hotels for the
visitors were built,

there was even a slaughter
house to provide meat for everyone,

it had all kinds of attractions.

Translation: "This was
started as the recro armasa.

"A dance hall.

"And because the room was
small and lots of people came

"they also used it for a theatre

"with theatre companies
coming from Buenos Aires."

So the town flourished

and it's future seemed
bright but then disaster struck.

In November 1985 it started to
rain and the thing is it never stopped.

The rainfall was
reaching record levels

and the lake was
threatening to burst it's banks.

What was once the
lifeblood of villa epecuen

was about to become
the cause of it's downfall.

A particular problem where
you have big water bodies

that are bound by land

is that it's a phenomenon
called the sache

and it's very much like when
you're in a bath you know,

you're sort of playing around and
occasionally poof! Up in your face

you get this freak wave

and that's because you've got all
of these different waves interacting

and eventually they
all come together

and make a much larger wave.

That's thought to be what caused
the demised of the flood defences

in this particular town

and once the flooding started

then essentially the sort of,
the flood gates were open.

The residents of villa epucuen had
no choice but to flee to higher ground.

Fortunately for the residents
the water Rose slowly enough

they had time to get
out but not a lot of time.

So 1,500 people just had to pack
up and move in a matter of days.

The flood waters gradually
slowly consumed the entire town

and by 1993 it was submerged
under 30 feet of water,

effectively becoming
a modern day Atlantis.

Translation: "Everything
that you can see now

"hadn't been seen for 20 years."

As the years passed the
waters slowly began to recede.

But the waters that were
once restorative and healing

have left a lasting scar
upon the landscape.

When the town was exposed again

of course a lot of the
buildings had collapsed

but everything was covered
with this eerie coating of white.

And the twist is this
highly saline water

left the town covered
in a thick layer of salt

giving it this unique appearance
as though it's been bombed

and covered in ash.

The same minerals that had
drawn people to the hot Springs

to soak their aches
and pains away

now coated all the
buildings of the village.

Now although the
remains of villa epecuen

are standing above
water once more

the town can never
regain it's former glory.

But Pablo novak is still
determined to remain here.

Translation: "When I turned 70
my daughters gave me money

"'cause they thought I couldn't
live here alone any more.

"But I'm 88 now and still here.

"And as long as I can walk,
talk and have a good memory

"I will stay here."

In the southern mediterranean,

in the arch of the
famous boot of Italy

is a truly extraordinary sight that
overlooks an almost lunar landscape.

This rock sits in the middle of
an area known as the 'badlands'.

It's an unpopulated area
empty as far as the eye can see.

Yet built on an
imposing mountain

some 1,300 feet above the surrounding
plains there's a remarkable town.

It's a stunning sight

you can hardly tell where the cliff
face ends and the masonry begins.

It's almost as if they've
organically integrated their town

with the rock itself.

Some of the buildings

look as though they're clinging
on to the rock for dear life

and at one instance if you
walk out of the front door

it's just a sheer drop.

Engineering involved must
have been fairly impressive

particularly moving a stone and
rock around cliff edges and so on,

how the hell would you
build something up there?

As you get closer

there's another layer to this
mysterious dramatic looking sight.

When you look closer you can
see the buildings have been battered

and light is streaming in
through the missing church dome.

The whole thing
is virtually flattened

and it makes you wonder
what happened here?

Was it bombed?

Did anyone survive?

The abandoned,
weather beaten buildings

suggest that this settlement
was occupied for many centuries.

From the top of the
town's imposing tower

local guide saverio grippo explains
what makes this place so special.

As you can see we are
on the top of the tower

and you can understand
how important was this location

to have a wide view and
dominate all the territories.

In fact from here we have
about a 360% panoramic view.

This is craco.

Built in the middle ages
high on a steep mountain

craco was built here for
a very specific purpose.

When you look closer you
can see that the part of the town

that is in the best shape

is actually the oldest section.

It was built on solid rock

and built to withstand
military attack

and that's still standing today.

The heaving tower with it's
arrow slits and fortifications

gives a hint when
this village was built

because it was at a time

when islamic pirates
rode the mediterranean

and frequently raided in land.

This was a defensive village.

But a closer look reveals that this
is not simply a ruined medieval town.

A modern community lived here,

it was something that
was destroyed recently,

the question is how and why?

Ironically,

the seeds of the towns downfall were
sown by it's own economic success.

By the 15th century,

wealthy local landowners
were moving in to the town

as craco mayor pino
lacicerchia explains.

Translation: "The economic
and commercial growth

"developed the urban centre.

"That grew and expanded
around the tower.

"Which was surrounded
itself by the houses

"that belonged to
the land owners."

During the following centuries,

craco's infrastructure
continued to spread.

And buildings began to spring
up on the surrounding slopes.

Yet today they have vanished.

A striking feature is that

large parts of the new town
have completely disappeared

but the old town
remains largely intact

which begs the question

why then does so much of it
resemble an area from a war zone?

There's a line where the
old medieval settlements

meet the new town

and in that new town square
it's actually sunk about ten feet

from where it used to be.

The whole place
has been decimated.

The explanation for this odd
situation can be found underground.

While the medieval
site is built on solid rock

the new town sits
on less stable ground.

Which is actually formed
of different types of Clay.

Put simply

the new building works
put ever greater pressure

on this unstable ground.

The result was landslides.

A landslide is a, a mass
movement of rock and debris

that usually forms on
some sort of weakness

that might be a weak bed

or a join between two
different types of rocks really.

Landslides are
lubricated by water.

Translation: "The community here
always co-existed with landslides.

"Fixing buildings that were
damaged and carrying on."

By the early 1960s

craco was experiencing
frequent landslides so powerful

that retaining walls were
constructed to keep the new town safe.

But the earth continued to move.

By 1963

the landslides had
caused untold damage,

the entire new part of the village
had slipped away down the hill,

the football pitch
had disappeared

and even the retaining wall that
was meant to guard against landslides

had gone.

Ironically, the worsening
landslides were largely self inflicted.

Translation: "They reinforced
the area with concrete.

"Which was extremely
heavy and required drilling.

"This added weight then
sped up the landslide."

They found that it was actually
leaking pipes and sewers and so on

that were contributing to
the water that was fluxing

and feeding the landslide.

So it's actually a man made
problem that caused the landslides

that caused the
evacuation of the town.

But while landslides may
have wiped out the new town,

what caused such extensive
damage to the medieval parts of craco?

The other problem you have in
this part of the world are earthquakes

and you can imagine a solid
building attached to solid rock

when that shakes it's
going to start falling apart.

And there was a big
earthquake in 1980

and that caused major
destruction in the town

and eventually really kind
of tipped it right over the edge

to make it almost uninhabitable.

And this is the last
abandoned house of craco.

The last family lived here
until the beginning of 90s.

Inside you can still
have signs of life,

an oven, some chair on the floor,
and even bottles on the fireplace.

After standing
nearly 1,000 years

craco finally got hit with
a series of calamities

that it really couldn't survive.

Today craco is an empty shell,

a slightly spooky destination
for curious tourists.

One of the ironies of the town
being abandoned for so long

is that it never got rebuilt.

That's made it a
magnet for tourists today

who want to see what a
medieval village was like

without a lot of modern
infrastructure on top of it.

It's even been used
for a number of movies

if you want to recreate what
the streets of Jerusalem were like

2,000 years ago,

this is a pretty
good place to do it.

However the town's tribulations
have not all been in vain.

Given all of the things that
have happened to this village

it's become a bit of a mecca for
scientists to try and understand

exactly how you can mitigate
against such problems,

how you can go from a
perfectly working town

to a destroyed town

and hopefully we'll
learn something from this,

from the science
into the future.

In a remote forest
in northern Ukraine

lie the remains of a once modern
and technological advanced town

that was formerly part
of the Soviet union.

Overgrown and slowly
being reclaimed by nature

it's a haunting sight
with over 150 buildings

spread across 15 square miles.

This smart rich Metropolis
seemed to have everything it needed

to thrive and prosper.

Yet the area became linked to
one of the most infamous disasters

in living memory.

In the 1970s it was
built as a showpiece city,

that would help power the
future of the Soviet union.

Places like this were built
to attract the brightest minds

and the most devoted workers.

It was a purpose built town able
to cater for up to 50,000 people.

And one of those
who hoped to live here

was sergey Chernov.

Translation: "It was
very well planned

"with a beautiful environment
and technological services.

"It was a city of young people,

"the average age of those
living here was just 26 years old."

All around the town are
clues that tell why this place

was so important to the Soviets.

And that also reveal the catastrophe
that caused it's destruction.

Translation: "Right now
we're in the central square

"and this building
right in front

"was the so called cultural
building which was called energetic.

"Over there on that
five storey building

"there's an emotive
slogan that says,

"let the atom be a worker
rather than a soldier."

"It didn't manage to follow
through on that idea as you know."

This is pripyat

the town built to service the
infamous nuclear power plant

of chernobyl.

Reactor number four exploded

spewing radiation
over much of Europe.

Radiation levels were expected
to rise over the ensuing weeks.

The entire population
was quickly evacuated.

As many as 8,000
people have died

as a result of the worlds
worst nuclear accident.

The whole area was isolated.

It signalled the
end for the town,

all that remains is this
ghostly deserted wasteland.

Translation: "It was
dangerous as you know

"to build a town in the
vicinity of a nuclear plant

"but that was common practice,

"the case of pripyat proved
how disastrous this practice was."

On the west coast
of Namibia in Africa

a mysterious settlement is
preserved in arid wasteland.

In the middle of
the baron landscape

a cluster of buildings unexpectedly
emerge from the drifting sands.

This place it's
just super strange.

You're clearly in a desert

and you turn round then there's
this strange cowboy type town.

But if you look a
bit more in detail it's,

it's a bit more
sophisticated than that.

Some of the architecture
is really quite interesting

so it makes you wonder

where did the money come from
to build these lavish structures?

It's definitely a place where people
wanted to be at the time but why?

The money and
people have vanished

and mother nature
is reclaiming the town.

You've got bath
tubs full of sand,

you've got piles of sand
as you walk in to the houses,

the only thing that this is
home to now is the desert.

And the only signs of life
are snakes and scorpions,

it makes you wonder who would
ever want to have built here?

Despite the brutal sand
storms and the lake of water,

a community not
only thrived here

but flourished living
in apparent luxury.

Certainly it was a place
that was very affluent.

They created an
ice factory on site

so they could actually
make their own ice.

They had a butchers,

they had everything that
you'd kind of want for a town.

What drew them
here in the first place

and why has it become
such a haunted ghost town?

But who would go to
such extraordinary lengths

to create a luxury town
in such hostile conditions.

In the early 1900s

Namibia was part of
German south west Africa.

This area lay more than 500
miles from the busy British port

of Cape Town

with nothing but a solitary
railway track passing through

to the German
harbour town of luderitz.

These areas were remote
areas under exploration

so you know to, to make an
area that's remote and a desert

somewhere that's a
place where people can live

you need a commodity.

Soon that commodity
was unearthed.

In 1908 a local railway
worker made a discovery,

he found diamonds in the sand
and that changed everything.

The birth and growth of this
now abandoned settlement

was driven by that
extraordinary discovery.

This is Namibia's
ghost town, kolmanskop.

Despite it's remote location
local expert William thomson,

reveals the wide range of
luxuries enjoyed by residents here.

This is where the shop
keeper used to stay

and she was also the richest
lady here in kolmanskop.

On this table is a
list of all the stuff

that she imported from Germany,
you will be amazed at everything

she ordered from camembert
cheese to the finest of champagnes.

It was not just the
imported goods

that powered the
towns growing wealth.

What I like about the buildings

is that they were
ingeniously designed.

They'd put pieces of
wood in between the bricks

and they acted a little
bit like natural aircon

so they would counteract

the vastly fluctuating
desert temperatures.

So what caused this vibrant
oasis to simply disappear?

At first it couldn't have been
easier for German prospectors

who flocked here
to make their fortune.

We think of diamond mines
being complex structures

but that wasn't
how they started,

I mean really you had
men crawling on their hands

and knees under the moonlight

looking for that glistening
precious stone in the sand.

And they found them.

There's tales actually from the
time where they would dig trenches

and the diamonds were
so proliferous on the ground

that you could sweep
them into the trenches,

you'd sweep the
dust into the trenches

and then have people
move along the trenches

picking out the diamonds.

By 1912

the area was home
to one of the richest

diamond deposits in the world.

Kolmanskop rapidly developed
into a thriving diamond mining town,

you know at it's peak

12% of the world's
diamonds were mined here.

With this explosion of wealth, a
town grew to support the industry.

Despite that the harsh climate

and the very isolated setting

the town actually had
many European luxuries.

So they had a
bowling alley here,

opera singers from Europe and
Germany came to perform here,

they had a sea water swimming
pool in the middle of the desert.

It had a theatre, a
performance hall,

it quickly developed into a lively
little haven of German culture.

But there was one
very pressing problem.

Water.

Kolmanskop and luderitz
had no fresh water,

look they had some
underground water

but it wasn't
sufficient for everyone,

it wasn't enough for everyone it
was very blackish and very salty.

That's a main reservoir

on top of that was for the
fresh water here at kolmanskop.

What they did was they imported

all their fresh water all
the way from Cape Town.

1,000 tonnes of
fresh water per month.

As kolmanskop grew rich
thanks in part to this British supply

it was able to buy it's
way out of water shortages.

But with the dark clouds
of war hanging over Europe

how long would this
arrangement last?

And would a lack of
water finally spell disaster?

While the money flowed,

kolmanskop became a centre
for cutting edge technology.

A window in to what was the
most important thing in this town

is highlighted by the fact
that it was the first place ever

in Southern Africa to
have an X-ray machine.

But that wasn't just to
check for broken bones

it was to check to see if
somebody had swallowed a diamond

and was taking it
home after work.

The beginning of the end came
with the cataclysmic events of 1914.

With the outbreak
of world war I in 1914,

a lot of the Germans were interned,
sent back to Germany and everything.

But the final straw came in 1927
when extensive diamond deposits

were found in the north
of the orange river mouth

and the diamonds
they found there

were six times bigger than
the diamonds they found here

at kolmanskop

and I think that was where
kolmanskop meet it's end.

The inhabitants of this town on,

on hearing that they could
have something bigger and better

just literally
dropped their tools,

left all their possessions
and joined the rush south.

Kolmanskop struggled on,

but in 1956 with a supply
of diamonds exhausted

the final resident left

and the town was
abandoned to the desert.

Today kolmanskop
is ghostly silent

and preserved
by the arid climate

yet discoveries in the
region are still being made.

Diamonds are still being
mined in Namibia and,

and interestingly
not so far from here

they're actually finding
diamonds on the sea floor.

In Colombia county,
Pennsylvania usa

is a town that has been virtually
wiped from the face of the earth.

It's clear that there's been some
kind of massive time break here,

you know something's gone on.

It's the victim of something

that most of us couldn't
believe could happen.

There are no people
there, it's eerie.

Roads neatly laid out
in a grid like system

suggest that this was once
a typical American town.

Most of the buildings
themselves are gone,

you can see the gridwork of
streets, you can see people lived here,

a lot of stuff is
covered with graffiti,

it's very hard to figure out
what actually happened here.

In a way it's a ghost
town without the town.

Foundations yet no houses.

A police station
but no police force.

A settlement that
seems to have vanished.

Are there clues that hint at
some kind of natural disaster?

It's almost as though that
the tarmac's all cracked up,

there's you know there's
the ground heaves,

was there an earthquake? Is
that the reason nobody's there?

It's really rather strange.

A person visiting for the
first time might think that

the town was a victim of
some kind of volcanic activity,

there's cracks visible,

there's steam coming
up out of the ground,

it's like it seems like some
kind of a volcanic wasteland.

So why has this town
been wiped from history?

It's hard to believe now
but this now desolate site

had been a thriving part of the
rich history of American industry

since the 1850s.

Well served by road and rail

this was once a bustling
town of some 1,400 people.

It was called centralia.

Local author David dekok,

remembers it as a
very different place.

This shot was taken
in October of 1983

looking up toward the top of
town you can see there was a,

an entire town
there that's now gone

so it really er,

drives home I think
how much was lost here.

How the town vanished is a
tale that's stranger than fiction.

In 1979 they began to
notice something very odd

at the local gas station.

John coddington's gas
station had to shut down

because the gasoline

and the underground
tanks was vey hot.

So the state police said
you know, sorry John,

you've got to close
and he didn't fight it.

I mean, his family
lived above the station

so you know he had a lot
of skin in the game there.

Coddington wasn't the
only centralia resident

experiencing strange happenings.

A local kid by the
name of Todd dombolski

was walking in the back yard

when suddenly a sinkhole
opened up and he fell in.

He was able to grab
hold of a tree root

and keep hold of it
until a friend could come

and rescue him and pull him out.

Saves his life you know,

there was a deadly amount of
carbon monoxide in that hole,

chaos results, phone
calls to the governor

and things were never
quite the same after that.

But this bought national attention
to this town's bizarre plight.

And soon things got worse.

The earth began to erupt.

When they first saw these
cracks people just wondered

what could possibly
cause this you know,

it's maybe three feet wide,
two and a half feet deep

and maybe as much
as 20 to 30 feet long.

What was responsible for making
these gaping holes and wide cracks?

Speculation was rife.

For a while at least
for several years

you would see steam coming
out of this gigantic highway crack.

People wondered
what was causing this,

they may have thought it was some
kind of volcano down there maybe.

The cause of the steam

was actually something that
no-one could have guessed.

What's actually happening

is something that
sounds impossible

which is a fire
burning underground

and it's been burning
for more than 50 years.

It's venting gases through any
cracks and seams in the ground,

imagine if you had
cellars in the houses

they could be potentially
targets for escaping gases.

And those gases can be poisonous

and you can imagine that
fire is moving in different parts.

The fire moved under the highway
there was voluminous clouds of steam

that would come out of the
ground either side of the highway.

The highway closed in 1983
but the fire still burns today.

So this is a borehole
and if we unscrew this cap

we are going to see what
the fire is like underneath.

Ooh nice and hot.

That's heat coming
up to the surface,

I can smell the distinctive kind
of sulphurish smell of the fire.

You see these
little beads of water

just jumping and,
and floating in the air.

When I talked to one of
the state officials recently

he said that when
they last tested it,

it was about 140 degrees er,
you know maybe down 25, 30 feet.

So what caused the fires
that spread beneath centralia?

So this may look like just a
clearing in the forest but er,

back in 1962 there
was a huge pit here that,

that centralia
used as it's landfill.

And they wanted
to clean up the dump

and the way they did that
was to have some guys

from the fire department
come and set it on fire,

burn up the stuff
that could be burned,

wash it down with water
from a tanker or truck

and then go away and everything
was supposed to be fine but it wasn't.

Something really
odd actually happened

which is a phenomenon
called a coal seam fire.

There's a coal mine underground

and what happened is somehow
the fire got into that coal area

and all of a sudden it
sparked a whole new problem.

The fire would quietly burn below
centralia for the next 20 years.

What you don't see on the
surface is that underneath this town

and extending far and wide is
a giant labyrinth of coal mines

and it's these coal
mines that are on fire.

Centralia sits right on top

of one of the richest coal
mining areas in the world

so it's very difficult to figure
out how to put the fire out

because the underground
environment is so complex.

Coal seam fires themselves
are a big problem in coal areas

and obviously as you burn away
bits of the coal and you destabilise the,

the subterranean network of
tunnels and coal seams and so on

you can actually
cause there to be a,

instabilities on the surface.

A sink hole that developed
probably due to this undermining

of the stability of the surface.

With no way of
extinguishing the fire

the news spread and
the eyes of the world

were suddenly on centralia

meaning the federal government
could not ignore the problem.

After (inaudible) Incident
and it got all this attention

and there were citizen
groups in centralia saying

hey you've got to
get us out of here

and but they still took
almost two years to,

to come up with a solution.

Eventually in 1984 the
entire population of centralia

was given the go
ahead to relocate.

With the help of 42
million federal dollars.

Now, all but a determined
few of the towns inhabitants

have moved on.

And today there
is little evidence

that the community of
centralia ever existed.

You see how quickly nature
reclaims man made space

even streets and driveways,

all of that gradually
starts reverting to forest.

Back when I first came
here there were a few trees,

not many now it's,
it's like a state park.

But when will the
fires beneath centralia's

empty streets stop burning?

So how long could it burn?

I've heard figures like
200 years, 250 years,

but in the end
nobody really knows,

it'll go on till it stops burning
runs out of fuel runs out of air,

neither of those are likely
to happen any time soon.

Now they lie abandoned

but once they were the
cutting edge of engineering.

There are echoes of history
within these decaying structures,

they remind us of terror and war

but also of great innovation
and human endeavour.

Captioned by
ai-media ai-media. TV