11 Fascinating Abandoned Islands Around the World
What are the events that lead to an island being abandoned? Everything from battles with nature, economic hardship, human conflict, and, simply, poor planning has led people to leave an island at any given time.
In most cases, the backstories are understandable, but for some, the history is more sinister. Actual facts mixed with dark embellishments by nearby local residents make for some spooky settings, with one island in particular referred to as one of the most haunted in the world. No matter the story behind each abandoned island, one through line remains: the ethereal beauty of a lost world.
Below, 11 of the most fascinating abandoned islands and the stories behind their desertion.
Photo: Getty Images1/11Houtouwan Village (Shengshan Island, China)
Once home to more than 2,000 fishermen and their families, the remote village of Houtouwan was abandoned in the early 1990s as residents moved away in search of better education and resources. Today, nature has reclaimed the village with dozens of crumbling stone homes covered in vegetation. The site is eerie, but that doesn’t stop hundreds of tourists from visiting the island for a peek into the deserted homes.
Photo: Getty Images2/11King Island (Alaska, USA)
About 40 miles west of mainland Alaska lies King Island and the ghostly cliffside village of Ukivok, a former Inupiat community. The community built their lives from the sea, hunting crabs and seals during the winter while fishing during the summer months. Though at one point the area housed nearly 200 inhabitants, they were sadly forced to abandon the island in 1959 when the Bureau of Indian Affairs shut down the village’s only school. Deteriorating homes and buildings built on stilts are all that remain of the former village.
Photo: Getty Images3/11Spinalonga Island (Greece)
The island of Spinalonga has played many roles across the centuries. In the late 16th century, Venetians built fortifications on the island to defend trade routes from attacks by pirates and the Ottoman Turks, but things took a darker turn by the 20th century. Between 1903 and 1957, it was a leper colony and one of the last such colonies in Europe. The stigma surrounding the island has persisted for decades, but the 2005 novel, The Island, by Victoria Hislop, shared the story of Spinalonga and its residents, helping to humanize their experience.
Photo: Getty Images4/11Hashima Island (Gunkanjima, Japan)
Known as “Battleship Island” because of its shape (Gunkanjima in Japanese), Hashima is an abandoned island about 10 miles from Nagasaki. The island was close to undersea coal mines and became a symbol of Japanese industrialization in the late 19th century after its purchase by the Mitsubishi Corporation, helping increase the population to more than 5,000 inhabitants in 1959. By 1974, however, petroleum replaced coal and people began to move away, leaving the island to decay. It recently opened to tourists to explore the ruins that were featured in the 2012 James Bond film, Skyfall.
Photo: Getty Images5/11Ross Island (India)
Officially named Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Island, Ross Island was a British settlement home to a penal colony for about a century. A major earthquake in 1941 and invasion by the Japanese damaged much of the infrastructure. The Indian Navy finally reclaimed Ross Island in 1979 and built a small military base, but tourists can still visit the remains of the former penal colony and a few souvenir shops.
Photo: Getty Images6/11Poveglia Island (Italy)
Of all the abandoned islands we researched, Poveglia has arguably the darkest history. (Which is probably why it’s considered among the most haunted places in the world.) Tucked in a beautiful lagoon between Venice and Lido, Poveglia began as a haven in AD 421 for people who fled the invaders that ravaged mainland Italy. For centuries, the community lived in peace until it naturally dwindled before becoming a quarantine colony during the bubonic plague.
Exile to Poveglia became a death sentence; thousands of people died there in deplorable conditions. Years later, in the late 1800s, Poveglia housed a poorly built asylum for the mentally ill, furthering its haunting reputation. Today, the entire island is abandoned, locals and tourists are prohibited from visiting, and, reportedly, fishermen tend to steer clear of the cursed place.
Photo: Getty Images/Jeffrey K. Collins7/11Dry Tortugas (Florida)
Named by Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León in 1513, Dry Tortugas in the lower Florida Keys was once a busy shipping corridor and the country’s gateway to the Gulf of Mexico. In 1847, construction began on the 700,000-square-foot Fort Jefferson, which was intended to protect the shipping channel but never became fully operational as a fortress. Instead, the structure imprisoned Civil War deserters and four conspirators in Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. After the Navy abandoned the base in 1874, President Roosevelt converted the fortress to a national monument and the entire archipelago as a national park. Accessible only by boat or seaplane, today it’s a popular diving and camping spot.
Photo: Getty Images/Frans Sellies8/11Klein (Curaçao)
Just six miles to the southeast of Curaçao is the tiny uninhabited island Klein Curaçao (Dutch for “little”). At first glance, the island looks like a beautiful getaway in the Caribbean. But not all is as it seems. On just over half a square mile of land is a deserted lighthouse, shipwrecked vessels, several collapsed stone buildings, and a burial site with a handful of graves. During the slave trade, the island was used by the Dutch West India Company to quarantine ill enslaved people being transported from Africa to the Caribbean. For many, the island became their final resting place.
Photo: Getty Images/Eric Lafforgue9/11Suakin Island (Sudan)
Situated in the Red Sea, Suakin is an abandoned island that was once a port. The port of Suakin Island was developed by Ramses III during the 10th century BC as an outlet for trade, bringing wealth and prosperity to the region. During the 19th century, Suakin became a center for the East African slave trade, ultimately fading once the slave trade was abolished.
Photo: Getty Images/Andrew Peacock10/11Deception Island (Antarctica)
Some abandoned islands lost their populations over time or due to societal issues while others became abandoned at the hands of extreme nature. For Deception Island, the reason was simple: A volcano erupted not once but twice, destroying almost everything in its vicinity. Once a whaling station and home to several scientific research bases, two eruptions on the island in the late 1960s turned nearly everything to ashes. Today the island is uninhabitable, but it’s a top tourist attraction thanks to its otherworldly vistas, black-sand beaches, wildlife, and even for a dip in the island’s natural hot springs.
Photo: Getty Images11/11Mamula Island (Montenegro)
Mamula Island is an example of a place with a harrowing history that stood abandoned for decades that is now getting a second chance at life. In 1853, Austro-Hungarian general Lazarus von Mamula built a fort on an islet off present-day Montenegro to defend the bay of Kotor. However, the island became notorious during World War II, when it was transformed into a concentration camp run by Benito Mussolini’s forces. After the closure of the camp, the buildings on the island (including the prison cells) were left to crumble until a Swiss-Egyptian investment firm swept in to transform the fortress into Mamula Island Hotel, a luxury property that opened in April.
