Best.. Urban... Exploration.. Site.. EVER.

May 22, 2004 9:23 PM

You've probably seen Modern Ruins, Forgotten New York, and even Lost America... but have you seen the abandoned island of Gunkanjima? [via Boing Boing]
posted by keswick (18 comments total)

Wow. Fantastic story and fabulous pictures. Thanks for the link.
posted by ashbury at 9:40 PM on May 22, 2004

Wow. And there's more!

The photos in the posted link honestly don't seem that great to me, but that place certainly is fascinating. The photos *do* give me enough to imagine what it would be like to be there, though.
posted by whatnotever at 10:12 PM on May 22, 2004

Wonderful, thanks, keswick. Inspired me to go looking, and I found this, this, and this.
posted by carter at 10:15 PM on May 22, 2004

Yoinks! Props to whatnotever!
posted by carter at 10:16 PM on May 22, 2004

Okay, um, sorry about my second link. I didn't realize that I had discovered the worst user interface known to man. Here's a nicer one with some good photos to make up for it.

On preview: How could there be so many websites about this, many with really nice images, yet it took this long to be posted to Mefi?
posted by whatnotever at 10:33 PM on May 22, 2004

I have no idea, but as a "urban ruins" enthusiast, I can't thank you all enough... Truly great images of a truly thought-provoking place...
posted by JollyWanker at 5:39 AM on May 23, 2004

beautiful...what a great movie set that would be
posted by amberglow at 7:11 AM on May 23, 2004

great links people. this is what mefi is all about!
posted by triv at 7:14 AM on May 23, 2004

As a fanatic of urban exploration, this place seems like it'd be a personal playground. Great link!
posted by GirlFriday at 7:20 AM on May 23, 2004

Another abandoned city is this place on Cyprus called Famagusta, abandoned since Turkey took it back.

here is a page about it.
posted by kremb at 7:44 AM on May 23, 2004 [1 favorite]

Heh. Amberglow, like this? (FWIW, reviews say it's nowhere near as good as the original.)
posted by whatnotever at 7:48 AM on May 23, 2004

But can you ride your motorbike at high speed through any of them?
posted by raygirvan at 8:43 AM on May 23, 2004

Beautiful. I've been interested in this since I stumbled into a site full of ruin pictures one night. It was all in Japanese, like a snuff movie site for architecture, so I couldn't understand anything of it, but the pictures said enough. Then I learned that there was a name for this kind of thing and I've got the impression that the phenomenon of exploring urban ruins is big in Japan (example: ruin-japan.com) – is this true? I perceive Japan as a very densely populated island, and it's hard to imagine that they have enough space to leave a lot of housing and industries unused. Does anyone here know more about Japanese urban exploration?
posted by Termite at 9:13 AM on May 23, 2004

I recommend checking out the photography of Ryuji Miyamoto. More here and here. William Gibson mentions him in Idoru.
posted by hyperizer at 9:29 AM on May 23, 2004

That William Gibson again...
posted by Termite at 9:58 AM on May 23, 2004

That's so Escape from New York I expected Yena Flinskin to pop out from a garage screaming obscenities !

Fascinating find thanks for the link
posted by elpapacito at 12:08 PM on May 23, 2004

stunning
posted by Pretty_Generic at 7:30 AM on May 24, 2004

This is really really wonderful stuff. Thank you.
posted by .kobayashi. at 10:21 AM on May 24, 2004