15 LARGEST ABANDONED CITIES ON EARTH

With real estate carrying enormous price tags in some cities, and a worldwide need for housing, it's hard to believe there are cities that have been built but are completely empty.

Top Fives recently showcased the 15 largest abandoned cities on Earth.

There's Craco in Italy that was built on top of a cliff to protect the city from possible attacks. It's scenic and luscious, but there's not one person living there.

Scenes from the movie Passion Of The Christ were filmed in this remote city in southern Italy.

Kayakoy in Turkey was a bustling little town with Greek inhabitants, until World War 1 hit the town and everyone living there. Inhabitants were forced to evacuate, and it has since become a ghost town, but a popular tourist attraction.

What would a list of abandoned cities be without the infamous Pripyat in the Ukraine? Pripyat was built to house the scientists who worked at the nuclear plant in Chernobyl. And we all know what happened there. If you don't know, here's a quick recap: Chernobyl was home to the world's largest nuclear accident back in 1986. While only 31 people died, the effects were still felt years later due to the people of Pripyat being exposed to radiation.

Since the release of the series, Chernobyl, the town of Pripyat has become a famous tourist landmark, although tourists are actually still advised not to visit it for their own safety.  

One of the strangest abandoned cities is Thames Town in China. The town is a literally a recreation of an English town, with red phone boxes, iconic British lamp posts actually imported from Britain, and several pubs. If you close your eyes and open them again, it might feel like you're in London… until you realise there's no one around you, the pubs are open yet empty, and all the Victorian townhouses are empty.

Kolmanskop in Namibia also makes an appearance on the list. The discovery of a diamond in a deserted mining town in South Africa's neighbouring Namibia led to a mining boom. But once the mines became depleted, the locals soon packed up and left. Due to its close proximity to the Namib desert, sand now fills most of the empty houses and other buildings in the ghost town.

Watch the Top Fives video below for the full list.

Image credits: Chernobylwel and Pinterest