What would we do without technology? Often though, whether from disaster or lack of funding, celebrated technology becomes obsolete and is abandoned. Decay sets in to rust the disused places and objects which were once invaluable to us. Here are defunct and abandoned technologies such as power plants, amusement parks, factories, ships, aircraft, oil rigs, and military installations.

Abandoned Balaklava Submarine Base





Until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Balaklava was a secretive town that was home to a highly secretive nuclear submarine base. At that time, not even family could visit without a good reason and lots of identification. This town on the Black Sea was abandoned. The underground entrance now leads to a museum.

Abandoned Technology: Airplane Graveyard

Technology becomes obsolete all the time, but where do airplanes go to die? Military and civilian airplane boneyards are scattered across the globe. These jet packs and abandoned aircraft are from scrapyards and storage facilities in Arizona and California. Abandoned aircraft are often stripped of parts which can be used as spares, but leave scars on an already desolate scene.

Abandoned Amusement Park: Woncheon Lakeland

There is something sickly fascinating about places once built for merriment then left to decay in horror. Abandoned amusement parks are creepy reminders of forgotten technology. This is Woncheon Lakeland in Suwon, Korea. For people who has fun, this abandoned amusement park might spark nostalgia. For one who never visited the park, there is nothing amusing about it. Urban explorers record abandoned amusement parks and it is a good thing they do. Many decaying abandoned places such as Woncheon are later demolished.

Berlin Amusement Park

(image credits: Gonzo Circus)

The amusement Spreepark in Treptow-Köpenick, Berlin, was abandoned in 2001. The Ferris Wheel of Berlin awaits in quiet doom past a maze of trees and overgowth. The roller coaster track is corroded, the cars covered in a layer of scum. The water is long dried up in log ride and moss grows in the seats. Deeper into the defunct amusement park, the morbid sight of the headless and toppled dinosaurs litter the ground.

Ship Graveyards

Ships are sometimes a victim of war or raging storm on the high seas, but there are places on the planet where ships collect in a graveyard. One of those is near Lisbon, Portugal, where partially sunken ships decay in the water. Shipwrecks and ship graveyards also exist in the sand like those scattered across the Namibian Skeleton Coast. Overtime, some rusted boats completely disappear under the sea or buried under the sand.

Abandoned NRL Satellite

Located in Maryland, this area was once a functional Nike missile base until it was deactivated in 1962. From 1962 until 1993 the site was belonged to the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory’s Microwave Space Research Facility Program. It was used during the Vietnam War as part of a special operation called “Compass Link.” The Defense Communications Agency used it to pass high-quality target photography from Vietnam to Washington, DC.

Abandoned Subway

Subways stations can go from bustling centers of activity to abandoned tunnels. These images are of phantom metro stations in Paris. St. Martin, Champ de Mars, and Croix Rouge were closed before the German invasion in 1939. The abandoned Parisian underground subways stations are decorated in advertisements from wartime as well as graffiti over the years.

Abandoned Stella Artois Brewery

Factories which were once a busy hub of production are also abandoned due to disaster or lack of funding. This is abandoned Stella Artois Brewery in Belgium. The history of this particular brewery is unclear, but it is assumed the company needed to expand to a newer facility, which can be found very close by. Some of the entrances are sealed since it is believed scrappers had started to enter and strip out the valuable copper and other metals.

Abandoned Oil Rigs

Oil platforms are closed for many reasons, from explosions, fire damages, oil spills, ravaged by an ocean storm, to lack of producing. These oil rigs are abandoned and left to rot in the sea. They can be found from the Caribbean to Norway, although a few are being repurposed into hotel resorts. Due to the cost of fixing them up, most are lonely landmarks on the water, waiting for time and the elements to sink them into the ocean’s depths.

Abandoned Battersea Power Station

Abandoned since 1983, the well known Battersea Power Station has a four chimney layout and is famous for more than generating electricity. In 1977, Pink Floyd used the south chimney and a floating pig for the album cover of Animals. The interior of this previous coal-burning power plant is described as “in very bad condition.” The Battersea Power Station was named by the World Monuments Fund’s List of 100 Most Endangered Sites.

Abandoned Backup Power Stations

Not all power plants are in plain sight. Some electricity plants were hidden away in case of military airstrike. These backup power plants in Sweden were highly classified and were extensively protected and camouflaged. Most of these installations were built adjacent to a rail line, typically out in the middle of nowhere. As technology advanced, these were phased out and abandoned.