There’s nothing more frightening to development nuts like us than a desolate ghost town. But these seven abandoned communities have enough creep-factor to send shivers up the spine of any casual observer.

Tianducheng, China

Development on this Paris clone began in 2007 with a 300-foot version of the Eiffel Tower, which is about a third of the size of the real thing. The luxurious gated community was supposed to accommodate at least 10,000 people, but today it remains sparsely populated. Why? Media outlets blame the development’s poor location, surrounded by farmland and dead-end roads. At last estimate, Tianducheng was home to as few as 2,000 residents.

San Zhi, Taiwan

Photo: Noelas/Flickr

This UFO-like pod village was supposed to be a luxury vacation retreat until the project was shut down following a number of fatal construction accidents. It sat empty for years before officials finally got around to demolishing the site in 2010.

Kolmanskop, Namibia

Photo: imgur

Kolmanskop is a ghost town in the middle of the Namib desert that was built during the Namibian diamond fever in the early 1900s. At one point the city included a casino, hospital and school, but after diamond sales dropped off following the First World War, the town was abandoned.

Namie, Japan

Photo: Google Street View

Residents of Namie were forced to flee in the wake of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that crippled the nearby Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Back in March 2013, Namie mayor Tamotsu Baba invited Google to photograph and tour the deserted town with their Street View cars.

Kilamba New City, near Luanda, Angola

Photo: Wikipedia

Constructed on the outskirts of Angola’s capital city of Luanda, Kilamba New City consists of 750 eight-story apartment buildings, a dozen schools and more than 100 commercial buildings. But the development sits largely empty as the people who live in the nearby slums were never able to afford to move into the homes that were built for them.

Pripyat, Ukraine

Photo: Timm Suess/Flickr

Photo: СмdяСояd/Flickr

Photo: СмdяСояd/Flickr

Pripyat was abandoned on April 26th, 1986, after the nearby Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded. Dozens of people were killed and all of Pripyat’s remaining 50,000 residents were forced to flee.

Centralia, Pennsylvania

Photo: CoolInterestingStuff

The small town of Centralia, Pennsylvania saw its population dwindle to virtually zero thanks to a mine fire that’s been burning beneath the town since 1962.