Ghost towns

Monday, August 7, 2017

What is your city like when most people are away on vacation? Sometimes places feel like temporary ghost towns during the month of August, especially in Europe. 

A ghost town is a town abandoned by its inhabitants, typically due to economic decline or natural or human-caused disasters, such as earthquakes or wars.

Several ghost towns in the world have become tourist attractions. Many in the US were mining towns that sprang up (grew) during the gold rush in the 19th century. (The one pictured on this page is the ghost town of Goldfield, Arizona.) Miners searching for gold, silver, copper, and diamonds simply moved on to new opportunities in other towns, which is more understandable abandonment than the fates of countless villages and towns in other parts of the world, vacated because of natural disasters (Craco, Italy) or wars (Oradour-sur-Glane, France). 

So if your personal habitat feels a ghost town due to the holidays, enjoy the temporary peace, quiet, and romance of simpler times.

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