Atlas of Improbable Places

Travis Elborough is an author and social commentator. His books include the four titles in the Unexpected Atlases series - Atlas of Improbable Places, Atlas of the Unexpected, Atlas of Vanishing Places and Atlas of Forgotten Places, together with A Traveller’s Year, A London Year, The Long-Player Goodbye, Being A Writer and A Walk in the Park: The Life and Times of a People’s Institution. Travis is a regular contributor to Radio 4 and the Guardian, and has penned articles on all aspects of travel and culture, from pirates in the Caribbean to donkeys at the British seaside. He has written for the Times, Sunday Times, New Statesman, BBC History Magazine and Kinfolk among others.

DREAM CREATIONS
FLEVOPOLDER
The region reclaimed from the sea
 
ZHELEZNOGORSK
Former closed Soviet city
 
FREE CHRISTIANIA
Squatter-city
 
AUROVILLE
1960s utopian city
 
SLAB CITY
The squatter metropolis
 
PORTMEIRION
The Village
 
ZVYOZDNY GORODOK
Star City
 
HEARST CASTLE
Randolph Hearst’s Xanadu-esque home
 
DESERTED DESTINATIONS
TEUFELSBERG
Abandoned U.S. spy station
 
PRESIDIO MODELO
Cuba’s most notorious former penitentiary
 
BATTLESHIP ISLAND
Deserted mining settlement
 
NO MAN’S LAND FORT
A long shunned coastal bulwark
 
THE LOST CITY OF SAN JUAN PARANGARICUTIRO
Abandoned after the eruption of 1943
 
HUMBERSTONE AND SANTA LAURA
Redundant saltpetre works
 
WONDERLAND
Abandoned Disneyland-style theme park
 
ORADOUR-SUR-GLANE
Village left abandoned since the Second World War
 
MUYNAK
Drained port
 
WITTENOOM
Asbestos-ridden industrial town
 
ANI, KARS
Ruins of one-time capital of the Armenian Empire
 
CONCRETE CITY
Garden city of the anthracite region
 
VAROSHA
Abandoned tourist resort
 
ARCHITECTURAL ODDITIES
MARYHILL STONEHENGE
Concrete Stonehenge
 
SPIJKENISSE
The ‘real’ fictional euro bridges
 
KABAYAN
The Ibaloi mummy caves
 
SANTURIO MADONNA DELLA CORONA
Chapel hangs midway down a sheer cliffside
 
LONDON BRIDGE, LAKE HAVASU
The 1831 London Bridge
 
THE AFRICAN RENAISSANCE MONUMENT
Controversial symbol of independence
 
TEN COMMANDMENTS MOUNTAIN
The Fields of the Wood
 
FLOATING WORLDS
THE PALM 105
An artificial island paradise
 
THE KINGDOM OF REDONDA
Uninhabited Caribbean island
 
POVEGLIA ISLAND
Former plague quarantine island
 
GREAT BLASKET
Uninhabited since 1954
 
HOLLAND ISLAND
Island slowly being eroded by the water
 
PALMERSTON
A community formed in its founder’s image
 
WRANGEL ISLAND
A place frozen in time
 
MOUNT RORAIMA
The Lost World
 
ROSS ISLAND
British Indian penal settlement
 
HIRTA
The Edge of the World
 
OTHERWORLDLY SPACES
AOKIGAHARA
The Demon Forest
 
COLMA
City of the dead
 
LEAP CASTLE
The world’s most haunted residence
 
DARVAZA CRATER
Door to Hell
 
THE HILL OF CROSSES
Home to some 100,000 crosses
 
THE ISLAND OF DOLLS
A terrifying attraction
 
SUBTERRANEAN REALMS
THE UNDERGROUND POSTAL RAILWAY
Rail Mail
 
COLD WAR SPY TUNNEL
The telephone tapping centre
 
BEIJING UNDERGROUND
Bunkers to beat the bomb
 
MOOSE JAW
Illicit tunnels
 
CINCINNATI
Abandoned subway
 
ZKP TAGANSKY, AKA BUNKER 42
Cold War communications bunker
 
PUERTO PRINCESA
Subterranean river