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Abandoned oil tanks are covered with ivy plants in Huai an, Jiangsu province, China, seen on May 9, 2023.

Artem Priakhin / SOPA / LightRocket / Getty Images
A discarded shoe, covered in thick layers of green mold, rested on a fallen tree branch in a public park outside St. Petersburg, Russia, April 8, 2026.

CFoto / Sipa USA / Reuters
Young trees grow inside the unfinished Evergrande Cultural Tourism City project in Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu province, China on September 5, 2024. The project was originally planned to be a world-class theme park—a competitor to Shanghai Disneyland—intended to open in 2021.

Christoph Hardt / IMAGO / Panama Pictures / Reuters
Thick ivy covers a street lamp in Frechen, Germany, seen on July 26, 2024.

Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty
An aerial view of the derelict ship MS World Discoverer, stranded in deep water in Roderick Bay in the Solomon Islands, seen on April 20, 2024. The ship struck a reef during a voyage in 2000, and was deliberately prevented from sinking.

Lian Zhen/Xinhua/Getty
A view of the thousand-year-old Heicheng ruins in Ejina Banner in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, showing the encroaching mountain ridges, seen on October 29, 2025.

Jochen Tack / Reuters
An old table tennis table sits in an abandoned, overgrown playground in Essen, Germany.

Vadim Makhorov / AP
A polar bear sticks its head out of a window at an abandoned research facility on Koluchin Island, near Chukotka, Russia, September 18, 2025.

Leo Coulongeat / Hans Lucas / Reuters
Aerial view of the bell tower of the Church of San Juan Parangaricutiro, which was buried by lava during the eruption of the Parícutin volcano in 1943, in the Mexican state of Michoacán.

Peter Schickert / IMAGO / Reuters
Plants grow inside the ruins of St Mary’s Church in the Wye Valley, Tintern, Wales.

Michael Nguyen/NurPhoto/Getty
A tiled corridor in an abandoned building frames a view of bright yellow autumn leaves in Neukirchen, Germany, on October 10, 2025.

Jonathan Lins/DPA/Getty
Animals walk past abandoned houses in the neighborhood of Bebedouro in Maceió, Brazil, which were evacuated due to the risk of collapsing in a nearby salt mine, seen on December 11, 2023.

JanelleLugge/iStockphoto/Getty
Trees grow among the stones in the collapsed part of Beng Mealea, an ancient temple in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Detlef Voigt / Zoonar / IMAGO / Reuters
Aerial view of the Stadio Sant’Elia indoor stadium, seen with the overgrown pitch, in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy, viewed in 2025.

Lou Benoist/AFP/Getty
An abandoned house sits next to eroded cliffs in Saint-Pierre-en-Port, France, on August 22, 2025.

Jim West / Universal Images Group / Getty
Rabbitbrush takes over an abandoned gas station in the Nevada desert.

Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty
Abandoned buses, which have been discontinued from active service, stand with creepers and other plants at a bus terminal in Mumbai, India, on July 26, 2025.

Nicolas Tucat/AFP/Getty
A computer monitor and a telephone remain on a desk in the offices of an abandoned steel factory in Charleroi, Belgium, seen on February 9, 2026.

Iren_Key / iStockphoto / Getty
One of the structures of the ancient Mayan city of Calakmul sits surrounded by tropical forest in the Mexican state of Campeche.

Atlantagreg / iStockphoto / Getty
Most of Kudzu takes up parking space.





