Vast landscapes poisoned by radiation.
An English colony that vanished without a trace.
And cities that have been forsaken by the gods.
All over the world, there are locations that were
once thriving and full of activity
that are now abandoned, empty, devoid of human life.
Why do people desert these places?
Did they become too dangerous?
Did the area become incapable of sustaining life?
Or is it possible that some places
are actually destined to be abandoned?
Well, that is what we’ll try and find out.
In northern Ukraine stand the remains
of an abandoned city known as Pripyat.
Pripyat was founded by the Soviet Union in 1970
to serve Chernobyl, the nearby power plant.
At its height, nearly 50,000 people lived here,
but today, Pripyat’s streets are empty.
Its buildings have fallen into disrepair.
Nature has reclaimed large portions of the city.
And it’s all because of a tragic event
that took place on April 26, 1986.
An event known as the Chernobyl disaster.
In 1986, we were horrified
to see the greatest nuclear accident of all time
emerge at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
The reactor went out of control,
creating an uncontrolled chain reaction
like a small atomic bomb,
blowing the roof right off the reactor.
A huge amount of radioactive material
shot through the roof and then into the atmosphere.
36 hours after the explosion,
officials finally determined that the residents of Pripyat
needed to be moved to safety.
The city was then evacuated in less than four hours.
They were evacuated very, very quickly at that point.
And when they’re evacuated, they can only take
certain things with them-- small things.
And the government put guards
outside some of these apartments,
basically saying, "We’ll protect your material,"
suggesting the residents
would actually go back to Pripyat, which they never did.
Pripyat was built to be a self-contained town
which had everything for the workers
of the Chernobyl power plant.
So that meant kindergartens to send their kids to,
all this leisure activity.
So the Soviets, in that respect, were getting better
at providing their workers with facilities.
Working at Pripyat would be a much better gig
than different towns in the Soviet Union.
Before the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986,
Pripyat was a city of dreams
for the residents and the people that lived around.
It offered amenities and resources
that would not be found in nearby cities and villages.
After the accident, people were evacuated,
and they were forced to leave their hopes and plans
for the future behind them.
And that’s really what we see in Pripyat today
is what was left behind.
It is a ghost town.
Pripyat is an example of an abandoned place
that was vacated in a great hurry.
And so, of course, you have vehicles
that are just left abandoned.
You have household objects,
children’s toys,
kitchen utensils that were just dropped
in the middle of meal preparation.
There are a lot of hopeful murals
about science leading you into a proud future.
And they’re in buildings that have been abandoned
for over 30 years.
That’s something that is sort of impossible
not to feel the weight of.
While the nuclear meltdown was caused
by both human error and technical failures,
there are some former residents of Pripyat who claim
that the Chernobyl disaster was actually destined to happen.
Some of the workers at Chernobyl,
in the days immediately preceding the explosion
and following,
reported seeing this mysterious winged creature
with blazing red eyes.
This creature, which is referred to
as the Black Bird of Chernobyl today,
was thought to be some sort of a warning
or a kind of crisis apparition.
The concept of a harbinger of doom
is incredibly common and incredibly long-standing.
Probably the most famous example is
the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the Four Horsemen
who are said to foretell the ending of the world.
So, when Chernobyl explodes, the Black Bird of Chernobyl
was not just a strange sighting in the sky.
People start to think that maybe this wasn’t
so much an accident as it was something predestined.
Is it possible that Pripyat was destined to be abandoned?
As far-fetched as it may sound,
many locals believe the answer is yes.
And for further evidence, they point to a prophecy
of death and destruction that is written
in the Book of Revelation in the Holy Bible.
Mc It’s interesting because the word "Chernobyl"
is the Ukrainian word for wormwood.
And wormwood has a lot of historical
and cultural affiliations with poison,
with bitterness, with darkness.
And we see that most poignantly, perhaps,
prophesied in the Bible
that there will be seven angels blowing seven trumpets.
And trumpet number three is the trumpet
that causes the star called Wormwood
to fall from the sky
and poison the land and the waters
so that people who drink the waters will die.
The story could be an amazing symbolic description
of a nuclear power plant
exploding and irradiating the landscape
so that people who live in that space,
who touch those objects, who drink that water will die.
It’s really compelling to see that connection,
and it is hard to simply write it off as a coincidence.
You can imagine the way
that people reacted to this story
after the disaster in 1986.
The people that lived in this region
were highly dependent on water for their way of life,
and their lives were forever disrupted
by the radioactive materials that were thrown
out of the reactor on the night of the disaster
and left in the environment.
When you add up these different elements--
the spotting of a winged creature
or some sort of a harbinger of doom
and the fact that a falling star in the Book of Revelation
has the same name as the nuclear power plant itself--
you can understand how some people read meaning
into the Chernobyl disaster.
Whether the fate of Pripyat was predestined
or simply the result of modern technology gone terribly wrong,
this abandoned city continues to spark
both fascination and fear.
We are endlessly fascinated with abandoned places,
whether they were abandoned gradually or suddenly,
because buildings are supposed to be filled with people.
They’re supposed to be used for commerce or habitation.
And when they’re empty, it seems ghostly.
The Chernobyl disaster is a cautionary tale
that reminds us that our cities can become dangerous
without any warning.
But not all abandoned places are deserted so quickly.
Sometimes it happens over a much longer period of time.
Like in the case of an ancient temple complex
located in Cambodia that is known as Angkor Wat.
Deep in the northwestern jungles of this small nation
tucked between Vietnam and Thailand
sits the abandoned ruins of Angkor Wat,
a massive, ancient complex of temples.
Experts believe that Angkor Wat is the largest
religious structure ever built.
It’s just a massive, impressive sight
swallowed up by the jungle.
Trees are wrapping around
some of the stones and sculptures that-that remain,
yet you can still make out some of the exquisite sculptures
between leaves and branches.
And you can see something really majestic underneath.
Angkor Wat is huge.
When you walk up to its front entrance,
it’s a bridge going across the moat
and then a causeway going to the temples themselves.
And they’re so far off in the distance,
you walk across that bridge for ten minutes,
and you’re still not at the temple.
All told, Angkor Wat encompasses
more than 401 acres of buildings, temples and gardens,
and a 700-foot-tall spire sits at the center of the complex.
Angkor Wat was built in the 12 century A.D.
by the Khmer people,
and it was the spiritual center of their empire.
It’s difficult to explain
just how important this place was.
In fact, "Angkor Wat" means capital city or capital temple
or city temple, depending how you translate it.
So this was not only a religious center.
It was also a political center. It was a military center.
There was absolutely no separation
between religion and daily life.
The temple served all of these purposes.
And it was home to tens of thousands
of ordinary people who were farmers, merchants
living in this tremendously important religious center.
It was a massive, vibrant city.
The urban landscape extended
far beyond Angkor Wat itself, in every direction,
for, uh, miles.
So there were anywhere between about 750,000
to a million people living, uh, around the city of Angkor.
In the year 1431 A.D.,
the Khmer people abandoned Angkor Wat.
For decades, archaeologists have speculated
as to what caused the demise of the city.
Numerous theories, blaming everything
from climate change to invading armies,
have been proposed.
And yet, no one knows for certain
why nearly a million people chose to abandon
these magnificent temples.
The abandonment of Angkor Wat
illustrates to us that something catastrophic
had occurred within Khmer society.
This incredible place was still capable
of supporting large numbers of people.
It was still an important temple,
but it was almost completely abandoned.
It was just left.
And what that suggests is that
something changed in the Khmer people.
Some experts have proposed that because Angkor Wat
was such an important religious site,
it may have been abandoned for spiritual reasons.
Angkor Wat was the link between mortal people and the gods.
And it was built by Suryavarman II...
...who fought a series of military campaigns
to unify his people,
brought stability, prosperity.
And Suryavarman II intended Angkor Wat to be his mausoleum.
The tomb of Suryavarman II
was intended to be located underneath the central tower.
And there’s a hole at the top of the central tower
that lets in a beam of light.
And that beam of light would have shown
directly onto the tomb,
demonstrating in a way that Suryavarman
was directly linked to the divine.
Suryavarman II clearly intended to be buried at Angkor Wat.
He would be interred in the central temple.
But he died on a military campaign in what is now Vietnam,
and nobody knows what happened to the body.
Curiously, after King Suryavarman died
and his body was not placed in its intended tomb,
the living conditions at Angkor Wat
took a turn for the worse.
There were repeated droughts in the region,
which led to famine
because there was not enough water for crops.
But on the other hand, there were also huge monsoons
that at times would cause major flooding.
Some scholars believe that these calamities
may have been seen by the Khmer people as a sign
that their connection to the gods had been lost
and that it was time for them to abandon Angkor Wat.
The Khmer people would have remembered
the time of Suryavarman II,
of this golden age that had existed.
But later, things weren’t as good.
Could it be that the link
between mortals and their god had been broken?
If what made Angkor City great
was the blessings that were sent down from the gods,
then when things started going more badly for the city,
people would naturally interpret that
the gods again are taking away their blessings.
And then that, in turn, would serve as a cue
for the Khmer people to also leave behind the city.
All civilizations on the planet,
no matter how big they are, they eventually fall,
and Angkor was no different.
And the factors were not just as simple as one thing.
There were a number of things happening.
In many regards, the abandonment of Angkor
was just an acknowledgement that,
however large and grand their life was there,
that the gods didn’t favor it and it was time to end it.
Did the Khmer people abandon Angkor Wat
because they believed
that they had fallen out of favor with the gods?
Seems possible, especially when you consider
that the entire complex was built to honor the divine.
And devotion to God also played a role in the construction
of an abandoned place located in Portugal.
A structure that may have once been home to the Holy Grail.
This popular tourist destination
is known for its pristine beaches,
historic gardens and numerous palatial estates.
One of those estates is named Quinta da Regaleira.
This gothic palace has been unoccupied
for more than 30 years, and it has a reputation
for being a mysterious, eerie place.
Regaleira is really the... it’s the spooky mansion on the hill.
But when you get up closer, it immediately
seizes your imagination and draws you in,
and you begin to appreciate the secrets that it holds,
compared to the other more glitzy palaces nearby.
According to historical records,
Quinta da Regaleira is an ancient estate
that dates back nearly a thousand years.
And it was bought in the late 19th century
by an eccentric Portuguese businessman
named Carvalho Monteiro,
who reportedly had a fascination with the occult.
Monteiro was a multimillionaire,
and he embraced all manner of mystical, um,
philosophies and traditions.
And so he invested an awful lot of his wealth at Quinta.
He enhanced the property to add symbolism.
There are statues
and inscriptions and carvings
that are connected with Freemasonry,
the Knights Templar
and occultists of various descriptions.
Monteiro basically adapted the property
into this extraordinary sort of theme park to the occult.
People thought it was odd,
but to a serious occultist, if you’ve got the money,
you’re gonna go for it, and that’s exactly what he did.
Each year, thousands of tourists visit Quinta da Regaleira
to walk through the palace and gardens.
But what attracts the most attention
is a curious underground structure
known as the Initiation Well.
The Initiation Well is like some kind of Gothic fantasy.
It’s called the Initiation Well, but it’s not a well.
It’s like an inverted tower
that’s going 90 foot deep into the ground,
and your senses are completely confused by the sight of this.
When you enter,
you’re looking down at this shaft
with the spiral staircase full of niches
going, uh, clockwise
down this corkscrew, deep into the earth,
and you become very aware that you’re passing through
into a completely new level of reality.
You almost have a spiritual, uh, moment,
like a revelation.
The Initiation Well is the most elaborate creation
in Monteiro’s sprawling monument to the occult.
However, some historians believe that Monteiro was not
the original architect of the well.
They claim that he merely refurbished it
and that this structure was first built in the Middle Ages
by the Knights Templar, who were a secretive group
of Christian warrior monks.
It’s highly likely
that the Templars were responsible for the well.
The Templars were the first deed holders
of the property that became Regaleira many centuries later,
and they were definitely working on this property
in the 12th century.
Another piece of evidence which suggests
that the Knights Templar built the Initiation Well
is the fact that there is a network of underground tunnels
that extend out from it.
At the bottom of the well, you suddenly find yourself
in this labyrinth of tunnels which go every single direction.
Some of the tunnels extend deep into the mountain
to the point where you can come up underneath
a chapel or a convent in a hilltop five miles away.
Mc The whole place is honeycombed with tunnels.
So there’s plenty of evidence for the Templars being there.
Monteiro was effectively buying a chunk of real estate
right on top of where the Templars had been.
There’s no accident in this.
He’s then recreating
what he thinks the Templars stood for.
It’s believed that Monteiro may have been
looking for something the Knights Templar
have left behind in those many tunnels
that were underneath,
which may have included the Holy Grail.
According to Christian tradition,
the Holy Grail was the chalice
that Jesus drank from at the Last Supper.
The Knights Templar were known to have searched
for important religious artifacts
while in the Holy Land during the Crusades.
And there is evidence to suggest
that if they did find the Holy Grail
they may have brought it to Portugal.
One of the big clues that we know
that the Templars left something of incredible importance there
lies in the seal that was printed
by the first king of Portugal
in a deed that he gave to the Templars.
And if you look very carefully at the seal
that the king put on there,
it has the word "Portugal" written as an anagram.
It reads "por tu o gral,"
which means "through you the Grail."
What the king of Portugal is insinuating
is that the Templars brought the Grail to Portugal.
Mc So, when the Templars
are bringing their treasure out of Jerusalem,
they could have brought the Grail to Regaleira.
They had fortresses, and they had secret tunnels.
They could get their treasure there,
and it would be protected.
If you look around Regaleira,
you’ll see evidence for the Grail.
We have, rather intriguingly,
a bench referred to as Bench 515.
At the center of it is a female character,
and she’s holding out a chalice,
and that’s believed to represent the Holy Grail.
Was the Holy Grail hidden
somewhere in the Initiation Well?
And if so, did Monteiro find it there?
We’ll never know for sure, because Monteiro died in 1920
and took the secrets of the Initiation Well to the grave.
You come away from Regaleira, there’s no doubt
it’s the Initiation Well that plays on your mind.
It’s so odd that so much effort went into creating this,
and yet, what does it all mean?
And that’s what is the big unanswered question.
Did the Knights Templar hide the Holy Grail
in the Initiation Well?
Or perhaps in the underground tunnels that it’s connected to?
It’s a fascinating notion, and the truth is
that abandoned places often raise intriguing questions.
For instance, there’s an island
just off the coast of North Carolina
where, over 400 years ago,
115 people mysteriously vanished.
More than 400 years ago,
this was the site of a colony called Roanoke,
the first English settlement in North America.
Roanoke is known as the Lost Colony
because it was mysteriously abandoned in 1590
and the colonists vanished without a trace.
The Lost Colony remains this mystery
that’s at the very heart of the origin of our nation.
People remain fascinated by Roanoke because
we know so little about the place.
We know what happened in Jamestown.
We know what happened at Plymouth.
But Roanoke is this mystery
because we don’t know what happened.
When we think about the founding of the United States of America,
we think of it in this fairly linear way
that colonists showed up, they settled,
they move west-- America.
And really, it turns out
that there were a number of false starts
in how this country got started.
And one of those was the colony at Roanoke.
This was a group of people
who showed up and were ready to settle,
but what happened to that colony
is one of the big unanswered questions of American history.
What happened to the Roanoke colonists?
Perhaps the answer can be found by examining the events
in the late 16th century
that led to their fateful disappearance.
In the 1580s, England was
a very small, poor, struggling island
that really wanted to get in
on the game of colonizing the Americas,
because that’s where the money was.
GABRIEL- The English were looking at the Spanish ships
coming back laden with gold and various commodities
from their empire, if you like,
in Mexico, South America, Florida,
and of course, that was making the Spanish very powerful.
Essentially, it was a case of, if we don’t find
our own source of wealth in this New World,
we could be sort of overrun by our enemies.
In 1587, an English mapmaker named John White
was commissioned to found a new colony on Roanoke Island,
which had been claimed by a British expedition
to the New World two years earlier.
After an arduous two-month voyage
across the Atlantic Ocean, White and 117 colonists
landed on Roanoke Island.
The people who chose to come along
on this ill-fated expedition
were middle-class people from London.
So, they were eager to find new lands,
because to have land in England meant everything.
That’s what gave you status.
But they knew they needed more supplies and more colonists
in order to succeed, in order to thrive.
So John White decided to return to England
in order to get those needed supplies and colonists.
On August 25, 1587,
only three months after first arriving on Roanoke,
John White set sail for England.
He planned to return with aid in less than six months.
But a series of conflicts with the Spanish navy
would delay White’s return mission
for three long years.
In August of 1590, John White returns to Roanoke Island.
They anchor offshore.
And when they arrive, it’s dark
and it’s too late for them to go ashore,
but John White is happy
because he sees a fire in the distance,
and he assumes that the settlers are there waiting for him,
maybe even have seen his ship
and have lit a bonfire in order to guide him in.
The next morning, White came ashore,
expecting to find the colonists there to welcome him back.
But to his surprise, there was no sign of them.
The entire settlement was completely abandoned.
GABRIEL- John White gets back to Roanoke, but there’s no sign of anyone,
and he finds all the houses have been taken down.
And in their place is a very, very well-built defensible fort.
So, little bit of a mystery.
You’ve got this new fort that wasn’t there in 1587
when he last saw them, and the place is deserted.
Where have they gone?
Eventually, John White came across a cryptic clue
as to the whereabouts of the colonists.
He found the word "Croatoan"
mysteriously carved into a wooden post.
John White had told the colonists when he left in 1587
that if they were to abandon the settlement
that they should leave a secret token, as he called it, behind
so that he would know where to find them,
and this seemed to be the answer.
Here was "Croatoan" carved onto the post.
Croatoan was what we call Hatteras today,
an island about 50 miles to the south.
It’s also the name of the tribe of Native Americans
who lived on the island.
But when John White prepared to set sail
to search for the colonists,
a storm blew in and damaged his ship,
and he was forced to return to England.
Unfortunately, John White was never able
to return to the New World to search for the lost colonists.
But in recent years, archaeologists have carried out
extensive excavations to try and solve
this 400-year-old mystery.
Archaeologists have been digging on Hatteras--
what was called Croatoan--
and they have come up with some remarkable evidence.
The first, most important piece of evidence found
was a gold ring that was made in Elizabethan times.
This was big news because it seemed to indicate
the possibility that at least one of the colonists
had been on Croatan Island.
And then another competing team was digging on Hatteras Island,
and what they found was really intriguing.
They actually discovered the hilt
of an Elizabethan-era sword
that was found in a Native American village.
Now, whether or not this is something
that belonged to a lost colonist remains to be seen.
GABRIEL- It’s possible some did survive long enough to have a family
and that there would have been assimilation with the Croatoans.
And yet, considering how much archaeology
that’s been done, we have no skeletons.
Where are they?
That is a mystery.
Mc If we had found dead bodies scattered
or obvious signs of a siege or an attack,
that would be the answer that we need.
We get this word "Croatoan."
But did people actually make it there?
Where did they go?
What happened to this group of settlers?
It’s the ambiguity that really keeps this legend alive.
It’s hard to imagine that an entire colony
that was home to over a hundred people
could just vanish into thin air.
Did the colonists at Roanoke simply decide
to move somewhere else?
Or was there a darker reason behind their disappearance,
like in the case of an island near Mexico City
that was abandoned because locals are convinced
that it’s haunted by an evil entity?
Just south of Mexico City.
Dotted amongst the numerous tree-filled canals
that run through this ancient city
are dozens of artificial floating islands
known as chinampas.
But one chinampa stands out
because the branches of its willow and cypress trees
appear to be growing something rather unusual.
The place is called Isla de las Muñecas,
otherwise known as the Island of the Dolls.
The island is a forestlike enclave
draped with thousands
and thousands of ordinary dolls.
Childhood playthings hanging from trees,
vines and branches.
It’s very eerie.
These look like suspended living presences
that are believed to ward off evil.
It’s a spooky living sculpture
that some people say, um, is cursed.
And according to folklore,
you can hear whispering...
...and you can hear little girls’ voices.
Uh, you can see the-the dolls’ eyes blinking on their own,
which is just terrifying.
The only permanent residents of the island
are the strange dolls that have given the place
a ghoulish reputation.
But who created this macabre spectacle?
And why?
Well, according to local lore,
the story began in the 1950s when the island was owned
by a man named Julian Santana Barrera.
Julian Santana Barrera came to live on the chinampa.
And according to the stories, he came across, uh,
a little girl floating in one of the canals.
Barrera is devastated that he can’t save the little girl
and pulls her out of the water
and buries her on the island.
Barrera felt eventually
that he was seeing the ghost of this girl
walking around his little chinampa island.
To try to make her happy, he hung some dolls in the trees.
And he hung more and more dolls up
to appease the spirit of this little girl
who died tragically.
We can think about what Barrera did as a talisman
or a symbol, um, that is used to, uh, protect.
All across the globe, you see these totems
being used in this particular way.
There are stones, and there are ornaments
that people hang in their houses, in their cars.
Sometimes people carry them on their physical person.
And the act is done as a kind of protective gesture.
Ultimately, Barrera hung thousands of dolls
all over the island
not only to honor the memory of the young girl
but also to guard against a dark entity
that he believed had caused her death.
An entity known as La Llorona.
La Llorona is a tragic character.
She is the first Native mother
who gave birth to children from a conquistador, a Spaniard.
The story says that her community rejected her
because her children were Spaniard, and so she was shamed.
She was so ashamed of this, in fact,
that she went down to the river and she drowned her children.
She immediately regretted this.
Now she’s this spirit that haunts lakes and rivers.
La Llorona is a well-known myth all around Mexico.
And so, a man like Barrera
who sees a child floating in the water,
he almost certainly, at least for a moment,
thought of La Llorona and that this is her children floating.
Since Barrera’s death in 2001,
the Island of the Dolls has remained abandoned.
But locals continue to tell the story of the drowned girl,
and many are convinced that there’s
an evil presence on this island.
And as evidence, they point to the chilling circumstances
of Julian Barrera’s death.
After suffering from a fatal heart attack,
his body was found in an unsettling location.
Barrera dies.
And not only does he die on the island
but his body is found in the exact canal
where he found the little girl.
Is there correlation? We don’t know.
But many people believe
that if you are out at night by yourself,
playing down by the river,
that La Llorona will "get you."
Is there a dark entity that lurks in the water
surrounding the Island of the Dolls?
Well, if there is, it hasn’t stopped visitors
from wanting to see this bizarre site for themselves.
In fact, there are many abandoned places
around the globe
that have become tourist attractions,
including a city that was once a thriving capital
until it was covered in volcanic ash.
On the rim of the Caribbean Sea
300 miles southeast of Puerto Rico
lies the tiny island nation of Montserrat.
The most popular tourist destination on Montserrat
is not its sandy beaches
but rather the remains of its capital city, Plymouth.
Plymouth was once a bustling town,
but it now lies buried under volcanic ash and mud.
Mc The city of Plymouth on the island of Montserrat
was considered this luscious island resort,
this beautiful city.
There was sort of this whole atmosphere
of people getting together, enjoying themselves,
having a good time.
Plymouth is the capital city there,
and in 1995,
this was a city of 4,000 people.
So it’s not just a tiny little town.
But Plymouth was completely wiped out by the volcano there.
Between July of 1995 and August of 1997,
a series of eruptions of the nearby Soufrière Hills volcano
turned Plymouth into an uninhabitable wasteland.
19 people were killed.
Everyone else was forced to evacuate.
You have the mudslide
that went through the center of the town,
and then all around that, you have the husks of the homes
and the schools and things like that
that are left there and overgrown.
When you see pictures of this, you’re going to see
rooftops of buildings poking out of ash, basically.
There’s a very famous image of this church
buried up to its roof, essentially.
The whole city is sort of frozen in time.
Plymouth sees thousands of visitors each year
who arrive from all over the world to explore the ruins
and take photographs of the wreckage.
People visit this abandoned city in spite of the fact
that the nearby volcano is still dangerously active.
It’s a strange phenomenon
known as dark tourism.
Plymouth today is like a modern-day Pompeii.
Its buildings, its stores,
its squares, its plazas, its churches
are covered in and buried in volcanic ash.
And people go to view it because they feel like
they’re viewing ancient ruins
but they belong to our own generation.
The reason people are drawn to places
like Plymouth and Pompeii for dark tourism
is because they give you a chance to see
maybe what our cities are gonna look like.
Is there gonna be a point where coastal cities are underwater
or where the neighborhoods that we live in,
nobody’s in anymore and they’ve turned into a forest?
Mc To go to a place where such terror
and trauma took place
is a way to engage with those things
without having to experience
the actual terror and trauma ourselves.
We are really intrigued by seeing
the finality of a natural disaster
in just the stillness.
In a lot of ways, places that are abandoned
kind of have that memento mori aspect,
so there’s this element of coping with your own mortality,
and seeing something like that, I think, gives you
the opportunity to come to terms with it.
So, what do you think?
Would you like to visit the site of the Chernobyl disaster
or take a boat ride to the Island of the Dolls?
The truth is that abandoned places fascinate us.
There’s something that draws us to them,
even when they might be dangerous.
Which is why we’ll continue to explore these places
in hopes of unlocking all of their secrets
that, for now, remain unexplained.
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