There is something eerily beautiful about abandoned places and lost traces of humanity left in the woods for nature to reclaim. Abandoned factory halls, trees growing around old bicycles, ruins overgrown by a new forest, whole villages or cities left abandoned… The peace that radiates from such places is what makes such places attractive for some while for others it’s the creepy feeling you get when you walk through the hallways of an abandoned hospital.
Since tonight is All Hallow’s Eve—or Halloween—we wanted to take a closer look at the ambiance of such locations.
The Beauty of Abandoned Places
On the one hand, the sight of an abandoned car out in a field, rusted and rotten, with plants growing inside the rims, could fill you with a sense of sadness and loneliness. On the other hand, that is sometimes a more than welcomed feeling. The decay of human-made objects and the reclaim by nature can cause a sense of solitude that helps you to focus and rethink what’s important in life. To see that what we may value high in our daily lives is nothing but mortal in the end is no reason to feel sad or depressed, but actually can elicit a sense of calm and serenity.
Listen to Abandoned Village
Fragments of the Past
However, around the time of Halloween—or if you are a fan of horror movies and all things creepy anyway—abandoned places and locations like factories, formerly inhabited houses, hospitals and asylums, and whole ghost towns and villages draw a totally different kind of fascination.
If you remember this article about Creepy Halloween Sounds and Music, you already know that special frequencies of sound at certain places can literally send shivers down your spine. It’s easy to believe in ghosts when your hearing is tricking you into thinking that you are not alone and vibrations caused by the frequencies lower than 20hz make your vision blurry. However, sometimes, these kinds of sounds inaudible for the human ear aren’t necessary to give you the creeps.
Imagine walking down a woodland trail until you reach a rusty and only poorly locked gate, hanging crooked in it’s hinges. You press yourself through the gap in the gate and follow an overgrown concrete path up to a tall building. The paint is chipping off the walls, all windows are broken and dark, and shrubs and other plants are reaching out of the dead window and door holes with crooked and skeleton-like branches. You just discovered an abandoned asylum ward, as the halfway fallen down sign above the door tells you.
Such a sight, in the middle of a forest with no other visible or audible clues for human civilization nearby is bound to fill you with awe—and spark your imagination. What kind of people were treated here? What were their individual stories? Why was this place abandoned and left for decay? Why was it build here in the middle of nowhere in the first place?
If you are like yours truly, almost nothing will stop you from venturing forward and explore this likewise beautiful and scary sight!
Ambient Sound of Abandoned Places
The users of Ambient-Mixer.com have created some sound mixes that are capturing the eerie feeling of such abandoned places. Tune them up on your headphones when exploring a “lost place” yourself, or let them get you into the right mood when exploring images and websites dedicated to abandoned places!
Check out the Deserted Places blog for articles and images of ghost towns, abandoned places, and more.
However, if you really want to visit some deserted and decayed places, please make sure to stay safe! Other than that, we only have one thing left to say:
Happy Halloween and happy exploring!
| Factories | Hospitals & Asylums | Ghost Towns | Other |
