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Abandoned, Disused & Ruined Places

The Soviet-era Duga radar complex (dubbed the 'Russian Woodpecker' for its staccato signals) has been mentioned on these forums in relation to (e.g.) mysterious shortwave numbers stations.

The Duga complex was next door to Chernobyl.

Like the immediate scene of the nuclear disaster, the once super-secret and huge antenna array is now an abandoned site that's become something of a tourist attraction.
Duga radar: Enormous abandoned antenna hidden in forests near Chernobyl
The peaceful untouched forest north of Ukraine's capital, Kiev, is a perfect spot to enjoy the outdoors -- save for one fact.

It contains the radiation-contaminated Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, established in 1986 after the world's worst nuclear disaster sent a wave of radiation fallout across Europe.

Since 2011 it's been a major draw for adventurous tourists, but the forests here conceal another legacy of the Cold War, with a far more sinister and mysterious reputation.

The Duga radar.

Though once a closely guarded secret, this immense structure can be seen for miles around, rearing up through the mist over the horizon -- a surreal sight.

From a distance, it appears to be a gigantic wall. On close inspection, it's an enormous, dilapidated structure made up of hundreds of huge antennas and turbines.

The Duga radar (which translates as "The Arc") was once one of the most powerful military facilities in the Soviet Union's communist empire.

It still stands a towering 150 meters (492 feet) high and stretches almost 700 meters in length. But, left to rot in the radioactive winds of Chernobyl, it's now in a sad state of industrial decay.

Anyone exploring the undergrowth at its feet will stumble upon neglected vehicles, steel barrels, broken electronic devices and metallic rubbish, the remainders of the hasty evacuation shortly after the nuclear disaster. ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/duga-radar-chernobyl-ukraine/index.html
 
A Great White Shark preserved in formaldehyde in an abandoned wildlife park
Apparently interest from the curators at the Melbourne Museum also cooled, as the shark had began to badly age in its forgotten tank. So then, for the next seven years, unless you were intimately connected to Melbourne’s urban exploration scene, you’d have never known that a discount Damien Hirst was sitting unseen within an easy drive of Melbourne’s CBD.
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https://www.messynessychic.com/2019/03/04/13-things-i-found-on-the-internet-today-vol-cccxliii/

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Werner Borchert grinds out a cigarette with his leather boot, zips up his down jacket and unlocks a rusty door with a sign reading “Do not enter.” He’s entering anyway. Borchert is stepping into the heart of the forbidden city, a huge abandoned military complex hidden inside a fenced-off pine forest in eastern Germany.

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“The Kaiser, Hitler, the Soviets — all of them were militarily active here, one after the other,” says Borchert, 67, a guide offering tours of the “Haus der Offiziere,” or officers’ complex in the Wuensdorf neighborhood of Zossen, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Berlin.

The complex, inaugurated in 1916, has housed the military of German Kaiser Wilhelm II, served as the Nazis’ military command center during World War II — and then headquartered the Soviets’ military high command for East Germany during the Cold War.

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“This was ‘Little Moscow’ on German ground,” Borchert, who grew up in the area, said during a recent tour. There was a theater, a museum, shopping facilities, a swimming pool and many barracks for the about 40,000 soldiers who were stationed here.

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The complex is now under the auspices of the state of Brandenburg, but no money has been invested and no new owner has been found. The ravages of time have taken its toll. The faded yellow plastering is flaking off the facade, windows are broken, a fuse box dangles off a wall, and wild animals such as martens have left trails of excrement on the dusty floors.

The forbidden city got its name during Soviet times because German locals were rarely allowed in. Today’s it’s mostly off-limits for the public, though tours can be booked with Borchert’s group.

https://www.apnews.com/f4b18eb844aa4378ae000f9f8103334c

maximus otter
 
Albania’s Underground Air Force Doesn’t Look So Good.

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Back in 2016, Albania [announced] that a slew of vintage jets dating from the 1960s were up for sale. Since then, however, legal red tape has prevented would-be buyers from swooping in and taking the air relics home.

The jets, some of which look quite grim, are located at Gjader Air Base in underground storage facilities built during the Cold War. Albania’s Stalinist dictator of the time, Enver Hoxha, was a deeply paranoid man who had 170,000 bunkers built across the tiny Mediterranean country, as well as up to 7,000 larger underground facilities. Gjader was built to resist air attack, allowing fighters to hole up inside the mountain and then take off to defend the country.

Approximately 50 obsolete jets are located inside the base. The collection includes 1960s MiG-17s and Vietnam War-era MiG-19s and F-7As (a Chinese copy of the MiG-21). The fighters, bare metal with a red and black roundel painted on the tail, were the pride of the Albanian Air Force. The jets were grounded after the Cold War. Today Albania no longer flies fighter jets at all.


In 2016 the Albanian government planned to put the jets up for auction to raise an estimated $485,000. It’s not clear what happened to the sale, but AFP reports there is a waiting list to buy the planes that including plane collectors and flight schools.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/mi...ia-underground-air-force-sale-fighter-planes/
 
I've just been shown a trailer on my UKTV app for a programme called 'Abandoned Engineering'. It looks as though its subject may include a number of locations of interest to fans of this thread, so I thought I'd post about it. I don't know whether it needs to be viewed on the app or whether it'll be shown on the telly box. :)
 
PeteByrdie said:
I've just been shown a trailer on my UKTV app for a programme called 'Abandoned Engineering'. It looks as though its subject may include a number of locations of interest to fans of this thread, so I thought I'd post about it. I don't know whether it needs to be viewed on the app or whether it'll be shown on the telly box. :)
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Yeah I've ads for that on their catch up thing - it looks really good.
 
PeteByrdie said:
I've just been shown a trailer on my UKTV app for a programme called 'Abandoned Engineering'. It looks as though its subject may include a number of locations of interest to fans of this thread, so I thought I'd post about it. I don't know whether it needs to be viewed on the app or whether it'll be shown on the telly box. :)
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ooooooh! thank you!
 
PeteByrdie said:
I've just been shown a trailer on my UKTV app for a programme called 'Abandoned Engineering'. It looks as though its subject may include a number of locations of interest to fans of this thread, so I thought I'd post about it. I don't know whether it needs to be viewed on the app or whether it'll be shown on the telly box. :)
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I've seen a few of those - quite interesting, if a little repetitive.
 
I hadn't realised it was an old programme. Shows how much I watch TV. I was only on the UKTV app to watch Dave Gorman's 'Modern Life Is Goodish'.
 
Peripart said:
I've seen a few of those - quite interesting, if a little repetitive.
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Agreed. Now on its third series, we seem to be getting more of the same - more cold war bases, WWII sites and rusting ships.
New episode tomorrow could prove me wrong, though the title isn't encouraging "Germany's D-Day Fortress"
 
Have the done the martello tower sea forts?
 
oxo66 said:
Agreed. Now on its third series, we seem to be getting more of the same - more cold war bases, WWII sites and rusting ships.
New episode tomorrow could prove me wrong, though the title isn't encouraging "Germany's D-Day Fortress"
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To add: I think that the series is made by the same team that produce "Impossible Engineering" and indeed "Impossible Railways" (neither of which titles are technically true...). These other shows also suffer from an excess of repetition in what are actually very interesting subjects. The "meat" of these shows could easily be made to fit into a half-hour or 40-minute slot, but they're strung out for the obligatory hour. Shame, because as I say, there's some really interesting content there.
 
Peripart said:
To add: I think that the series is made by the same team that produce "Impossible Engineering" and indeed "Impossible Railways" (neither of which titles are technically true...). These other shows also suffer from an excess of repetition in what are actually very interesting subjects. The "meat" of these shows could easily be made to fit into a half-hour or 40-minute slot, but they're strung out for the obligatory hour. Shame, because as I say, there's some really interesting content there.
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I usually record it and fast forward the bits with the experts repeating in dramatic tones that "...something obviously catastrophic happened here...what is the purpose of this structure in the middle of nowhere...something clearly very sinister was going on here etc etc etc..."
 
Peripart said:
To add: I think that the series is made by the same team that produce "Impossible Engineering" and indeed "Impossible Railways" (neither of which titles are technically true...). These other shows also suffer from an excess of repetition in what are actually very interesting subjects. The "meat" of these shows could easily be made to fit into a half-hour or 40-minute slot, but they're strung out for the obligatory hour. Shame, because as I say, there's some really interesting content there.
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Sounds like The Legend Of Oak Island and their money pit ... repletion/dragging things out/restating the fucking obvious is off the scale with that show .. you'll get an entire episode out of them finding a coin, telling each other they've found that coin, going to the clubhouse to discuss finding that coin (even though a 30 second mobile phone call would have clearly happened anyway), discussing what that coin could mean on OAK ISLAND .. having a vote on if it's a coin, wandering off to a completely different part of the island that has nothing to do with the coin, hiring experts and plane flights to visit someone who tells them it's a coin using laser scanners and high fives all round, the older brother who has some sort of mud fetish on OAK ISLAND and then a recap of everything above in case we'd nodded off or something during the show based on OAK ISLAND. The Mrs is thinking of doing a drinking game for every time they needlessly remind the viewers that this is happening on OAK ISLAND.
 
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Swifty said:
Sounds like The Legend Of Oak Island and their money pit ... repletion/dragging things out/restating the fucking obvious is off the scale with that show .. you'll get an entire episode out of them finding a coin, telling each other they've found that coin, going to the clubhouse to discuss finding that coin (even though a 30 second mobile phone call would have clearly happened anyway), discussing what that coin could mean on OAK ISLAND .. having a vote on if it's a coin, wandering off to a completely different part of the island that has nothing to do with the coin, hiring experts and plane flights to visit someone who tells them it's a coin using laser scanners and high fives all round, the older brother who has some sort of mud fetish on OAK ISLAND and then a recap of everything above in case we'd nodded off or something during the show based on OAK ISLAND. The Mrs is thinking of doing a drinking game for every time they needlessly remind the viewers that this is happening on OAK ISLAND.
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But we still watch it...
 
Swifty said:
I know .. it's transfixing .. like watching one of those swirling spiral paper circles on a stick.

.. and us as viewers are just getting an onscreen viewing taste of how addictive that place is.
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Would love to visit one day.
 
gordonrutter said:
Erm Oak Island.
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You're damn right Gordon!!

.. joking aside though, that show should be used as a therapy technique for gamblers anonymous staff, that 'money pit' has become shorthand for people with problems is astute as that time someone tried to talk me into putting money on a horse with the name 'Deeper In Debt' when I was skint .. the horse didn't win .. imagine me having to go back home to my ex and trying to explain to her that not only had I lost our money on a horse but then having to tell her what the horse was called.

edit: https://www.skysports.com/racing/form-profiles/horse/30321/deeper-in-debt
 
Swifty said:
You're damn right Gordon!!

.. joking aside though, that show should be used as a therapy technique for gamblers anonymous staff, that 'money pit' has become shorthand for people with problems is astute as that time someone tried to talk me into putting money on a horse with the name 'Deeper In Debt' when I was skint .. the horse didn't win .. imagine me having to go back home to my ex and trying to explain to her that not only had I lost our money on a horse but then having to tell her what the horse was called.
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I do love the show as a Fortean investigation. Normally you’ll get a ten minute segment on a show about mysteries and that’ll be it where as here you’re getting a good solid look at the investigation and they are making a good go of it. Frustrating as certain aspects are though!
 
Swifty said:
Sounds like The Legend Of Oak Island and their money pit ... repletion/dragging things out/restating the fucking obvious is off the scale with that show .. you'll get an entire episode out of them finding a coin, telling each other they've found that coin, going to the clubhouse to discuss finding that coin (even though a 30 second mobile phone call would have clearly happened anyway), discussing what that coin could mean on OAK ISLAND .. having a vote on if it's a coin, wandering off to a completely different part of the island that has nothing to do with the coin, hiring experts and plane flights to visit someone who tells them it's a coin using laser scanners and high fives all round, the older brother who has some sort of mud fetish on OAK ISLAND and then a recap of everything above in case we'd nodded off or something during the show based on OAK ISLAND. The Mrs is thinking of doing a drinking game for every time they needlessly remind the viewers that this is happening on OAK ISLAND.
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To clarify - "Abandoned Engineering" is nowhere near that bad. It's pretty watchable, they could just do with toning down the dramatic voice-over and recaps/previews a bit!
 
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