The Most Desolate City on Earth: Gunkanjima, aka ‘Battleship Island’
Utterly abandoned, this former coal-mining site stands like a rotten tooth jutting from the turbulent waters off Nagasaki. A formidable seawall protects a dense warren of empty factory buildings and crumbling apartments. Roofs have blown off or caved in and walls have sloughed off their skins, leaving the skeletal underpinning of buildings visible. Dark hallways and dangerous, twisting staircases abound in M.C. Escherian complexity, leading to ruined vistas with names like “Block 65” and the “Stairway to Hell.” (Top-left and top-right, respectively.)
See more at The Atlantic Cities. [Images: Wikipedia]
Maria Theresa of Austria was painted wearing “Oriental” costume for a masquerade in 1744 by Martin van Meytens.
