Balaklava (Ukrainian: Балаклава, Russian: Балаклава, Crimean Tatar: Baliqlava) is a town in the Crimea, Ukraine which has an official status of a district of the city of Sevastopol. It was a city in its own right until 1957 when it was formally incorporated into the municipal borders of Sevastopol by the Soviet government.
One of the monuments is an underground, formerly classified submarine base that was operational until 1993. The base was said to be virtually indestructible and designed to survive a direct atomic impact. During that period, Balaklava was one of the most secret residential areas in the Soviet Union.
Almost the entire population of Balaklava at one time worked at the base; even family members could not visit the town of Balaklava without a good reason and proper identification. The base remained operational after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 until 1993 when the decommissioning process started.
This process saw the removal of the warheads and low-yield torpedoes. In 1996, the last Russian submarine left the base, which is now open to the public for guided tours around the canal system, the base, and a small museum, which is now housed in the old ammunition warehouse deep inside the hillside.
This nice visit of the base is possible thanks to the pictures from Russos
coordinates : 44°29'47.61"N 33°35'36.47"E
google map
pictures sources :
Russos
text source :
wikipedia
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Vesikko was a submarine of the Finnish Navy in World War II. It was designed by Dutch Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw den Haag (I.v.S) and built in 1933 by the Crichton-Vulcan shipyard in Turku, Finland. It served as a direct prototype (named as CV-707) for German Type II U-boats. Between the years 1933 and 1934 the German Navy carried out trials with the submarine in the Turku Archipelago. 
In 1936, the Finnish Navy bought it and named it as Vesikko. Vesikko was one of five submarines to serve the Finnish Navy. Vesikko saw service during World War II. Like other submarines of the Finnish Navy, she patrolled the Gulf of Finland during the Winter War against the Soviet Baltic Fleet. On December 1 and 19 December 1939, Vesikko made attempts to attack the Soviet heavy cruiser Kirov and battleship Marat, both of which which had been damaged by Finnish coastal batteriers.
After the war Vesikko was decommissioned because of the obligations of the Paris Peace Treaties that forbade Finland having submarines. Vesikko was lying as a wreck for years. It was eventually put up for sale for anyone willing to buy it. Fortunately former crew members of the submarine managed to rescue and restore it.
The submarine currently lies on the island of Suomenlinna. It has served as a museum during the summers since 1973 as a part of the Military Museum of Finland. Vesikko is the last surviving Type II submarine in the world.
coordinates : 60°08'33.49"N 24°59'22.61"E
google map
pictures sources :
Seneki
Sörens Welt
suomenlinna.edu.hel.fi
text source :
wikipedia
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Dadipark was opened in october 1949 in the belgium town of Dadizeele. It was until it closed in 2003 one of the oldest amusement park of belgium. Since 2003 nature is slowly invading the deserted park, closed after an accident.
coordinates : 50°51'10.12"N 3°05'44.80"E
google map
pictures sources :
X-it
Urbex
text source :
parcs disparus
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Kennecott, also known as Kennecott Mines is an abandoned mining camp in the Valdez-Cordova Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska that was the center of activity for several copper mines. The camp and mines are now a National Historic Landmark District administered by the National Park Service.
In August 1900, two prospectors, Jack Smith and Clarence Warner, spotted a green patch of hillside that looked like good grazing for their pack horses. The green turned out to be part of a mountain of copper ore. They, together with nine friends, formed the Chitina Mining and Exploration Company. Shortly after this time, a U.S. Geological Survey geologist found a sample of ore that analyzed as containing 70% copper as well as silver and traces of gold.
Stephen Birch, a mining engineer just out of school, was in Valdez when members of the Chitina Mining and Exploration Company arrived in the fall of 1900. Birch, who knew wealthy people in the northeastern United States, bought the prospectors' interest in the mine for $275,000. Within twenty years, the find proved to be the richest known concentration of copper in the world.
Kennecott had five mines: Bonanza, Jumbo, Mother Lode, Erie and Glacier.
In 1916, the peak year for production, the mines produced copper ore valued at $32.4 million.
In 1925 a Kennecott geologist predicted that the end of the high-grade ore bodies was in sight. The highest grades of ore were largely depleted by the early 1930s. The Glacier Mine closed in 1929. The Mother Lode was next, closing at the end of July 1938. The final three, Erie, Jumbo and Bonanza, closed that September.
The last train left Kennecott on November 10, 1938, leaving it a ghost town.
From 1939 until the mid-1950s, Kennecott was deserted except for a family of three who served as the watchmen until about 1952.
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coordinates : 61°29'08.26"N 142°53'20.75"W
google map
pictures sources :
Falfire
Kellan
wikipedia
Philip Greenspun
alex&ju
UK
text source :
wikipedia
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