Kadykchan Ghost Town

Kadykchan is an abandoned coal-mining town in Magadan Oblast, in the Kolyma region of the Russian Far East. Its origins lie in the Gulag: the settlement and its mines were established using forced labour during the Second World War, and the coal it produced helped power the region, including the Arkagala power station. In the Soviet decades Kadykchan grew into an ordinary mining town of several thousand residents, with apartment blocks, a school and public buildings.

A mine explosion in 1996 that killed several workers, combined with the economic collapse of the post-Soviet Far North, sealed the town's fate. Services were withdrawn, residents were relocated in the following years, and Kadykchan was left to the elements. Today its empty apartment blocks and scattered belongings give it the classic, melancholy air of a ghost town, and visitors often report an eerie, desolate feeling — an understandable response to abandonment rather than anything demonstrably paranormal.

Kadykchan stands as a vivid emblem of the rise and fall of Soviet industry in the Far North, from its grim Gulag beginnings to sudden decline. It holds real historical and social interest as a record of the region's twentieth-century story.

Kadykchan lies off the Kolyma Highway and can be reached by road, making it more accessible than many sites on this list, though the region remains remote and the climate harsh. There is no population, no services and no formal management.

The abandoned buildings are decaying and structurally unsafe, with collapsing floors, roofs and stairwells, so visitors should stay alert, avoid entering unstable structures, and prepare for self-sufficient travel. The town is best treated as a sober relic of recent history rather than an adventure playground.