Vanishing Places sources and further reading

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Vanishing Places gives a snapshot of 100 extraordinary places that are all at risk. To explore the stories featured in the book further, here’s where to get started. 

Domus Civita, Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy, Europe
Italy's so-called Dying Town, Civita di Bagnoregio © Shutterstock

Europe

Switzerland's melting glaciers, Swiss Alps
Spain's emptying villages, rural regions, central and northern Spain
England's crumbling coast, Hemsby, near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk
France's Ice Age cave paintings, Dordogne region, southwestern France
Santorini's crushed vineyards, southern Aegean Sea, Greece
Poland's crooked forest, Nowy Czarnów village, near Gryfino, northwest Poland
England's fading seaside towns, English coast
Venice, northeastern Italy
The Ukrainian city frozen in time, Pripyat, near Chernobyl
Europe's Island of Women, Kihnu Island, Baltic Sea, off western Estonia
Iceland's abandoned herring factory, Árneshreppur municipality, Westfjords
Denmark moving lighthouse, Rubjerg Knude Lighthouse, Jutland Peninsula
Northern England's broken bridge, Tees Transporter Bridge, near Middlesbrough
Civita di Bagnoregio, near Lake Bolsena, Lazio region, central Italy
Berlin's repurposed runways, Tempelhof Field, Berlin, Germany
Scotland's community cinema, Oban Phoenix Cinema, Oban, west coast of Scotland
Russia's ravaged monotowns, primarily Siberia and Urals region
The ancient cleits of St Kilda, 66 km off Outer Hebrides, western Scotland
London's doomed art deco icon, Marks & Spencer's department store, Oxford Street
Lapland's ruined reindeer habitats
salar-de-uyuni-bolivia-shutterstock_110989613
Bolivia's at-risk salt flat, Salar de Uyuni © Shutterstock

The Americas

Mexico's unstable underground world, beneath Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula
Plymouth, Montserrat, Leeward Islands, West Indies
Machu Picchu in peril, Andes Mountains, southern Peru
  • Book: Duram, Leslie A. (2025) Endangered Places
Africatown, Alabama, southern USA
Bolivia's fragile salt flat, Salar de Uyuni, southwestern Bolivia
The unlikely hero of Louisiana's coast, Grand Bayou village, southern USA
Peru's woven histories, The Andes, southern Peru
America's Native culture under siege, various US regions
Failure to freeze in southern Yukon territory, Canada
Brazil's uncontacted rainforest communities, Javari Valley, western Amazon rainforest
Alaska's buckling highway, Dalton Highway, from Fairbanks to Deadhorse, USA
Puerto Rico's bioluminescent bays, southwestern Puerto Rico
Panama's evacuated island, Gardi Sugdub island, Caribbean coast of Panama
Los Angeles County's scorched landscape, Southern California, United States
The half-built National Art Schools of Cuba, western Cuba
Honduras's nefarious narco-highway, Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, Mosquitia region
Florida's sinkholes, Sinkhole Alley, central Florida, USA
South America's overgrown Incan roads, spanning six countries
Venezuela's town in turmoil, Coro and La Vela de Coro, Puerto La Cruz, Anzoátegui
The last Blockbuster on earth, Revere Avenue, Bend, central Oregon, USA
Kolmanskop ghost town, Namib desert, Namibia
Engulfed by the sands of time: Kolmanskop, Namibia © Shutterstock

Africa

The Namibian town swallowed by sand, Kolmanskop, southern Namibia
Cairo's bulldozed necropolis, City of the Dead (Al-Qarafa), eastern Cairo, Egypt
The Kenyan hotel lost to the ocean, Kipini Village, Tana River County, Kenya
Ghana's last ten Asante houses, central Ghana
Mauritania's disappearing libraries, Chinguetti, Sahara Desert, Northwest Africa
Uganda's thawing ice, Rwenzori Mountains, East Africa
Sudan's stolen riches, Nile Valley, northern Sudan
The Great Mosque, Porto-Novo, southern Benin, West Africa
South Africa's overlooked ruins, Blaauboschkraal stone ruins, northeastern South Africa
Zambia's faltering floodplain, Barotse Floodplain, along the Zambezi River, Southern Africa
Angola's unfinished modernist cinema, Cinema Studio Namibe, Moçâmedes
The besieged archives of Timbuktu, northern Mali
Ethiopia's eroding stone churches, Lalibela rock-hewn churches, northern Ethiopia
Tunisia's Medieval reservoirs, historic quarter of Tunis
Africa's vanishing habitats, Sub-Saharan Africa
The Congo Basin, spanning Central Africa
Population pressure in Tanzania, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, northern Tanzania
Chad's contracting lake, Lake Chad, Central Africa
South Africa's stolen succulents, Succulent Karoo biome, Northern and Western Cape
Jodhpur, the Blue City, Rajasthan, India © Avigator Fortuner/Shutterstock
India's fading blue city, Jodhpur © Shutterstock

Asia

India's first Chinatown, Tiretta Bazaar, Kolkata, eastern India
 Yemen's mud skyscrapers, Shibam, eastern Yemen
Seoul's eerily empty pubs, Nokdu Street, Sinchon district, Seoul, northern South Korea
Mount Everest, Himalayas, Nepal-China border
The Maldives' dynamic islands, central Indian Ocean
The dying art of eagle hunting in Kyrgyzstan, rural mountainous regions
Saudi Arabia's changing oasis, Al-Ahsa Oasis, Rub' al Khali Desert (Empty Quarter)
Cambodia's commodified homelands, Mondulkiri province, northeastern Cambodia
Japan's surreal scarecrow village, Nagoro village, Iya Valley, western Shikoku Island
Sharjah's Ghost Village, Al Madam "Ghost Village", northeastern UAE
China's viral sinkhole forests, Guangxi province, southern China
Kazakhstan's aging spaceport, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Central Asia
Vietnam's derelict water park, Hồ Thủy Tiên water park, near Huế city
The shrinking Dead Sea, Jordan-Israel border, Middle East
Mongolia's suffocating capital, Ulaanbaatar city
India's blue city, Jodhpur, Rajasthan
Beirut's battered heritage buildings, Lebanon
Emperor Jahangir's tomb, near Lahore, Punjab, northeastern Pakistan
China's only cave village, Zhongdong Village, southern China
Japan's sinking airport, Kansai International Airport, Osaka Bay
Afghanistan's Bamiyan Valley, Hindu Kush mountains, central Afghanistan
Great Barrier Reef, Australia © I Shafiq/Shutterstock
Coral bleaching crisis: Australia's Great Barrier Reef © Shutterstock

Oceania

Coral bleaching at the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland coastline, northeastern Australia
Stick chart navigation in the Marshall Islands, central Pacific Ocean
Easter island's vulnerable icons, Rapa Nui, southeastern Pacific Ocean
Indonesia's last treetop homes, Korowai treehouse villages, Papua rainforests
Micronesia's secret city, Nan Madol, eastern coast of Pohnpei Island
Australia's culturally modified trees, First Nations territories, New South Wales
The Solomon Islands' dead lagoon, Langa Langa Lagoon, west coast of Malaita Island
Chuuk Lagoon, Federated States of Micronesia, western Pacific Ocean
Space to heal: Kinchela's boys' home, New South Wales, Australia
Tuvalu: the world's first Digital Nation? Central Pacific Ocean
Teahupo'o's endangered reef, southwestern coast of Tahiti, French Polynesia
New Zealand's wounded wetlands, Whangamarino Wetland, Lower Waikato Basin
Australia's forgotten gold mines, Llanelly and Tarnagulla towns, central Victoria
Papua New Guinea's sacred bark cloth, Oro Province
penguins-antarctica-shutterstock_573319750
Antarctica's ice shelves are collapsing at an alarming rate © Shutterstock

Polar regions

The Arctic's precarious polar bear habitats
Norway's last Arctic coal mine, Gruve 7 coal mine, Svalbard archipelago
Antarctica's collapsing ice shelves, surrounding much of Antarctica
Greenland's frozen city, Camp Century, beneath Greenland's northwestern ice sheet
Mawson's Huts, Cape Denison, Commonwealth Bay, Antarctica
Full moon rises by Menai suspension bridge
Hidden heritage: the Moon peeps over Menai suspension bridge, Wales © Shutterstock

Outer space 

Humanity's heritage on the Moon, Apollo 11 landing site, Tranquility Base

Thank you for your interest in Rough Guides Vanishing Places. Buy the book here.

 

Amy Hopkins

written by
Amy Hopkins

updated 23.06.2025

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