Urban Exploration

There is more to urban exploration than taking a walk in the city.

There are 339 posts filed in Urban Exploration (this is page 29 of 57).

Roadside Architecture

Roadside Architecture: Another woman who likes old buildings, odd buildings, ghost signs and roadside attractions in general. Visit her main site where the photos are organized into subject and then location, or find her on Flickr. Based in the US so it is US only.

The blogroll for other roadside blogs, from Roadside Architecture.

Urban Exploration Artifacts for Sale


Etsy: UrbArchaeology: Abandoned artifacts from an imperfect world.

The above link is to an online shop on Etsy which uses items found at abandoned sites, turns them into jewelry type items and sells them. What do you think about this? I’m not sure I like the ethics of it and yet my practical side thinks it does no harm to reuse these things rather than leaving them to rust away.

Still, I have always felt “take only photos and leave only footsteps” is the mantra for urban and rural explorers. I’ve never left so much as a paper coffee cup behind. I have not taken things from the sites, except… once I found a Pyrex bowl in a muddy area outside an abandoned house. I also have dug up some perennials plants and replanted them in active gardens. I felt I was saving the plants as weeds were crowding them and choking the life out of them. But, technically, it is taking more than photos.

Where do you stand on “take only photos, leave only footsteps”? Have you taken anything from an abandoned or derelict site? Have you ever left anything, not garbage necessarily but anything, even graffiti?

The Sowie Mountains Research Group

A research project done by explorers in Poland. I watched a report about this on a TV show about Poland this morning. It would be interesting to find new tunnels and see what is left of the construction. From what I saw, each time they find a new possible tunnel they can not link it back to the beginning as the tunnels were all blown up at the end of the war in an effort to keep everything secret. But, who can resist a mystery, especially one in your own backyard.

Quoted from the main page of the Sowie Mountains Research Group site:

It is 1943. The Third Reich begins to suffer heavy losses in men at the eastern front. At the same time the Allies start to bomb earth manufacturing and research centres all over Third Reich area. Adolf Hitler with his collaborators takes a decision to begin work on Wunderwaffe ( wonder weapon ). Because production of any arms in earth factories is unsafe, it has been decided to move armaments factories and research centres underground. The venue chosen is Eulegebirge ( in Polish Góry Sowie – The Sowie Mountains ). In this area wide scale geological and construction works go on from 1943 to 1945. The questions are: What for? What is to be found there? 64 years after the Second World War Sowiogórska Grupa Poszukiwawcza ( the Sowie Mountains Research Group ) – SGP is founded. The group whose aim is to explain what there is to be discovered. We are here to reveal the history and mysteries of The Sowie Mountain underground system and to show them to a wider group of people.

Stories from Explorers

I was invited to a new group on Flickr, Stories from Abandonment. This group is for urban and rural explorers who post a story about their adventures along with the photo. I always enjoy hearing some of the background story, anything from trouble with bees to how they found the location and what condition it is in compared to other times they have been to the same place. There are always some stories to tell.

Welcome to Stories From Abandonment, this group is about the journey and adventure of abandonment photography. Please include a short story with your photo detailing something interesting that happened along the way – like how you found the place, trouble you had, memories, information about the place you might have found or so on. There are plenty of other groups that just have photos of abandonment – this one is to stop and make you think and reminisce about why you like to do this.