5. Pripyat, Ukraine
Pripyat was a thriving Soviet-era city until the catastrophic Chornobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. With radiation contamination making the city uninhabitable, Pripyat was abandoned overnight. While not demolished in the traditional sense, the city’s eerie ruins and decaying structures stand as a testament to modern development gone wrong.
The area remains off-limits to residents, and the Soviet-era buildings have decayed rapidly, leaving behind a chilling snapshot of a time lost to history.