Atlas of Improbable Places

Travis Elborough is an author and social commentator. His books include the four titles in the Unexpected Atlases series - Atlas of Improbable Places, Atlas of the Unexpected, Atlas of Vanishing Places and Atlas of Forgotten Places, together with A Traveller’s Year, A London Year, The Long-Player Goodbye, Being A Writer and A Walk in the Park: The Life and Times of a People’s Institution. Travis is a regular contributor to Radio 4 and the Guardian, and has penned articles on all aspects of travel and culture, from pirates in the Caribbean to donkeys at the British seaside. He has written for the Times, Sunday Times, New Statesman, BBC History Magazine and Kinfolk among others. Travis was the winner of the Edward Stanford Travel Book Award in 2020.

“ ‘A compendium of unlikely, curious and plain odd locales’ seems something of a natural habitat for Travis Elborough, a cultural historian with a touch of the Betjemans and a lick of the Meades about him. From deserted mining towns in Nagasaki to the ever-decreasing Holland Island in Maryland, he and cartographer Horsfield do us a great service: making the world feel bigger.”

• DREAM CREATIONSFLEVOPOLDERThe region reclaimed from the sea  ZHELEZNOGORSKFormer closed Soviet city  FREE CHRISTIANIASquatter-city  AUROVILLE1960s utopian city  SLAB CITYThe squatter metropolis  PORTMEIRIONThe Village  ZVYOZDNY GORODOKStar City  HEARST CASTLERandolph Hearst’s Xanadu-esque home  DESERTED DESTINATIONSTEUFELSBERGAbandoned U.S. spy station  PRESIDIO MODELOCuba’s most notorious former penitentiary  BATTLESHIP ISLANDDeserted mining settlement  NO MAN’S LAND FORTA long shunned coastal bulwark  THE LOST CITY OF SAN JUAN PARANGARICUTIROAbandoned after the eruption of 1943  HUMBERSTONE AND SANTA LAURARedundant saltpetre works  WONDERLANDAbandoned Disneyland-style theme park  ORADOUR-SUR-GLANEVillage left abandoned since the Second World War  MUYNAKDrained port  WITTENOOMAsbestos-ridden industrial town  ANI, KARSRuins of one-time capital of the Armenian Empire  CONCRETE CITYGarden city of the anthracite region  VAROSHAAbandoned tourist resort  ARCHITECTURAL ODDITIESMARYHILL STONEHENGEConcrete Stonehenge  SPIJKENISSEThe ‘real’ fictional euro bridges  KABAYANThe Ibaloi mummy caves  SANTURIO MADONNA DELLA CORONAChapel hangs midway down a sheer cliffside  LONDON BRIDGE, LAKE HAVASUThe 1831 London Bridge  THE AFRICAN RENAISSANCE MONUMENTControversial symbol of independence  TEN COMMANDMENTS MOUNTAINThe Fields of the Wood  FLOATING WORLDSTHE PALM 105An artificial island paradise  THE KINGDOM OF REDONDAUninhabited Caribbean island  POVEGLIA ISLANDFormer plague quarantine island  GREAT BLASKETUninhabited since 1954  HOLLAND ISLANDIsland slowly being eroded by the water  PALMERSTONA community formed in its founder’s image  WRANGEL ISLANDA place frozen in time  MOUNT RORAIMAThe Lost World  ROSS ISLANDBritish Indian penal settlement  HIRTAThe Edge of the World  OTHERWORLDLY SPACESAOKIGAHARAThe Demon Forest  COLMACity of the dead  LEAP CASTLEThe world’s most haunted residence  DARVAZA CRATERDoor to Hell  THE HILL OF CROSSESHome to some 100,000 crosses  THE ISLAND OF DOLLSA terrifying attraction  SUBTERRANEAN REALMSTHE UNDERGROUND POSTAL RAILWAYRail Mail  COLD WAR SPY TUNNELThe telephone tapping centre  BEIJING UNDERGROUNDBunkers to beat the bomb  MOOSE JAWIllicit tunnels  CINCINNATIAbandoned subway  ZKP TAGANSKY, AKA BUNKER 42Cold War communications bunker  PUERTO PRINCESASubterranean river