As it fell apart around them, the residents of Balestrino abandoned their homes in the medieval town once ruled by a murderous Marquis. At Hunters Point, San Francisco, the massive industrial spaces succumb to an invasion by the forces of nature.

Diamonds and gold lured people to very inhospitable places. In Africa's Namibian desert, German miners built European towns in a sand-blasted hell. On the treeless high Sierras of California, gold-rush era miners carved a city miles from civilization.

The story of two cities abandoned by the industrial disasters. Pripyat, Ukraine, is the closest city to Chernobyl, the world's worst nuclear disaster. Picher, Oklahoma, a center for lead and zinc mining, is one the most toxic towns in America.

High in Chile’s Altacama Desert, the eerie remains of Humberstone and Santa Laura evoke the glory days of South America’s nitrate mining era, while Detroit’s shattered factories and abandoned neighborhoods stand a stark warning for post-industrial man.

Hashima, Japan, is a coal-mining island that was once the most populated city on Earth and is now a decaying hulk filled with rubble in the middle of the sea. Gary, Indiana was built on steel, but hard times turned the downtown into an urban wasteland.

Once hailed it as the next Palm Springs, Salton Sea is now populated only with decaying vacation homes and dead fish carcasses. West Virginia’s Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum stands empty – but it’s filled with dark secrets.