Free Republic

Bigfoot Living Among the Ruins of Detroit! DETROIT (Cryptozoology News) — A family claim they saw a strange ape-like creature Thursday afternoon coming out of the window of an abandoned house on the outskirts of the desolate city. C. Brown, his wife, and their two children said they were “driving around, looking to buy a new house”, when they allegedly witnessed the unidentified beast. “The economy has been devastating here man,” Brown explained. “One day, you are living in this beautiful city with over a million and a half working people, next day all you know is all is gone…crime...

Detroit Gets The Destination Nod Over Chicago DETROIT (WWJ) – Detroit is better than Chicago!! That’s according to at least one travel writer, who has compiled a list of over-rated destinations and suggested alternatives. While Michiganders can give you a plethora of choices in the state that are select and unique it’s always nice to get a nob from outsiders. Among the reasons David Landsel tells travelers to try the Motor City over the Windy City? World-class architecture, a great music scene, and cheaper and better beer. • Typical Detroit neighborhood • Community activists in Chicago promote "peace"

The truth about North Korea's glittering 'Hotel Of Doom' built to symbolize country's supremacy: There's nothing but a derelict shell inside From the outside, its shiny windows and soaring towers make it look decidedly futuristic and luxurious. But after visitors walk through the doors of North Korea's Ryugyong Hotel - which has taken twenty years to build - they see it is just a concrete shell. The interior of the 105-story, pyramid-shaped resembles a multi-storey car park, with its concrete floors and bare columns. Beijing-based Koryo Tours got a peek at the vast interior of the hotel in Pyongyang, the...

Israeli archaeologist digs into Sobibor death camp in search of Nazi killing machines Yoram Haimi's biggest breakthrough yet: mapping of what the Germans called the Himmelfahrsstrasse, or the 'Road to Heaven,' a path upon which the inmates were marched naked into the gas chambers. When Israeli archaeologist Yoram Haimi decided to investigate his family's unknown Holocaust history, he turned to the skill he knew best: He began to dig. After learning that two of his uncles were murdered in the infamous Sobibor death camp, he embarked on a landmark excavation project that is shining new light on the workings of...

Mo‘ynaq – Graveyard of Ships in the Desert Many have visited an abandoned city and wondered what catastrophic event could have caused such an exodus from a metropolis once so evidently thriving. Yet these cities are usually hundreds if not thousands of years old, the everyday clamor and cry of civilization just an echo. Visit Mo'ynaq in Uzbekistan, however, and you can see apocalypse right here, right now. The Soviet era sign still welcomes people to the city. Yet there are few visitors who stay more than a few hours. They all leave after they have done looking at what...

After 50 years, fire still burns under Pa. town (A motorist in 2004 drives among the smoldering remains of land near Route 61 in Centralia, Pa. AP file photo) Fifty years ago Sunday, a fire at the town dump ignited an exposed coal seam, setting off a chain of events that eventually led to the demolition of nearly every building in Centralia — a whole community of 1,400 simply gone. All these decades later, the Centralia fire still burns. It also maintains its grip on the popular imagination, drawing visitors from around the world who come to gawk at twisted,...

An Extremely Creepy Tour of an Abandoned Soviet Monument in Bulgaria Remember those derelict Bulgarian war memorials that resemble space fortresses? Well, it turns out they're just as otherworldly inside. Here's one intrepid urban explorer's journey into the shadowy corridors of the shuttered Bulgarian-Soviet Friendship memorial in Varna, Bulgaria. It's also a case study on why you never tour old Soviet monuments alone. In its Communist heyday, the "Park-Monument of the Bulgarian-Soviet Friendship" contained an eternal flame, a bomb shelter, and a tourism center. Loudspeakers would also blast Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 on constant loop. The center opened in...

We've looked at some abandoned Bulgarian Socialist architecture before, but never like this. This winter, photographer Timothy Allen braved snowstorms and horrific cold to shoot the UFO-like Buzludzha monument in the Bulgarian Balkans. The resulting pictures look like the lost Communist equivalent of Echo Base. Allen traveled 250 kilometers outside of Sofia to get these incredible photos. The snow picked up during his shoot, and he even took a harrowing -25°C hang-gliding expedition to grab some aerial shots. Explains Allen of the building's history: Designed by architect Guéorguy Stoilov, more than 6000 workers were involved in its 7 year construction...