About This Blog
The wonderful thing about exploration is how it constantly evolves as we learn, grow, and interact with one another and these unique remnants of history and the human experience. Engineering marvels, decaying cities and empty factories that once were on the cutting edge of design and construction are discarded, hazardous, and even deadly. Why these engineering triumphs were built and how they were left to crumble is explored here.
Favorite Haunts website offers a look at traditional travel, climbing and exploration sites and perhaps new ones that may have been overlooked. I have a special passion for temples, abbeys, monasteries and abandoned cities.
What is Urban Exploration?
Urban exploration (UE) is the exploration of manmade structures, typically abandoned structures, ruins or hidden components of the manmade environment. Photography and historical interest/documentation are heavily featured in this past time, and it sometimes involves trespassing onto private property. Urban exploration is also called draining (a specific form of urban exploration where storm drains or sewers are explored), urban spelunking, urban rock climbing, urban caving, mousing or building hacking.
The activity presents various risks, including both physical danger and, if done illegally and/or without permission, the possibility of arrest and punishment. Some activities associated with urban exploration violate local or regional laws and certain broadly construed anti-terrorism laws or can be seen as trespassing. A good place to learn more about urban exploration are the websites Forbidden Places, Bright Sun Films, and Kathmandu and Beyond.
Why do this?
The rise in urban exploration’s popularity can be tracked to increased media attention. Recent television shows such as Urban Explorers on the Travel Channel, Mysteries of the Abandoned and Expedition Unknown. Even though Ghost Adventures and Destination Fear deal with the paranormal, haunted space is not separate from the general mood of Urbex. These shows and others have presented the hobby for a popular audience. The fictional film After… (2006), a hallucinatory thriller set in Moscow’s underground subways, features urban explorers caught up in extreme situations. YouTube channels such as The Proper People, Urban Explorers with Kappy, and Urbex and Chill offer interesting explorations of abandoned properties. Talks and exhibits on urban exploration have appeared at the fifth and sixth Hackers on Planet Earth Conference, complementing numerous newspaper articles and interviews.
An alternative source information is Cities of the Underworld, a documentary series that ran for four seasons on the History Channel starting in 2007-9 and ending in 2021. This series roamed around the world, showing little-known underground structures in remote locales, as well as right under the feet of densely packed city-dwellers. Websites for professional and hobby explorers have developed to share tips and locations.
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