These brilliantly overgrown walls appear to have been left out in the weather for many years. In reality, the tiny Chinese fishing village of Houtouwan has been reclaimed by nature in less than thirty years. 1 About 65 kilometers (40 miles) from the coastal metropolis of Shanghai on the mainland, the island of Shengshan is located on the furthest curving edge of an archipelago of islands in the East China Sea.

It is connected by a bridge to its neighbor, the smaller island of Gouqi, although the only ways to get there are by bus and ferry or by private boat. From the mainland, it takes hours to get to each. Therefore, it makes sense that the village's abandonment in the 1990s was mostly influenced by its isolation.

Where there used to be brick and mortar, the city's walls and streets are now shimmering with vegetation, and the walls are covered with climbing vines. The stepped homes will soon be completely absorbed by nature, as if they had never existed at all.

• Country: China

The Spreepark in Berlin, Germany, may sound more like an abandoned theme park than a 21st-century ecological paradise, but there, nature is paving the way. After it was abandoned in 2001, the nearby vegetation quickly started to thrive.

A rollercoaster track that had been present since the park's opening in 1969 disappeared into stretches of green branches, while fallen plastic dinosaurs are scattered among lush grasses. These structures had been there when the park first opened in 1969. Years went by as disputes regarding debts, ownership, and possible uses for the land persisted without a conclusion.

Twenty years after it shut down, a new effort hopes to revive the location while incorporating the natural environment. Spreepark might serve as an illustration of how development and ecological preservation can coexist, if it is effective.

• Country: Germany

A strange but lovely sight: a forest blooming on the ruins of an abandoned ship—lies resting in the calm waters of Sydney's Wentworth Point. The SS Ayrfield served as a cargo steamer and a supply ship during World War II after being constructed in Greenock, Scotland, and launched as the SS Corrimal in 19119. It was renamed in 1952.

Twenty years later, it was deactivated and abandoned near Homebush Bay, where it has been deteriorating ever since. Sydney Olympic Park and the Badu intertidal wetlands are located where the bay's shoreline meets them. Mangrove trees that love the water make up 48 hectares of this wetland, which was likely created some 15,000 years ago when the area was inundated by rising sea levels.

The rusty wreck provided the mangroves with a space to grow, demonstrating how much nature despises voids. Now that the SS Ayrshire has its own forest, it is clear how little area nature needs to create a healthy ecosystem.

• Country: Australia

The Vallone dei Mulini, also known as the "Valley of the Mills," is located directly in the center of the thriving coastal town of Sorrento. It was so named in honor of the flour and saw mills that once operated inside the rocky cleft. The gorge's humidity increased dramatically after the Piazzo Tasso was constructed in 1866, cutting off the gorge from the sea.

Though the final mill was abandoned at the turn of the 20th century, the high humidity cultivated a microclimate ideal for plant development. Ruins and the surrounding area become fully overgrown as the abandoned buildings fell to pieces. In the deep crevice, fern species like Phyllitis Scolopendrium13 thrive. An ethereal vision of a post-human world completely reclaimed by nature can be seen in the ensuing tableau.

Online images of the location from 2006 quickly became popular. A private firm, seeking to take advantage of the city's subsequent rise in tourists, began to rebuild the abandoned mill. When the areas of vegetation that had originally made the region so alluring were destroyed in 2019, both locals and visitors were appalled. Since then, no more work has been done, allowing nature to reclaim the Vallone dei Mulini from human intrusion.

• Country: Italy

For most people, when they think of Cambodian jungle temples, Angkor Wat comes to mind first. The secret temple of Beng Mealea, however, is located around 77 kilometers (48 miles) to the northwest, in a little community that is removed from the popular tourist destinations. This magnificent temple, which is said to have been built some 900 years ago, is much less frequently visited than its more well-known neighbor.

Beng Mealea, a 14-hectare complex with sculptures, statues, columns, and ponds, was proposed as a potential UNESCO World Heritage Site by the Cambodian government in 2020. The site has suffered significant harm as a result of natural deterioration and other reasons. Due to this degradation, the temple's surrounds have overtaken it and merged with its incredible human architecture.

• Country: Cambodia