Q 01/05

Which California ghost town is preserved in a state of 'arrested decay'?

A) Bodie

B) Rhyolite

C) Calico

D) Oatman

Answer · why

A) Bodie

Bodie boomed after a gold strike in 1876 and had about 8,000 residents by 1879; today interiors are left exactly as they were, dust and all.

Q 02/05

What 1986 event left the Ukrainian city of Pripyat abandoned?

A) Fukushima meltdown

B) Chernobyl explosion

C) Kyshtym accident

D) Three Mile Island leak

Answer · why

B) Chernobyl explosion

The Chernobyl explosion at reactor No. 4 on 26 April 1986 forced Pripyat's residents out the next day; they were told the evacuation would last three ...

Q 03/05

Which Namibian diamond town near Lüderitz now has houses knee-deep in sand?

A) Oranjemund

B) Kolmanskop

C) Elizabeth Bay

D) Walvis Bay

Answer · why

B) Kolmanskop

Kolmanskop grew up after a railway worker found a diamond there in 1908; once the mines moved south it was abandoned in 1956, and Namib sand has drift...

Q 04/05

Why was the Italian hilltop village of Craco largely abandoned in the 20th century?

A) Volcanic eruptions

B) Severe droughts

C) Coastal flooding

D) Landslides and quakes

Answer · why

D) Landslides and quakes

Landslides and quakes emptied Craco: evacuation began in 1963 after a series of landslides, a 1972 flood worsened the damage, and the 1980 Irpinia ear...

Q 05/05

The French village of Oradour-sur-Glane was destroyed in a massacre during which conflict?

A) World War I

B) Franco-Prussian War

C) Algerian War

D) World War II

Answer · why

D) World War II

World War II's Waffen-SS killed the villagers on June 10, 1944; the ruins were left standing as a permanent memorial.