Abandoned village

An abandoned village is a village that has, for some reason, been deserted. In many countries, and throughout history, thousands of villages have been deserted for a variety of causes. Abandonment of villages is often related to epidemic, famine, war, climate change, environmental destruction, or deliberate clearances.

Armenia and Azerbaijan

Hundreds of villages in Nagorno-Karabakh went deserted following the Nagorno-Karabakh War. Between 1988 and 1993, 400,000 ethnic Azeris and Kurds fled the area and nearly 200 villages in Armenia itself populated by Azeris and Kurds were abandoned by 1991. Likewise nearly 300,000 Armenians fled from Azerbaijan between 1988 and 1993, including 50 villages populated by Armenians in Northern Artsakh that were abandoned. Majority of the Armenian settlements and churches outside the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic have been destroyed including those in Nakhichevan.

Australia

In Australia, the government requires operators of mining towns to remove all traces of the town when it is abandoned. This has occurred in the case of Mary Kathleen, Goldsworthy and Shay Gap. Some towns have been lost or moved when dams are built.