Unusual graveyards for metal from around the world

<![CDATA[There are several sites around the world where tones of metal has been abandoned either due to lack of funds to dispose the waste or as a covert exercise. It is interesting to explore such graveyards in abundance of machinery once in use.

Tank graveyard in Kharkiv

Image Source : Telegraph.Co.Uk

Pavel Itkin a young photographer was astounded to see a huge collection of deserted tanks in a depot in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Pavel managed to slip into this secret depot once a flourishing tank repair workshop of the Soviet Union. Ukraine had neither the funds nor the will to repair or upgrade its tanks after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It took him several months to locate this secret workshop, arranged in rows there are about 400 tanks being rusted at the site.

Ship graveyard Nouadhibou bay

Image Source : SeaJobs.Bg

Nouadhibou is a coastal city in Mauritania in the African continent adjoining Algeria and Mali. When the French businessmen settled here after the World War I the main source of income of the locals was fishing. Being a port city soon it became a hub for shipping trade. The merchants of the shipping trade bribed the local authorities to allow them to dispose off their ships in the bay. In due course of time it became the largest ‘Ship graveyard’ in the world, harboring not less than 300 vessels.

This metal graveyard has surprisingly become a source of income for many locals. The mechanics rip off the ships for the engines. Electricians, plumbers also lay their hands on the vessels to salvage the items of their need. In fact, these abandoned ships have become breeding ground for the fish and a thriving industry for the fishermen.

The Train Cemetery of Uyun

Image Source : Telegraph.Co.Uk

Trains have fascinated most of us in the childhood, how about visiting a place where we could play hide and seek in abandoned trains. The city of Uyun in Boloivia found in 1889, has become a place of tourist attraction because of the deserted trains. The trains once connected the mines of Uyun to the other parts of the country.

After the mines were exhausted of their resources, these trains were left to rust, forming a ‘Train Cemetery’.

Airplane cemetery in Walnut Ridge

Image Source : AirplaneBoneyards.Com

During the World War II America, build some 294,000 warplanes for the war. After the war the authorities discovered that a large quantity of the warplanes were now of no use to them. Dismantling them manually, involved loads of man-hours and a huge space would have been required to store the parts. A method, which the military called “salvage and melt,” was exercised to get rid of the excessive planes.

Where the main parts of the planes were removed, the remainder was shredded into pieces and thrown in the smelter to melt. The Walnut Ridge airfield in Arkansas was the perfect site for the disposal of these planes as it was spread in an area of 3096 acre. An estimated 250 planes were brought daily to the Walnut Ridge site.

Anchor bolts Graveyard at Tavira Isle of Algarve

Image Source : Bp.BlogSpot.Com

The Graveyard of Anchor bolts or “Cemitério das Âncoras” as the locals call it, is located on the Tavira island of Algarve in Portugal. The sight of hundreds of anchors lined up on the sand is indeed an amazing one. Once Tavira was a thriving market for seafood, as the local industry dried up so the fishermen gave up their profession. Somebody nailed his anchor on the sand and hundreds of men followed the ritual.

To prevent damage to the ecology it is necessary to get rid of the waste. Better, greener solutions are required to dispose the waste to prevent harm to the following generation and us.]]>