5 Must Visit Abandoned Buildings Devoured By Sand

The deserts and sands are the best landscapes for finding old and abandoned buildings. The arid climate lends itself to preservation, and there is little danger of serious decay or damage from flooding. At the same time, the sand is an ever-shifting geographic feature that can swallow whole towns both quickly (as in a violent sandstorm) or slowly (as it shifts over time). This article deals with the partially buried buildings in sand, some of which were abandoned for hundreds of years, and some only a few years.

# Rubjerg Knude Lighthouse, Denmark

Rubjerg Knude Lighthouse is located on the coast of the North Sea in Rubjerg, in the Jutland municipality of Hjørring in northern Denmark. It was first lit on December 27, 1900. Construction of the lighthouse began in 1899. In the last few decades more and more sand built up around this light house. The people there tried to fight against the sand, but it didn't help. They couldn't keep the lighthouse and put a museum and a cafeteria in the old buildings. But the endless fight against the sand seemed quite useless. In 1999 they finally gave up completely and gave the nature back what it demanded.

# The Buildings of the Abandoned Town of Kolmanskop, Namibia

Kolmanskop is an abandoned town in the Namib desert in southern Namibia, a few kilometres inland from the port town of Lüderitz. It was named after a transport driver named Johnny Coleman who, during a sand storm, abandoned his ox wagon on a small incline opposite the settlement. Once a small but very rich mining village, it is now a popular tourist destination run by the joint firm NamDeb (Namibia-De Beers).

# Tilsandede Kirke (The sand buried church), Denmark

At first glance, the Tilsandede Kirke, located in Skagen, Denmark, isn't much to look at. However, the small, white tower that can be seen is only one part of the whole church. The rest of the church remains buried under the earth, hence the name, which means Sand-Buried Church. The Tilsandede Kirke closed in 1795 after sandy winds continuously built up dunes around the church. Locals used the stones from several parts of the church for other buildings in the area. After much research, the location of the nave and vestry was discovered and marked with stakes for visitors.

# Houses in the Village of Araouane, Mali

Araouane or Arawan is a small village in the Malian Sahara, lying 243 km (151 mi) north of Timbuktu on the caravan route to Taoudenni. Araouane has just over 300 inhabitants divided into 45 families. The surrounding desert is completely barren and the harmattan wind blows sand that accumulates against the walls of the buildings. The rainfall is too little to permit any agriculture and the village is dependent on the caravan trade which nowadays is restricted to the transport of salt blocks from the mines at Taoudenni, 420 km (261 mi) to the north. Between the 16th and 19th centuries Araouane acted as an entrepôt (trading fort) in the important trans-Sahara trade.

# Mosque Minaret, Egypt

This 1100 year old mosque was discovered near the town of Al Burullus along Egypt’s Mediterranean coastline. Archaeologists discovered in only recently, and speculate that there could be an entire town buried beneath the sand. The minaret is believed to be 30 meters (100 ft) tall, but only the very tip is showing above the sand.