Baikonur, Kazakhstan: The Land that time Forgot.  

Baikonur, Kazakhstan is an eerie place.  A sprawling complex of hundreds of 60’s & 70’s Soviet style buildings, many of them abandoned and bricked up from the inside.  Overgrown streets and monuments to the heroes of the Soviet space program can be found at almost every block.  Heating is provided by outside piping.  Today, 36,000 people live in this closed town.  A few miles outside of the living centre, the “cosmodrome” is an even more secure area within the complex.  There, collapsed assembly buildings and broken radar complexes rot alongside launch pads and rockets currently being used by the space program.  In Baikonur, space is free so it appears they just abandon buildings once new facilities are completed.  I wish I had months here to explore.  Somewhere, Laika’s last home or Gagarin’s lunch box is waiting to be discovered.