FATEHPUR SIKRI, INDIA Built by Emperor Akbar to be the most beautiful city in the world, it was widely thought this goal was achieved - until people realized the city lacked access to water. It was abandoned as the capital of the Mughal Empire after just 10 years and is today a perfectly preserved 16th-century town. Picture: Flickr user Sikri Goove2007 
DECEPTION ISLAND, ANTARCTICA A regular stop on Antarctic sailings, Deception Island was a popular place for scientific outposts until several volcanic eruptions destroyed the bases in the 1960s. Today you can see their remains, plus swim in hot springs. Picture: Flickr user Wili Hybrid 
KOLMANSKOP, NAMIBIA Travellers seeking a quiet place need look no further than the numerous towns around the world that have been abandoned for one reason or another. Travel review website IgoUgo.com has compiled a list of the top 10 ghost towns around the world based on recommendations from its readers. Before you enter this abandoned mining town in the Namib desert, you'll need to stop in nearby Luderitz for a permit - a holdover from the days when Kolmanskop was a free-for-all for diamond hunters. The town was at its heyday in the 1920s but abandoned in 1956. It has since been partly restored. Picture: Flickr user Coda
OATMAN, ARIZONA, US Of the Arizona ghost towns, quirky Oatman has to be among IgoUgo members' favourite. It's here where wild burros roam the streets and $60,000 bills decorate the walls of the local hotel, where, incidentally, Clark Gable and Carol Lombard spent their wedding night. Picture: Flickr user Caveman 92223 
ARTLUNGA, AUSTRALIA A favourite part of this old Outback mining town (and early European settlement) is the "loneliest pub in the scrub," also known as the Arltunga Hotel. It's an ideal place for lunch or a cold beer before or after exploring Arltunga which was born out of a gold rush. Picture: Page Lovelace 
GRAFTON, UTAH, US Founded for its fertile land and abandoned largely due to conflicts with Native Americans and flooding, Grafton is most famous as the set of the movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." The last residents left in 1944. Picture: Flickr user Respres
