23 Places Where Nature Has Reclaimed Abandoned Cities

13. San Juan Parangaricutiro, Mexico: A Church Rising From a Sea of Lava

Unlike any other abandoned town in the world, San Juan Parangaricutiro was swallowed not by time, but by lava. In 1943, a farmer witnessed the birth of a volcano—Parícutin, one of the youngest volcanoes on Earth. Over the next nine years, lava flows engulfed everything in their path, burying the town beneath a thick, blackened crust. The town’s entire landscape transformed overnight, with only one eerie remnant standing above the hardened lava fields: the ruins of the church of San Juan Parangaricutiro. Its stone bell towers still rise defiantly above the sea of cooled volcanic rock, a surreal sight that draws visitors from around the world. Today, cacti, moss, and small shrubs grow from the cracks in the lava, and birds nest in the old church walls. The area remains a monument to the unstoppable forces of nature, and visitors can now walk across the hardened lava to witness this ghostly church standing as the last testament to a town that once was.