35 Mysterious Abandoned Places Around the World You Can Still Visit

34. Fordlândia, Brazil: Henry Ford’s Jungle Utopia

In the 1920s, industrialist Henry Ford attempted to build a rubber plantation and ideal American town deep in the Amazon rainforest. Named Fordlândia, the settlement included American-style homes, a golf course, and a school—designed to replicate Midwestern life in the tropics. But the project failed spectacularly. Workers rebelled against foreign food and strict rules, the rubber trees fell to disease, and logistics proved impossible. Abandoned in the 1940s, Fordlândia now stands as a surreal monument to colonial arrogance and industrial delusion. The decaying water towers and empty homes whisper of a dream that couldn’t survive the jungle it tried to conquer.