5 of the strangest cities to live in the world
Stop for a moment and think: What is strange about your city? It is not very difficult to identify. In some, the weather, for example, can change so many times throughout the day that it has become commonplace to say that to live there is to have "the four seasons in 24 hours." There are also stamped stickers, which for their eccentricities are known to a good part of the population. And, of course, a lot of “weirdness” is also due to the location or cultural habits of the region.
However, there are examples of cities that go beyond these peculiarities that we can find so easily. And so, nothing better than checking out the list below for some of them. This makes it easier to decide where to move when you are looking for new airs.
1. Oil city in the middle of the ocean
What should we do when we find oil on the ocean floor? Raise an oil rig to extract it, of course. Now, when the region has a lot of oil, there's nothing like building a whole city in the middle of the sea, focused on exploiting this valuable natural resource.
Thus was built the city of Neft Dashlari by the Soviet Union in 1949 on the Caspian Sea in the Azerbaijan region. And don't think that we are just talking about a "big platform". The city of Neft Dashlari has over 300 kilometers of road, up to nine-story buildings, library, hospital and various trades.
The location even appears in a scene from the movie “007 - The World Is Not Enough” and has also been the subject of a documentary titled “Oil Rocks - City Above the Sea”.
2. City which is garbage disposal
Manshiyat Naser is where Cairo dumps all the garbage it creates. But don't think it's land that works like a dump: we're talking about a city that is both a garbage dump whose society is based on the way it handles it.
Residents of the region live on what they reuse from the tons of rubbish that arrive in the city, selecting everything of value, such as metals and electronics. And while the city lacks water and electricity, for example, it is not just a dump, with streets, shops and apartment condos everywhere.
3. The island of death
Humanity usually inhabits very inappropriate places, but no one would live on an island whose volcano constantly releases toxic and deadly gases, right? Well, wrong. Japan's Miyake-Jima Island is just 180 km south of Tokyo and has one striking feature: the presence of Mount Oyama, a volcano that has erupted countless times throughout history.
But that's not all: Miyake-Jima residents can hardly breathe on the island because of the lethal gases that the volcano constantly releases. Therefore, who inhabits this place is required to have a mask that allows its existence in such an aggressive environment. The island has a population of over 2, 000 people, who continue to live there for scientific reasons as they receive money to conduct experiments on site. And serve as a guinea pig too, of course.
4. A city for dwarves
Although the country's political regime is quite severe, China is not very politically correct. Proof of this is the business created by Chen Mingjing, a 44-year-old entrepreneur who decided to create a place where people with dwarfism could live in a society that did not discriminate against them. At first it would have been fine, were it not for the fact that this city is also a theme park.
For Mingjing, he created a kind of comfort zone for these people and generated hundreds of job vacancies that previously did not exist. But of course it ignores the fact that its "beneficiaries" need to live in costumes and living in mushroom houses, as they are a tourist attraction.
The city of dwarves has about 120 inhabitants and the only rule to live in it is not to exceed 1.30 meters. The “village” has all the necessary infrastructure, including a police station and fire brigade adapted to the height of its inhabitants.
5. Forbidden Citadel of Kowloon
Imagine a place in China where the government doesn't rule. Or rather, a place that the government simply abandoned and decided that, if it is to exist, it is without his help. We are talking about the ancient walled city of Kowloon, a highly populated and completely anarchic area that existed between the 40's and 90's.
This large solid block of buildings was once a military fortress, but was eventually abandoned after a political dispute with the United Kingdom. In 1987, there were 33, 000 residents in an area of 0.3 km 2 . Moreover, as the government had no influence over the place, the city had very high rates of prostitution, drug use and gambling.
Over time, the government was no longer able to ignore the citadel, and after many police raids to overthrow the criminal factions that ruled the plot, the walled city of Kowloon was completely destroyed in April 1994. Today, the The site houses a park and some historic ruins of the city, open for visitation.
* Originally posted 03/04/2013 .
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