Siberia is the greatest frontier for urban exploration in the world — a territory eleven time zones wide where the Soviet Union built mines, factories, and entire cities in places no rational economy would have chosen, and where the collapse of 1991 left them all behind simultaneously. Here are the 5 best abandoned places in Siberia, selected from our Urbex Russia Map — 500+ GPS locations across Russia.

Why Siberia Is the World's Greatest Urbex Frontier

Siberia covers 13 million square kilometres — more than the entire United States and Europe combined. The Soviet Union industrialised it at extraordinary speed and at extraordinary cost in human life. When that industrialisation became unviable after 1991, the scale of abandonment was equally extraordinary. Ghost towns, Gulag camps, diamond mines, nuclear test sites, and entire abandoned railway lines stretch across a landscape so vast that most of its abandoned places have never been photographed, let alone explored.

📍 All locations below are referenced on our Urbex Russia Map — GPS coordinates, access notes, condition ratings, and explorer reports included.

1. Mir Mine – The Abandoned Diamond Pit of Yakutia (Known Location)

The most visually astonishing abandoned industrial site in Siberia. The Mir Mine open pit in Mirny, Yakutia is 525 metres deep and 1,200 metres wide — one of the largest holes ever excavated by human beings. The airspace above it is restricted because its downward air vortex has pulled aircraft toward the void. The pit walls spiral downward in two kilometres of access roads. At the bottom, a toxic lake has formed in Soviet-era tailings. The surface operations that created this extraordinary void were abandoned in 2001, leaving the open pit as a monument to Soviet diamond ambition on the permafrost of Eastern Siberia.

👉 Story: Discovered 1955 by Soviet geologists. Open-pit operations began 1957, producing 10 million carats per year at peak. Surface mining abandoned 2001 when the pit became too deep to operate economically. The town of Mirny (37,000 inhabitants) still exists around the hole.

🔗 More on Mir Mine: Wikipedia – Mir Mine

2. Khalmer-Yu – The Arctic Ghost Town of the Komi Republic (Known Location)

A complete Soviet coal mining town above the Arctic Circle, abandoned in 1993 when the Russian government declared the mines unviable and subsidised the entire population of 6,000 to relocate. Streets of apartment blocks, a cultural centre, a school, and a church built by the miners themselves still stand on the tundra — emptied in a matter of months, untouched for three decades.

👉 Story: Founded 1942 to exploit Arctic coal deposits. Population reached 6,000 at Soviet peak. Government declared mines unviable in 1993 and paid residents to leave. The town was subsequently used by the Russian military for live-fire artillery exercises — some buildings show impact damage.

🔗 Also read: Top 5 Abandoned Places in Russia →

3. The Abandoned Trans-Siberian Relay Station – Siberian Forest (Exclusive on our Map)

A Soviet-era telecommunications relay station deep in the Siberian taiga — antenna towers still standing above the tree line, control buildings with original Soviet electronics intact, and a crew settlement whose last technicians departed when satellite communication made the station obsolete.

👉 Story: The Trans-Siberian communications network required relay stations at regular intervals across thousands of kilometres of forest. When satellite technology rendered ground-based relay infrastructure redundant in the 1990s, stations were decommissioned simultaneously — their equipment left intact in the taiga. Exact location available on our Urbex Russia Map.

4. The Abandoned BAM Railway Settlement – Eastern Siberia (Exclusive on our Map)

A workers' settlement built during the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline railway in the 1970s-80s — residential blocks, a cultural house, and a station building left behind when the construction crews moved on and the settlement lost its purpose.

👉 Story: The BAM railway — built largely by voluntary workers and Gulag prisoners across 4,300 km of Eastern Siberian wilderness — generated dozens of construction settlements that were abandoned when each section of track was completed. Several survive intact in the taiga. Exact location available on our Urbex Russia Map.

5. The Abandoned Siberian Gold Mining Camp – Krasnoyarsk Krai (Exclusive on our Map)

A derelict Soviet gold mining complex in the Krasnoyarsk taiga — processing facilities, workers' barracks, a small airstrip cut from the forest, and a director's house with its original furniture still inside — all frozen by the permafrost in extraordinary condition.

👉 Story: Siberian gold mining camps operated across Krasnoyarsk Krai throughout the Soviet era, many in locations accessible only by small aircraft. When gold prices fell and extraction became uneconomic after 1991, camps were simply closed and left — their remoteness making demolition impossible and their permafrost making decay slow. Exact location available on our Urbex Russia Map.

Urbex Russia – Safety & Legal Reminder

Siberian urbex carries specific risks beyond those of European Russia. Always:

• Plan every trip with extreme logistical care — distances are vast and rescue is impossible in most locations
• Never visit remote Siberian sites alone — a solo accident could go unnoticed for days or weeks
• Carry more food, water, and fuel than you think you need
• Prepare for temperatures below -40°C from October to April
• Never enter former uranium or radioactive mining sites without a dosimeter
• Respect the spaces and leave no trace

The urbex code applies everywhere: "Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints."

❓ FAQ – Urbex Siberia

What is the most famous abandoned place in Siberia?
The Mir Mine open pit in Mirny, Yakutia is the most internationally recognised — a 525-metre deep, 1,200-metre wide diamond mine whose airspace is restricted because its vortex has pulled aircraft toward the void. The town of Kadykchan on the Road of Bones is the most famous abandoned city.

How do I get to Mirny from Moscow?
Fly from Moscow Domodedovo to Mirny (Yakutia) — direct flights operate several times per week, approximately 6 hours. The town of Mirny has 37,000 inhabitants and basic accommodation. The open pit is visible from the town's edge and accessible on foot.

What makes Siberia unique for urbex compared to European Russia?
Scale and isolation. Siberian abandoned places are not individual buildings or districts — they are entire cities, mining complexes, and communications networks spread across a territory larger than the United States. The extreme climate preserves abandoned structures in extraordinary condition. And the remoteness means that most Siberian urbex sites have never been documented — every visit is potentially a discovery.

🎯 Conclusion

Siberia is the final frontier for urbex Russia — a territory so vast that its abandoned places vastly outnumber its documented ones. From the second-largest hole ever dug by human hands to Arctic ghost towns used for artillery practice, every abandoned place in Siberia carries the same double quality: the extraordinary ambition of a system that built without limits, and the extraordinary speed with which it all stopped.

Thanks to our Urbex Russia Map, you get access to over 500 unique locations across Russia — GPS coordinates, access ratings, photos, and explorer reports for every spot.

🗺️ Explore the full Urbex Russia Map →