Forest reclaims Georgia’s Soviet-era ghost town

A former Soviet mining town in a disputed area of Georgia is now a ghost town that has been conquered by nature.

Akarmara, in Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia, was built in the 1970s and was once home to some 5,000 people.

Many people left Akarmara during the 1992-93 war, when Abkhaz separatists broke away from Georgia.

Georgia’s 2008 war with Russia drove even more people away, leaving the abandoned houses and public areas to be taken over by the forest, with the imposing Soviet-style buildings now home to pigs and cows.

“The town is [relatively] new. It has deteriorated in just the last 25 years,” local resident Richard said.