Plot Synopsis

Each one-hour episode of MYSTERIES OF THE ABANDONED features three stories behind engineering wonders, why they were built, and the reasons they were eventually left to crumble. They were once some of the most advanced structures and facilities on the planet, standing at the cutting-edge of design and construction. Today they are abandoned, dangerous, some of them even deadly. From uninhabited cities to empty factories, these long-forgotten engineering marvels are scattered around the globe. Each story recalls the people who originally designed the structure, their historical significance, and why they were ultimately no longer of use. The series premiere, "Nazi Ghost Town," revisits a Soviet megastructure, a massive Nazi brainwashing complex, and a dangerous desert pass. A later episode explores California's Goat Canyon Trestle railway, known as the 'Impossible Railroad,' that required the biggest wooden trestle bridge in the world; Ukraine's Duga, the notorious anti-ballistic missile radar, known as the 'Russian Woodpecker,' that still stands in within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone; and the Grades Goulets Road in the French Alps, an astonishingly narrow and perilous mountain passageway. Other stories in Season 1 include: Pennsylvania's Kinzua Viaduct, a 300-foot-tall, 2,000-foot-long steel bridge built in the late 19th century to transport coal; the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, established in 1945 to test out long range rockets; the Barcroft Observatory in California that was constructed in the 1960s to study the moon and planets at infrared wavelengths; and Hashima Island, a once thriving and now deserted Japanese island with vast amounts of coal beds beneath it.

On Tuesday, March 20, 2018 at 9pm ET/PT, Science Channel premiered the second season of MYSTERIES OF THE ABANDONED. In the season opener, "Armageddon Highway," a strange Cuban prison, an eerie escape route built for Armageddon, and an underwater marvel that changed history are mysterious deserted engineering projects. Plus, new discoveries reveal how they were built and why they were abandoned.

Season 3 of MYSTERIES OF THE ABANDONED premiered on Tuesday, October 2, 2018 at 9pm ET/PT on Science Channel. The season opener, "Doomsday at Dragon's Teeth," new discoveries reveal how these structures were built and why they were abandoned: eerie ghost ships stranded in an alien desert, sinister ruins known as the Dragon's Teeth, and a ghostly complex with a bloody past are deserted engineering projects. Among the other sites explored in Season 3 are the Old Croton Aqueduct, completed in 1842 and which brought fresh drinking water to New York City at a time when most of the Big Apple's water supply was not exactly potable; the Central State Hospital in rural Georgia, once a mental health facility made up 200 buildings sprawled across almost 2,000 acres of land; and the SS Empire Heritage, a British ship that was transporting Sherman Tanks to Allied troops when it met its end and now sits at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean north of the Irish Coast. Also looked at this season are the historic Crozet Tunnel, built in the 19th century as during construction of a railroad across the Blue Ridge Mountains; the Beelitz Heilstatten, a hospital complex in Germany where was Hitler was once a patient; the 1984 Winter Olympics facilities in Sarajevo that are now in ruins; Torpedownia, a torpedo testing station off the coast of Poland that still remains in the water; and the Packard Automotive Plant that opened in 1911 and is now one the most recognized symbols of the decline of Detroit's auto industry.

Science Channel premiered the fifth season of MYSTERIES OF THE ABANDONED on Thursday, October 3, 2019 at 9pm ET/PT. In the season opener, "Jungle of the Damned," at an infamous prison in the Amazon, the most dangerous criminals on earth faced hard labor, a hostile environment, and death by guillotine; today, it's deserted, and new discoveries reveal why this hellish compound was built and why it was abandoned.

Season 6 of MYSTERIES OF THE ABANDONED premiered on Thursday, March 26, 2020 from 9-11pm ET/PT on Science Channel. The two-hour season opener, "The World's Strangest Disaster Zones," features special access to the world's strangest disaster zones reveals the buried secrets, eerie sightings, and long-lost treasures in ruined, apocalyptic hellscapes. Plus, new discoveries reveal why they were built and why they were abandoned.

On Thursday, December 3, 2020 at 9pm ET/PT, Investigation Discovery premiered the seventh season of MYSTERIES OF THE ABANDONED. In the season opener, "Into the Murder Labyrinth," an underground labyrinth once used by a secret police force could warp the mind and turn friend into foe; experts turn up new evidence pointing to madness, murder, and mayhem, revealing what happened in these cursed tunnels and why it was abandoned.

MYSTERIES OF THE ABANDONED returned for its eighth season on Thursday, May 20, 2021 from 9-11pm ET/PT on Science Channel. Throughout this season, viewers will travel across the globe to uncover the mysteries behind these massive structures and abandoned sites on the brink of collapse. After decades of decay and withstanding erosion, disasters, and wars, what's left of these structures will reveal secrets from throughout history. With what is still considered one of the biggest rotative beam engines in the world, this 'Cathedral of Sewage' was once part of a solution to the public health crisis in London following what was known as the 'Great Stink' of 1958. With insight from the descendants of the engineer responsible for designing the facility that transformed London, experts reveal the history of this revolutionary sewer system and what the future of this unique facility holds. Off the coast of China, a giant concrete box looms over the water appearing to look like an apartment block of sorts. But experts reveal this mysterious structure's true purpose - a giant speaker designed to beam propaganda across the straight to the people of Communist China. Also this season, experts investigate an epic abandoned resort on the banks of the Dead Sea embroiled in controversy and the Russian mafia, a modern abstract tower in the middle of nowhere in Croatia that appears to belong to a futuristic city, and a former priesthood training center in the forest outside of Glasgow with a brutalist exterior.

Season 9 of MYSTERIES OF THE ABANDONED premiered on Thursday, April 14, 2022 at 8pm ET/PT on Discovery Channel. New episodes debut Thursdays on Discovery Channel with encore presentations the following Tuesday on Science Channel. Travel to Bangkok where a lavish skyscraper in the center of the city is now left to erode while experts discover a devastating financial crisis and a murder mystery that led to the development's demise. Investigate the ruins of an imposing coastal fortress along the beaches of Wales which has been used for many things, including an exotic private zoo. Along the highlands of Argentina, a beautiful estate for the rich and powerful with a troubling past as a lavish resort for elite Nazi German sympathizers now lies abandoned. Explore the sprawling ruins of a luxurious spa resort in the mountains of Romania and uncover its connection to an alleged web of corruption. Experts investigate an enormous war machine stranded on a beach of Dagestan, Russia to uncover the ruins of an experimental Soviet ground-effect vehicle designed to strike fear in Western governments during the Cold War.

MYSTERIES OF THE ABANDONED returned for its 10th season on Wednesday, June 7, 2023 at 11:10pm ET/PT on Discovery Channel. Some of the world's most amazing engineering projects lie in ruins. These are the stories of the extraordinary people who originally designed these marvels and those now bringing new life to each project. In the season opener, "Penthouse Palace," a porn baron establishes a hedonistic paradise in hopes of averting nuclear catastrophe -- attracting a rich and infamous clientele in the process.

On Wednesday, September 4, 2024 at 11pm ET/PT, Discovery Channel premiered the 11th season of MYSTERIES OF THE ABANDONED. Season 11 features new locations including the castle-like mansion of Asa Griggs "Buddy" Candler Jr., the son of the co-founder of the Coca-Cola Company, the factory where Oskar Schindler secretly protected 1,200 Jewish people from the Holocaust and a former-US military base near the Panama Canal that was on the frontline against Manuel Noriega. In the season opener, "Hunt for the Nazi Gold Train," a Polish castle becomes entwined in the hunt for lost Nazi treasure, the heir of an American business tycoon gets caught in a web of controversy, and an Irish estate is embroiled in a fight for freedom.
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After a two-month break, MYSTERIES OF THE ABANDONED returned with new episodes on Wednesday, November 27, 2024 at 11pm ET/PT on Discovery Channel. In the mid-season premiere, "The Desert Pirates," desert bunkers in Tunisia block Allied victory in Africa; the pride of one Alabama community is born out of a harsh reality; a Lebanese complex is rocked by a massive explosion; the remains of an elite institution still stand in Greece.