Although humanity has built magnificent and important cities in the course of history, there are many examples of cities lost to nature. For various reasons, humans left the towns they spent a lot of effort building, and nature reclaimed what it is its after some time. Consequently, empty buildings covered in greenery, sand, or water fill these cities.

But what happens when a city is left eerily abandoned, its homes and buildings still standing without anybody to call them home? Nature takes over. Moss coats crumbling buildings, sand dunes swallow up whole houses and trees and animals clamber over once busy walkways.

From a former mining town swallowed up by the Namib desert to a rabbit-infested Japanese island, here are 14 historic cities and settlements that have been reclaimed by nature.