The World’s Biggest Junkyards You Have to See to Believe

Junkyards are tiny havens for those of us that love machines. But you don’t have to be a total gearhead to appreciate just how cool gigantic piles of abandoned tanks, rows upon rows of abandoned cars or mind blowing huge ghost fleets of aircraft can be. Let's explore some of the largest and most amazing junkyards in the world!

Malyshev Tank Factory

After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, without any real storage options, a vast portion of their huge reserve of tanks ended up in a depot. That depot is the enormous Malyshev factory in Kharkiv, almost 20 miles from the Russian border. It’s absolutely crammed with rows upon rows of those once deadly war machines, many have been sat rusting and corroded over time.

Although it’s not known exactly how many are packed into the almost 11 million square foot facility, it’s estimated that about 400 Soviet built tanks are cluttering up the compound. And they include model T-72’s, they’re 44 tons of bad news and very big guns. When new, models like the T-72 would have been worth between $500,000 and $1.2 million!

So, along with all the others similar models in there it’s very possible that those 400 rust buckets had firepower once worth over $400 million! That’s some serious fighting flare. Although it seems like all they’re waging a war against now are the weeds!

The Cavern of Lost Souls

Despite the ominous name, The Cavern of Lost Souls isn’t a giant hole that people have been thrown into. But it is a giant hole that people have thrown their garbage into! That cavern, discovered in the Ceredigion region of Wales, was once a slate mine. But when mining activity in the region began to decline it was abandoned before laying flooded and silent for over 60 years.

However, parts of top rock began to fall through, opening large holes on the surface. Not wanting to waste an opportunity, locals decided to use the holes as massive and illegal dumping sites! Since then, the cavern has been transformed into a cornucopia of junk that’s been thrown down into the dark.

But nobody knew just how much was down there until the cavern was photographed by urban explorers in 2014! Across the murky waters, you will see items ranging from household waste to entire cars from across the ages in different states of decay!

Explorers of that underground junkyard have braved the corroding mountain of cars, and even discovered a sword in all the junk! What kind of person throws away a sword? Probably the same kind that rolls their car into a giant hole in the mountainside! It’s thought that there are about 100 cars in that subterranean junkyard!

Kohl’s Motorcycle Salvage

Our next real abandoned treasure for all the bikers out there! The amazing trove of old motorcycles and choppers is all that remains of Kohl’s Motorcycle Salvage, once based in Lockhart, New York.

The owner presided over several different bike shops and collected a huge variety of motorcycles for over 50 years, but he sadly died in 2002. Being so badly dilapidated, the council condemned the building and barred anyone from entering. And yet, that doesn’t seem to be enough warning to keep urban explorers from wanting to catch a glimpse of what lay within.

Armed with cameras, many managed to get in and take photos of the incredible contents of that slowly degrading site. If you look at those pictures you will see, huge amounts of classic and vintage sets of wheels were in real bad shape, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have value!

Some of the models plucked from the carnage like a Honda CB350 from 1968 can be sold for upwards of $3,000 in the right condition. Many others like a Jawa frame that dated back to the 1950’s could be refurbished and sold on for approximately $8,000!

Heartbreakingly, almost all the bikes were removed and scrapped in 2010, and the building itself burned to the ground in 2013. What an absolute tragedy! I guess all we can do is pray that there’s a motorbike afterlife.

Chernobyl

The ghostly remains of the areas surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear reactor site are haunting to say the very least. But what’s just as creepy are images of the region’s contaminated vehicles that were left to rot in the Rassokha Equipment Cemetery.

The clean up operation that followed the explosion and radioactive meltdown at Chernobyl’s nuclear power plant required many vehicles to help evacuate residents and deal with the damage. But once it was done the helicopters, military trucks, buses, and many more vehicles that had been used were abandoned at that site in Rassokha, just 25 km south-west of the former power plant.

Rossoha Cemetery of machines in Chernobyl Zone - view from the air. by SoloEast Travel

They were heavily contaminated with deadly radiation and couldn’t be recovered. Some were so badly contaminated that they were buried in order to stem the amount of radiation flooding the area, turning the field into a literal burial ground! More recent photos taken of the vehicles stored on the topsoil showed that many had pieces missing from suspected illegal salvage operations.

For over twenty years those slowly degrading vehicles served as desolate reminders of one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents. But efforts in the early 2010s saw most of the fields cleared of the debris and cut up for scrap. Today, almost nothing remains but the memory of the terrifying events that took place decades earlier.

Eritrea Tank Graveyard

On the outskirts of Asmara, the capital city of Eritrea, East Africa lies a colossal collection of old military and civilian equipment that’s been put on display for a very important reason. Part junkyard and part war memorial, that huge assortment of rusting vehicles serves as a monument to the war Eritrea fought with Ethiopia for thirty years!

During the war for Eritrea’s independence, which raged on from 1961 to 1991, Ethiopian forces would hide their destroyed military equipment outside Asmara. The method behind the madness was that leaving it on the streets for all to see would strengthen Eritrean moral which was, of course, the very last thing they wanted!

But after Eritrea’s victory, much of the remaining machinery spread across the country was dragged to the same spot, gradually growing into a giant scrap yard.

During that time, the country had at least 74 tanks at its disposal, but there are thought to be hundreds there, with many having been captured from Ethiopian forces. Although many of those vehicles have now been corroded beyond recognition, that doesn’t stop that place from being one of the most historically important junkyards in the world!

Kuwait City's Al Sulaibiya Graveyard

Some of mankind’s greatest achievements can be seen from space: The pyramids of Giza, the manmade islands of Dubai, and not forgetting Kuwait’s tire graveyard that’s right, a tire graveyard! In the sandy reaches of Kuwait City's Sulaibiya area, gigantic holes are excavated and filled with old tires that have come to the end of the road.

Approximately 1 billion tires are scrapped globally every single year, but because tires aren’t naturally bio-degradable many of them end up in storage facilities or landfills just like that one!

Those gigantic craters are filled with over 7 million tires, and every year even more craters are dug and filled, continuing the vicious cycle. Just take a look at this image of the site from 2013:

Now, compare that image to the following one taken in 2020. It just keeps growing!

But size alone isn’t the only problem. Kuwait’s intense heat means that the area is at a constant risk of setting on fire. In 2012, a fire broke out in the nearby tire landfill of Al Jahrah, burning around 5 million tires and producing so much smoke that it could be seen from space!

Can you imagine how much worse things would be if the Sulabiya tire graveyard caught fire? That’s one burning question no one needs answered.

Dubai's Supercar Graveyard

If you’re looking for a cheap Ferrari, Bentley or even a Rolls Royce, you need to stop looking on eBay and start looking in the UAE-bay instead. Introducing the supercar graveyard of Sharjah in Dubai, home to those once pristine vehicles which have now gathered thick layers of dust after being abandoned for years.

But beneath the filth you can find expensive Mustangs, costly Corvettes, and even classic Volkswagen Beetles. Nearby, in another part of Sharjah’s industrial suburb a huge lot of crashed supercars contains brand new looking Ferraris, Bentleys, Range Rovers the list goes on!

Even though that isn’t the largest junkyard in the world, it’s certainly one of the most expensive! After laying eyes on this so-called junkyard of formerly flashy cars, you’d be forgiven for thinking some people in the United Arab Emirates just have more money than sense but the truth is far more shocking.

Most of those cars belonged to big businessmen and expats who hit fiscal ruin after the financial crash of 2008. But the debt laws of the United Arab Emirates are some of the strictest in the world, with debtors being sentenced to jail time of up to three years! So, it seems those debtors decided to ditch their fancy rides in exchange for a plane ticket out of there!

Larry’s Truck and Electric

It’s not just planes and automobiles that wind up in some of the world’s most impressive junkyards after all, have you ever seen a junkyard on rails? The derelict mechanical conga-line is the locomotive graveyard of Larry’s Truck and Electric, found in Ohio.

There are hundreds of abandoned first and second-generation locomotives filling up these tracks, with some, like a Harbor Belt 8859, having been built way back in the 1950’s! Isn’t it amazing to think some of these trains were the very first of their kind?

Locomotive Graveyard - Lordstown, OH (Drone Video) by David Lauback

But that wide variety of old locomotives isn’t just for display! Larry’s Truck and Electric will scrap, rebuild, and resell those trains, shipping them out via the connected railroad. The yard and its tracks sit off the main Chessie-Seaboard Merger mainline, which is a freight railroad operating in the eastern United States.

But the yard contains trains from many different rail lines like Amtrak, Burlington North Rail, Conrail, and many others. Personally, I think it’s a shame we can’t preserve that amazing graveyard of trains gone by.

Desguaces Casquero Spanish Scrapyard

Some people visit Spain for the great wine and weather, but those things aren’t for everyone. But among them the most interesting thing is the biggest machine scrapyard in Europe the Desguaces Casquero.

THOUSANDS OF EXCAVATORS!!!! in one place!! by allistairc123

That gigantic compound just north of Benavente is just under 2.5 million square feet and is crammed with just about every construction machine and agricultural vehicle imaginable. Hundreds of machines like retired excavators and rows of once mighty earth movers can be found basking in the scorching Spanish sun.

The hot, dry climate there means that many of those vehicles can remain in relatively good condition for much longer. So long in fact that some seriously vintage models, like Caterpillar 631B scrapers built in 1978, are still in good working order and are ready to go! While some of those amazing machines can be sold on, most are stripped down for their parts and for salvage.

Riyadh Car Junkyard In Saudi Arabia

We all know Saudi Arabia is renowned for its oil, the second largest reserves in the world, in fact. But one of its lesser-known assets is one of the world’s biggest junkyards! The sprawling hub of smashed vehicles is in the southeast of Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia, in an area known as Uraidh.

Almost all cars written off by accidents or designated as scrap from the nearby capital city end up there. Everything from cars to buses can be found piled high up on top of one another, but whilst that metallic chaos may look like an eyesore to some, it’s a huge business opportunity to others.

The World's Largest Junkyard - In Saudi Arabia (Riyadh) by Paul L

Spread out across the almost 1.5 mile wide allotments are hundreds of used parts and car dealers! But how has that area grown to such a colossal size? Well, for a long time Riyadh has had a problem with its citizens driving dangerously outdated cars. The climate of the area is hot and arid, meaning that cars there don’t really rust as much as they age. So, they last much longer.

Instead of upgrading cars, people lean towards replacing parts with spares they can easily salvage from those junkyards. Since the area is massive, I bet you could find almost any part you needed.

Million Dollar Point

Off the southeastern point of the island of Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu, lies an incredible monument to wartime pettiness. It's known as the Million Dollar Point. Beneath the waves, humungous piles of American military equipment from the second world war litter the sea floor.

There you will see coral encrusted bulldozers, the corroded remnants of ships, the metal bones of drowned vehicles, and all sorts of other wartime debris.

Million Dollar Point, Vanuatu | Freediving an Underwater Scrapyard | GoPro by Omni Reef

But how did that fortune of disused equipment find its way down there? The thing is, Espiritu Santo used to hold a US military base in the French controlled Vanuatu islands. At the conclusion of the second world war, the Americans offered to sell everything on the base to the French for just 6 cents to the dollar!

But France rejected the deal, knowing the Americans had limited transport ships and would be forced to leave much of it behind. In other words, they thought they could get it all for free!

In an act of unbelievable spite, the Americans decided to drive the millions of dollars’ worth of equipment, clothing, vehicles, and even cases of coca cola into the ocean instead! If the French wouldn’t pay, no one would have it. Today, that politically petty scrap heap lies wasted on the ocean floor.

RAF Thurleigh Scrappage Site

Of all the things you’d envisage on a disused runway, I don’t think anyone would expect to find over $35 million worth of old and classic cars! But that’s exactly the case at the UK’s RAF Thurleigh. The UK government’s 2009 ‘scrappage scheme’ incentivized citizens to scrap their old car by giving them over $2,500 off a new car, meaning thousands of older models were turned in.

However, as the sheer number of cars began to overwhelm mechanics, the former airfield of Thurleigh was turned into a scrappage site for around 14,000 of the excess vehicles. On the site, the cars have been lined up nose to tail, waiting to be licensed to a junkyard before being stripped of their parts and recycled.

Thurleigh Airfield Bedford by Auto map

But it’s not just old family cars clogging up the runway! Classic and rare old cars also make up the ranks, like the incredible line up of Porches 944’s, rows of old Volkswagen Beetles, and even classic Mini Coopers!

During the initial backlog of cars dating back to 2010, it’s estimated the old airfield was home to around £28 million worth of vehicles, that’s over $35 million! For all that dough, you could buy at least 3 of the new Bugatti Centodieci’s with change to spare!

Gadani Ship Breaking Yard

The gigantic coastal junkyard of Gadani, Pakistan, is the final resting place of hundreds of huge oil tankers and old ships. Once they’re floated into the breaker bays, those mighty vessels are all broken down section by section for scrap.

While that process may look cool, workers there mainly use hand tools to break the ships down and earn between just $3.50 and $8 a day! So, that junkyard might actually be one of the last places on earth anyone would want to work.

At capacity, Gadani’s 134 ship breaking lots are filled to the brim with colossal ships like those that have all run their course. All along the 6 mile stretch of coast, the gigantic piles of scrap from the ships are stacked up on the shores.

Gadani ShipBreaking by Yasir Malik

Oil left over in the condemned tankers is siphoned off and sold, and almost every part of the ship is dismantled for recycling. While the stripping time of those wave-riding behemoths depends on their size, workers can break them down in a matter of months, sometimes even weeks! In just one year, Gadani can have over 100 of those gargantuan ships dismantled.

Volkswagen Diesel Graveyard

Do you remember the Volkswagen emission scandal? If you need a reminder, just take a look at the Volkswagen storage facility of Victorville, California.

Those are rows upon rows of diesel Volkswagens packed into a sun-bleached desert graveyard. For some perspective, there is a Plane measured almost 200ft long, so that site is truly gargantuan! But why are so many of them there?

In 2015, the headlines were dominated by a scandal after the Environmental Protection Agency found the German car giant had installed software into its diesel cars to cheat emission tests. The revelation forced Volkswagen to buy back almost 350,000 highly polluting vehicles, costing it about $7.4 billion.

Nowadays, in order to store the cars VW uses 37 facilities all over the US including that 134-acre patch of land in the California desert! A staggering 21,000 cars have been crammed into that space and will remain there until they’re either upgraded or destroyed! Although that may not be a ‘junkyard’ in the typical sense, it’s most definitely still full of junk!

China's Share Bike Graveyards

Our next topic of discussion is one of the many share bike graveyards littered around China! Do you remember when share bikes were all the rage, like ones from Limebike, Spin and Ofo? Those GPS-enabled bikes could be unlocked using a smartphone and take you from A to B without the need to park at a dock.

While they had some relative success in the US, they were a huge hit in China! The country’s economy took a mammoth $500 billion from 600 million users of the bikes in 2017 alone. Despite the big profits, there was an even bigger downside lurking around the corner.

China’s city infrastructure wasn’t ready to suddenly handle millions of shared bikes, resulting in a lot of illegal parking and impounding. Rapid production growth suddenly outpaced demand and thousands of the bikes were left collecting dust. As the cities continued to impound them, some of those collections became so huge and were stacked so high that cranes were needed to reach the top of them!

Massive lots of abandoned bikes were piled up around the country and some were left for so long that nature started to reclaim them. It’s unknown exactly how many still haunt China’s cities, but at their peak Shanghai alone had at least 1.5 million bikes and Beijing had 2.3 million, that’s enough for one bike for every 12 of those cities' citizens!

The Aircraft Boneyard

Ever wondered what happens to the American nation’s militarized aircraft when they need to be scrapped? Wonder no more; Introducing the largest aircraft graveyard in the world The Boneyard!

Formally known as the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, the boneyard is a storage facility stretched across four square miles of the Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona.

The group manages all types of excess government and military equipment like the armada of Boeing B-52s, retired F-16 fighting falcons, and excess Cobra helicopters, even missile launchers like that of the Titan II make an appearance there!

There, the group manages approximately 4,000 aircraft, and in their current state they hold a value of about $35 billion! But what becomes of those giant aircraft when they’re no longer fit to take to the skies?

Many are there for long term storage, so they’re given a thorough cleaning, sealed, and covered with a white vinyl coat called ‘Spraylat’ to protect their components from heat damage.

Aerial View Of The Aircraft Boneyard At Davis-Monthan AFB by Gung Ho Vids

Next, they’re stripped of their parts which are sold back to the military to keep other aircraft flying. In a typical year, all the parts returned can be worth around $500 million! But once almost every usable part has been reclaimed, they’re broken down into scrap and recycled. Not to sound cheesy, but recycling has never looked so fly!

I hope you were amazed at the world's biggest junkyards! Thanks for reading.