Empty Amusement Park

While on those wanderings, you run into some odd things. Such as an abandoned Luna park. I thought it quite unusual, but defunct amusements park are apparently a common occurrence, and taking pictures of them a form of art. While Googling for abandoned amusement parks, I noticed that I was not alltogether original in my 'discovery': a fellow blogger had beat me to it. Gino has obviously been wandering around this region as well.

The Merry-go-round. I edited these photos on a different computer, and now that I see them through the eyes of a Mac, I have to say they seem awfully purplish/pink to me.

The place, I found out, was abandoned in July of 2006, which was the summer war, when Israel bombed Lebanon for 34 days. Many people spending the summer here in this village and its surroundings are Arabs from the Arabian peninsula. They have big villas here, which stand out for their rather shoddy opulence, and the amusement park was probably partially (or completely) financed by them as well.

This ride comes out of China.

As the bombing campaign started, those Arabs left overland to Damascus, Syria (which was a country still at peace then). Visitor levels dropped to zero, those funding the project left the country, and little hope that the money flow would be picking up any time soon. And that was the end of an amusement park that had been around for at least a decade.  It was used in 2010 for a dj event, and – if I may believe the photos – some of the attractions were still in working order.

When exactly the park started business I don’t know. A Dutch friend of mine remembers that this is the place where she met another Dutchie, some 15 years ago, so it must have been operating then. Who owns it, I don’t know either. But right now, all the attractions are slowly fading away.

 

This one probably comes out of this factory.

It does have a slight Chernobyl-like effect, the empty rides, the deserted bumper cars, and my favorite, the merry-go-round, but it's not as bad yet as towns like these or even these.  If the situation continues, however, than eventually all these villas around the luna park will be abandoned as well. Right now, they're occupied by the janitors, who continue to water the lawns, and rake the leaves. 

Sorry, couldn't help it.