POTD: Humberstone, Chile

 

Source: Wikimedia

According to this article at Yahoo, "Humberstone is a former English saltpeter mining town in the Atacama Desert. Synthetic nitrate invented during WWI replaced saltpeter, meaning that the facilities were no longer needed." "People fled the town abruptly," the article continues, "leaving behind pictures that still hang on walls and closets still filled with clothes." It also relates that Humberstone was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005. (See also this Wikipedia article).