Poyang Lake

For a number of reasons, natural and human, people have recently evacuated or otherwise abandoned a number of places around the world -- large and small, old and new. Gathering images of deserted areas into a single photo essay, one can get a sense of what the world might look like if humans were to vanish from the planet altogether. Collected here are recent scenes from nuclear-exclusion zones, blighted urban neighborhoods, towns where residents left to escape violence, unsold developments built during the real estate boom, ghost towns, and more. [41 photos]

A tree grows from the top of a chimney in an abandoned factory yard in Luque, on the outskirts of Asuncion, Paraguay, on October 2 , 2011. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

HORSE FAIR: A boy walked his horses down the street at the Appleby Horse Fair Friday in Appleby, England. The fair is one of the key gathering points for the Romany, gypsy and traveling communities, and is attended by about 5,000 people who come to buy and sell horses. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

UP IN THE AIR: A laborer worked on a steel structure at a financial building construction site in Jefei, China, Friday. The cityscape below was obscured by smoke from burning straw. (Reuters)

SAYING GOODBYE: Relatives of a German soldier killed in Afghanistan comforted each other after a funeral at the Evangelische Epiphanias Church in Hanover, Germany, Friday. (John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images)

SURROUNDED: An Egyptian policeman, center, tried to protect a female reporter as people tried to attack her during a protest in Tahrir Square in Cairo Friday. Hundreds of Egyptians gathered to call for speeding up the pace of democratic transition. (Mohamed Omar/European Pressphoto Agency)

SOCRATIC METHOD: Portugal’s interim Prime Minister Jose Socrates responded to supporters in downtown Lisbon on the last day of election campaigning Friday. General elections are Sunday. (Paulo Duarte/Associated Press)

SNAKE OR SNACK? Fishermen skinned a sea snake on Girgaum beach in Mumbai Friday. (Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)

ARMS AFLAME: A television image shows balls of fire and columns of smoke rising from an arms depot in the Udmurtia region in central Russian early Friday. Fire raged through the facility, where artillery shells and rockets were stored. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from nearby homes. (AFP/Getty Images)

YEMEN TURMOIL: During a funeral Friday in San’a, Yemen, for dead fighters loyal to opposition Hashed tribal chief Sheikh Sadeq al-Ahmar, a solider stood between the men’s bodies and gathered antigovernment protesters. (Ammar Awad/Reuters)

HIGH WATER: Members of the South Dakota Army National Guard filled sandbags in Dakota Dunes, S.D., Friday. The southeast South Dakota city is threatened by Missouri River flooding, a result of record rainfall across the northern Plains. (Nati Harnik/Associated Press)

LOW WATER: A fishing boat sat abandoned on the bottom of the dried-up Poyang Lake, a vast wetland turned dry by China’s worst drought in decades, in Xingzi, Jiangxi Province, China, Thursday. (Eugene Hoshiko/Associated Press)

MANGO MANIA: A laborer carried a basket of mangoes at a wholesale mango market in Bangalore, India, Friday. India recognizes mango as its national fruit and is the world’s largest mango producer, growing about 13 million tons each year. (Aijaz Rahi/Associated Press)

THAILAND ARRESTS: People accused of crimes wore handcuffs at a news conference in Bangkok Friday. Metroplitan police arrested 1,752 suspects in criminal cases between May 30 and June 3. (Sukree Sukplang/Reuters)

ON TO THE NEXT ROUND: As a ballboy scrambled into place, Spain’s Rafael Nadal, in background, reacted after a point to Britain’s Andy Murray during their men’s semi-final match in the French Open tennis championship at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris Friday. Nadal won the match 6-4, 7-5, 6-4. (Jacques Demarthon/AFP/Getty Images)