A half-buried ghost town near Dubai is attracting explorers from across the world — but no one knows why it was abandoned

• The village of Al Madam, which is about 30 miles from Dubai, was built in the 1970s. 
• For unknown reasons, the village was abandoned and it has been slowly overtaken by the desert.
• The destination is becoming a popular spot for tourists.
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Not too far from Dubai, one of the fastest developing cities in the world, is a buried village outside of Al Madam. Out in the desert, the town is a relic of an unknown past. No one is exactly sure why the village, which is slowly being consumed by sand, was abandoned so shortly after it was built.

In recent years, interest in the ghost town has increased as travelers from all over the world make a stop to visit what's left of the village before it disappears completely. 

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The ghost town is just over a mile outside Al Madam, which is about 37 miles from Dubai.

It takes almost an hour to reach the village by car from Dubai.

To visit the abandoned village, travelers must take a small sandy road out into the desert from Al Madam.

There is no public transportation out into the desert, but according to Atlas Obscura, travelers can pay a taxi 300 dirhams (approximately $80) to take them there and back. 

Once there, visitors will find a ghost village almost completely covered by sand.

The village consists of two rows of bleached white houses and a mosque among the surrounding sand dunes. 

Based upon the design and interviews with locals, it is believed the village was probably built in the mid-1970s.

The number of villagers who lived there during that time is unknown, but one man claimed to have gotten married there. 

The village might have been built as part of sha'bi housing, a modernization drive by the government to get its nomadic Bedouin population to settle down.

"The government wanted to create a state and to provide a functioning state you need people living in cities and settlements, rather than Bedouins roaming the desert," Yasser Elsheshtawy, a professor at Columbia who studied sha'bi housing, told CNN. 

Building on sha'bi housing started in the 1960s.

The town was likely abandoned a few years after it was built.

One possible reason for abandonment is that the village was poorly put together. Some sha'bi villages were built without any infrastructure like electricity in place. This may have been the fate of Al Madam's ghost town.

Locals believe the village is haunted by spirits that drove the villagers away.

The inspiration behind genies, djinns are supernatural creatures that are made of air and fire. This legend has persisted in the years since the village was abandoned. 

But it may have been the encroaching desert and sandstorms that caused the villagers to flee.

"The sand here is really inhospitable," Ayub Al Kaabi, a local resident, told Gulf News. "What we know from our elders is that this place was built for Al Kutbi tribe, but they abandoned it after living here for sometime. People say there is something in the sand here, it invades the houses. Whether it is the nature of the sand or there is something more to it, we don't know."

Every building in the village has been taken over by sand.

Pushed through the open windows and doors by the wind, sand has consumed and coated the interiors of these buildings. 

While the buildings have weathered the elements, the furniture inside has been destroyed.

In this building, a book shelf is splintered and only held up by the sand that coats the room. 

One of the largest buildings in the village, this mosque was once a center for prayer.

Now, it too has been claimed by the desert and sand. 

Even the outside of the buildings have started to be buried by the sand dunes.

This building is half buried except for part of the roof and side of the building sticking out from the desert that surrounds it. Some building have been entirely engulfed. 

Dubai-based tour companies now offer trips out to the site for tourists and other travelers.

"The 'ghost village' is currently not a broadly established destination," S.Y. Sunil of Dubai-based Desert Safari Tours told CNN. "(But) it is gradually becoming a favorite spot for explorers."

The popularity of Al Madam's abandoned town has increased in recent years with more travelers becoming aware of the site.

There's even a Reddit page where people have discussed their visits.

What attracts visitors from across the globe to visit the desert ghost village?

Maybe poet Percy Shelley said it best with his poem 'Ozymandias': "Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay. Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare. The lone and level sands stretch far away."

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