Across the planet, shopping malls are being abandoned. Blame online shopping, the economy, or gas prices—whatever the cause, there's probably a dead mall near you. Many of these buildings have laid empty for years, often in a state of deterioration.

Naturally, the internet has documented this fascinating phenomenon, also known as ghost or zombie malls. We've rounded up the best places where you can find photos of, and information about, dead malls.

1. DeadMalls.com

deadmalls website

For over two decades, users have contributed to DeadMalls.com, a website which aims to document dead malls. Despite the retro appearance of the site, it's still updated periodically with history, stories, pictures, and videos.

To begin, head to the Dead Mall Stories section. If you live in the US, select your state on the map to see the abandoned malls near you. There's also information about a handful of global malls, like in New Zealand and China.

Perhaps you'll get inspired to visit these dead malls, or even discover some of your own and contribute your findings to DeadMalls.com.

2. Dead Malls & Vacant Retail Flickr Group

dead malls flickr

Reading about the decline of the mall is one thing. Seeing it is quite another. This Flickr group is overwhelming, brimming with over 21,000 photos of abandoned retail outlets from across the globe.

Since 2006, photographers have contributed to this group, and you're free to join. Though there's no active community posting on the discussion board, you can still contribute your photos and rank up on the contributor's leaderboard—or just scroll through the eye-catching photos for what feels like an eternity.

3. Dead Mall on Wikipedia

dead mall wikipedia

Including Wikipedia on this list might seem like an obvious choice, but you really shouldn't overlook this resource. The Dead Mall page offers a great overview of the topic, including how the retail climate has changed globally and how some dead malls get given a new lease of life through redevelopment. It's one of the many weird Wikipedia pages worth your time.

Not only that, but there are two category pages that you can lose a lot of time to: demolished shopping malls and defunct shopping malls. These pages link out to individual articles which are incredibly interesting, covering malls that have been featured in movies or broken records (like the world's biggest malls) and now stand empty.

4. Dead Mall Enthusiasts Facebook Group

Dead Mall Enthusiasts facebook group

There's just about a Facebook group for everything, including dead malls. The Dead Mall Enthusiasts group was established in 2008 and now has over 30,000 members. It's still active today, with members posting their latest snaps and videos of dead malls.

Don't worry if you deactivated your Facebook account, since anyone can browse this group without logging in to the social media behemoth. However, if you do have a Facebook account, you can share your dead mall photos and chat with other enthusiasts in the group.

5. Urban Exploration Resource

urban exploration resource

Urban Exploration Resource isn't solely focused on dead malls. This site also covers tunnels, factories, bunkers, offices, and other abandoned buildings. But even if you're only interested in dead malls, there are plenty of photo galleries to keep you occupied, and you can use the map to find places of interest near you.

While the dated website design will give you some strong internet nostalgia (there's no mobile-friendly version), Urban Exploration Resource is exploding with fun content. Plus, it maintains an active forum, where you can have your photos critiqued, read tutorials, and chat with others.

6. r/deadmalls

dead malls subreddit

If you've been hunting for your next favorite subreddit, look no further than r/deadmalls. Established in 2013, this community boasts over 150,000 members, sharing photos, videos, and stories of dead malls from across the world.

If you want to join in on the discussions, save your favorite posts to a collection, or contribute your own photos or videos, you'll need a Reddit account. Otherwise, you can happily scroll through the mountain of fascinating dead mall content to your heart's content.

Enjoy the Mystery of Abandoned Places

It's hard to explain why dead malls are so enchanting. Your mind invents stories about the structures, projecting meaning onto them. It all feels so wasteful, and all you can do is try to figure out how something that took so long to build ended up being abandoned.

It's not just malls that get abandoned, either. There are plenty of other buildings that sit empty, documented on these excellent websites and more, just waiting for you to discover them from the comfort of your home!