Photos: Climbing Bangkok’s Ghost Tower

A view of the Bangkok skyline from an overgrown balcony half way up Ghost Tower
© Andrew Brown/2015/Thailand

Sathorn Unique Tower, to give it its official name, is an unfinished skyscraper in Bangkok, Thailand. Originally planned as a high-rise apartment block, construction stopped around the turn of the century, most likely due to the Asian Financial Crisis (accounts vary, others link it to a high-society murder trial). However, it is much better known to locals by the more sinister name of ‘Ghost Tower’, and once you go inside it is clear why. Overgrown and flooded balconies with broken railings contrast with the shiny new skyscrapers opposite, while dark stairwells thread the dingy interior of the building, full of helpful graffiti like: “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here,” (in blood red paint). Sunset creates an even more dystopian mood, with views reminiscent of Blade Runner or The Windup Girl – a science-fiction novel set in a future Bangkok full of abandoned skyscrapers.

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