Urban exploration goes by many names, including Urbex, Infiltration, Reality Hacking and simply UE. The exciting art of "going where you’re not supposed to go" is peaking in popularity – but even if you’re a seasoned urbexer, we bet you don’t know about at least some of the 5 surprising facts about urbex we would like to discuss today!

Intrigued? Keep reading to find out more!

1. The Suicide Club

People have likely been exploring abandoned places for centuries, but the actual credit for establishing the UE movement as we know it goes to the San Francisco-based group from the 70's, who liked to call themselves The Suicide Club. Their favourite activities included touring old hospitals and hosting classy dinners in strange abandoned places. How fancy!

"The Reaper" © by FTLK

2. Vandalism is a no-no

Contrary to popular belief, there is a strict codex reputable uberexers follow, and one of the rules stresses: no breaking and entering, only trespassing! This code of ethical conduct should be taken very seriously if you want to become a great urbexer.

"Railway station" by Tama66

3. Accidents do happen

UE is considered dangerous (and is often illegal) for a reason – naturally, old unmaintained buildings are unsafe. This leads to sometimes fatal accidents, such as death of two Australian urbexers in 2008 when they were investigating Sydney’s sewer system. It only took a burst of rainwater from a storm... ouch.

"Glass" by ARTsbyXD

4. Creepy finds happen too

... such as an enormous abandoned tuberculosis sanitarium at Waverly Hills in Kentucky, which still has a well-preserved morgue and reminds the rare visitors about the 60,000 people who died there.

"Echoes of torment" © by CorinaO

5. But it’s all worth it in the end!

For most urbexers, the journey itself is what makes the UE process exciting. The very experience of witnessing the ghostly forgotten areas of the past is where they find that buzz!

Image by MichaelGaida

If you’ve made it this far, here’s a bonus fact for you:

6. There’s Flickr just for urbexers!

There is an awesome image hosting specialized in abandoned places an urbex photographs called Urbexa. It lets you upload your image, and then provides a convenient URL that can be shared on any social media platform. Check it out!

Hope you enjoyed the article, and happy urbexing!