What Makes a Good Lost Place Submission?

Every lost place submitted to UrbeXplorer is manually reviewed before it appears on the map. To make sure your submission gets accepted – and helps fellow urban explorers – here’s what a good one includes.

Why it matters

Our goal is to keep the map clean, accurate, and useful. Every accepted place must be real, clearly described, and not already listed.
Submissions that are incomplete or unclear often can’t be verified — especially if no photos are attached. About 60% of submissions without images are rejected for that reason alone.

In order to reduce the workload of our moderators and thus ensure that your location is published more quickly, we kindly ask you to follow these guidelines when submitting a location.

Coordinates

Accurate coordinates help us locate the place you’re submitting. Please use satellite view to make sure you’re selecting the main part of the site — not a parking lot, path, or area nearby. If we can’t match the location with what’s described, we can’t verify it.

If you’re unsure how to enter the coordinates correctly, you can also enter them in other formats in the “Coordinates” field below. A link to a Google Maps entry is also acceptable. To see the field, the “Address Latitude” and “Address Longitude” fields must be left blank.

Before you submit your entry, our system may notify you that a similar location already exists nearby. In that case, please double-check your entry. If it is a duplicate entry, you can always leave a comment under the existing location to add photos or let other users know what to expect there. If you’d like to edit the description, please click “Edit place” on the relevant location. These changes will also be reviewed by moderators before being published.

Submitting a location that we already have on our map is pointless for you. Our mod team can see the locations that are nearby, and if it is a duplicate, they will not publish your location.

Title

Keep it short but descriptive. Please don’t include an address or coordinates in the title. A good title should make it clear what kind of place it is.

If the location has a known name, feel free to include it. Names in the local language are welcome, too — they can help others identify the place more easily. Dont use vague phrases or generic terms.

✅ Recommended titles:

“Derelict Paper Mill” — specific type and state of the place
“Fabrikhalle Nordsüd” — local name in the original language
“Burnt-out Train Depot” — descriptive and easy to identify

❌ Avoid:

Vague phrases like “Check this out” or “Click here”
Generic terms like “Unknown location” or “Abandoned building”
Including the full address or coordinates in the title

Description

Your description doesn’t have to be long — but it should tell us what kind of place this is, what condition it’s in, and why it might be interesting for explorers.

Useful things to mention:

Type of location (factory, school, military base…)
Size or number of buildings
Accessibility (fences, gates, visibility)
Current condition (partly collapsed, well-preserved, vandalized…)

Avoid including exact addresses — we only display those to members, to protect the places from vandalism.

Lost place pictures

Pictures help a lot. They make it easier for our moderator team to verify the location and improve the overall quality of the map.

We recommend:

At least one exterior shot
Interior photos if possible
Clear, well-lit images (no blurry screenshots from Google)

No photos? It’s still possible your place will be accepted — but much less likely.

Final tips

Use your own words — don’t copy text from Wikipedia or other websites
Write your description in English so it can be reviewed and understood by all moderators
Try to be as specific as possible — vague or one-line submissions are often rejected
Add at least one clear photo if possible — it really helps us verify your submission
Submitting a good place helps you unlock the map and support the community
Want to skip the review process? Support the project with a donation and get instant access