Urbex Map Categories Explained: Discover What Each Symbol Means
Learn about our urbex map categories and what each symbol on the map stands for. Whether you’re a curious explorer or a seasoned urban adventurer, our system helps you navigate through abandoned castles, hospitals, bunkers, tunnels, and more — all neatly organized by type. In this post, we’ll guide you through each category so you can explore smarter.
Navigation:
Castle
These locations include abandoned castles, fortresses, and other historic strongholds. Often rich in history and architecture, they’re a favorite for those looking for photogenic ruins and medieval vibes.
Education
Old schools, universities, or training centers that have been left behind. Some still have desks, chalkboards, or even textbooks lying around — snapshots of forgotten knowledge.
Energy
Power plants, transformer stations, and energy-related sites. These places often feature impressive industrial machinery, turbines, and massive control rooms.
Enforcement
Abandoned police stations, prisons or border posts but also fire stations. Sometimes eerie, often fascinating, these places offer a glimpse into law enforcement infrastructure.
Food
Old restaurants, canteens, and food production facilities. Whether it’s a collapsed diner or a factory that once made chocolate, these spots can be surprisingly atmospheric.
Health
One of the most popular urbex map categories. Former hospitals, sanatoriums, clinics, or mental asylums. Some are creepy, others simply fascinating in their decay — but always a central part of urbex culture.
Hotel
Hotels, motels, guesthouses, or hostels that have been left to rot. From luxurious to budget, they give a unique look into past hospitality experiences.
House
Private homes, mansions, villas, or even huts. These are often intimate and emotional to explore, especially when personal belongings are still inside.
Leisure
Swimming pools, theme parks, movie theaters, or sports halls — these once joyful places now stand as eerie reminders of good times gone.
Office
Abandoned office buildings, administration centers, or business headquarters. Great for lovers of old technology and retro office design.
Production
Factories, workshops, and other industrial production facilities. Expect conveyor belts, heavy machines, and often vast empty halls.
Religion
Churches, chapels, monasteries, or mosques. Often still majestic in their decay, these locations are some of the most photogenic and emotionally charged.
Retail
Image from google maps
Old shops, malls, and supermarkets. Sometimes you’ll still find empty shelves, mannequins, or even forgotten stock. This is a very interesting category out of our urbex map categories list
Settlement
Entire abandoned villages, citys or even little islands. Perfect for a deep dive into what life looked like — before everyone left.
Military
Barracks, bunkers, training grounds or even tanks. Often remote and full of history, military sites are among the most intriguing places to explore.
Transportation
Train stations, airports, cars, hangars, bus depots, and related infrastructure. A window into how people used to move around — now eerily still.
Underground
Tunnels, basements, sewers, or even underground factories. Dark, damp, and mysterious. Sometimes easy to acces sometimes extremely good hidden — not for the faint-hearted.
Unknown
Sometimes, we just don’t know. These are places we couldn’t quite categorize, but they’re still worth exploring. Maybe you can tell us, what those places were?
Other
Everything that doesn’t fit into any of our urbex map categories. Unique, strange, or hybrid locations that defy classification.
