Commonly known as Gunkanjima (or "Battleship Island"), Hashima Island floats off the coast of Nagasaki in Japan, surrounded by a concrete sea wall which gives it an armored warship appearance. The abandoned island's weathered silhouette is punctuated by crumbling concrete buildings and structures, ravaged by typhoons. Populated from 1887 to 1974 as a coal mining facility, Gunkanjima housed thousands of workers in its heyday. The tiny island had apartment buildings, a school, hospital, shrine, retail stores and restaurants and became the most densely populated place in the world per square meter with over 5,000 inhabitants in the 1950s. When coal mining declined, operations at the facility ceased and the island was abandoned in 1974.