The era of the infamous King of Cocaine, Pablo Escobar, responsible for around 80% of the world’s cocaine, doesn’t seem to be so far. Yet, when you look at the photographs of Luke Spencer from Atlas Obscura showing Escobar’s secret Island Mansion, today in 2015, it feels it was in another century. Indeed, about an hour’s sail northwest from the old Spanish port city of Cartagena de Indias, the journalist explored the ruins of a former gold castle. The grandiose complex of luxury buildings is now abandoned and the nature took back its rights. 

The photographs are very impressive when you think that it used to have waterfront apartments, a palm court centered around an enormous swimming pool and helicopter landing pad; as well as 300 rooms for guests and partygoers, with even gold shower heads in the bathrooms. Now it’s just an empty silent island, difficult to reach with no running water and electrical power lines.