Comfort, better education, and jobs, among other things, draw people to cities. The pull is so strong that more than half of the world’s population already lives in urban environments. But the comforts and conveniences of the cities don’t come without a price. Pollution, biodiversity loss, rising crime rates, and living costs are just a few things that are changing our planet for the worse.
Urbanization has become a man-made hell that we now have to live in, and to prove it even further, we compiled a list of pictures from the Urban Hell subreddit that expose the price of modern life. To find them, all you have to do is scroll down.
#1 Cleaning Up A Canal In Dhaka, Bangladesh
Ramchandra canal in Mohammadpur, Dhaka, which has been cleaned up and restored in 72 hours as part of ongoing efforts to clean up revitalise Bangladeshi canals. Led by NGOs with sponsorship from a bank and support from the government and the city corporation. Hopefully we can keep it this way!
#2 Spotted In Barcelona
#3 Reflection Of Inequalities
#4 Boston Before And After The Highway Was Moved Underground In 2003
#5 Urban Hell Reversal
Beijing’s Liangma River went from a dry, cracked canal in the late ’90s to a green, thriving part of the city by 2025. Clean water, tree-lined walkways, and modern buildings from city planning.
#6 Rich vs. Poor In Buenos Aires, Argentina
#7 My View From My Hotel In Manila, Philippines
#8 Western World’s E-Waste In Ghana
#9 South Korea’s Capital Looks Like It Has No Seoul
#10 North Korean Government-Built Countryside Homes
Rows upon endless rows of identical bland and monotonous, perfectly symmetrical houses in a newly opened countryside residential complex in North Korea.
#11 Nad Al Sheba Neighborhood In Dubai, UAE
#12 Cages In Chongqing, China
#13 A Stunning Example Of Cable Management Spotted In Bangladesh
#14 Amsterdam, Nl 🇳🇱
#15 Hong Kong In 1964 And Now
#16 Modernizing City Blocks In Austria (2019 And 2023)
#17 Dubai Partition Room For Rent $1,000 Month
#18 Delhi
#19 Haiti – 10 Years After Earthquake. Photo By Paolo Woods
#20 Kathmandu Is The Most Polluted City In The World Right Now According To AQI
#21 New Delhi Cows
#22 World’s Biggest Tire Graveyard In Kuwait
#23 Anti-Homeless Architecture, USA/UK
Fixing a problem with a problem.
#24 Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
#25 Apartment Buildings In Chongqing, China
#26 They Replaced A Masterpiece With A Spreadsheet
#27 Tyumen, Russia. It Looks Like A Montage, But It Isn’t
#28 Kolkata, India
#29 Bridge Built Over A 17th Century Castle Ruins
📍Kajaani, Finland
#30 Aerial View Of São Paulo, The Most Populous City In The Americas With 22 Million Inhabitants
#31 Novi Beograd
#32 Inequality In Manila
#33 Manaus, Brazil
#34 China’s 50 Lane Traffic, G4 Expressway
#35 Really .. What Were They Thinking?
#36 Taj Mahal, India
#37 Egypt’s New Administrative Capital – A $58 Billion Ghost City
Planned as a solution to Cairo’s congestion, the NAC aims to house government buildings, embassies, and millions of residents. The trip itself was an experience—an hour-long Uber ride from Cairo, passing through three security checkpoints before entering. Security presence was unmistakable: police, military patrols, and constant surveillance. Yet, aside from them and a few gardeners, the city felt almost deserted.
However, despite its scale, the NAC raises concerns about affordability, social impact, and whether it will truly alleviate Cairo’s urban pressures or remain a prestige project benefiting a select few.
Urbanist and architect Yasser Elsheshtawy captures this sentiment well.
#38 Jakarta Traffic 🇮🇩
#39 Alexandria, Egypt
#40 Malé, Capital Of The Maldives
#41 A Graffiti Piece Across 50 Buildings In Cairo, By El Seed
#42 The American Dream
#43 Shenzhen, 1980-2025
#44 A New Costco Opened This Week. Everything Is Car Parking
#45 Japan (It’s Very Hard To Find Trash Cans There)
#46 Mole People In The Philippines
Makati is the financial district of the Philippines. Recently someone saw a person coming out of a very narrow ditch. Another person chimed in with their own sightings.
We don’t know yet why people are there, how many people are there, and where this narrow canal leads to. According to the post, it’s possible that the narrow canal leads to wider canals.
Now, authorities are patching the openings and closing the ditch entrances.
I knew of documentaries of people living in waterways but this ditch is very narrow.
#47 Egypt Is Demolishing Parts Of Cairo’s 1,200-Year-Old Al-Qarafa Cemetery—one Of The World’s Oldest Continuously Used Necropolises—to Make Way For Roads And Modern Infrastructure
#48 Vancouver, Canada
#49 A Crumbling Shopping Alley In Gifu, Japan
#50 Alexandria, Egypt
#51 Leicester England, 1950s
#52 Norilsk (Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia) Is A City With Multiple Faces, Some Of Them Definitely Fit Here
#53 North Korea
#54 Cat Ba Town, Vietnam
#55 London, UK
#56 Bnei Brak, Israel. 8th Most Densely Populated City
#57 More Poverty In Southern Italy
I tried to show poverty without showing Roma/refugee camps, Ik it’s just screenshots, but i lost my phone and lost the old photos i had. I still wanna visit sometime soon, most of its beautiful but let’s not ignore that there is still very real poverty in southern Italy.
#58 Kyzyl, Respublic Of Tuva. The Poorest Region Of Russia
#59 Norilsk, Russia
#60 Night In The Favela
#61 Chechnya
#62 Al Dana Villas – A Scar On The Beautiful Eastern Coast Of The UAE
#63 Traditional Back-To-Back Homes In Beeston. Photo Taken March 19, 2021, In Leeds, UK
#64 Belgrade, View From My Hotel Room
#65 Ivanovo, Russia. Before And After
#66 Lake Victoria, Uganda
#67 Genoa, Italy
#68 Tuzla Bank Building, Tuzla, Bosnia & Herzegovina
#69 New York Metro
#70 What’s The Point Of This Balcony? (Rimini, Italy)
#71 Slums In Southern Italy
#72 Cañada Real (Spain), The Biggest Favela In Europe
#73 Soviet Experiments In Yerevan, Armenia
#74 Kyiv, Ukraine. Good Or Bad?
#75 Karachi,pakistan
#76 Kowloon Walled City, True Urban Hell
#77 Widest Highway In The World Is In Ontario, Canada / Highway 401 /
#78 German Cities Were Demolished For Open-Cast Mining
#79 70 Sqm Flat Is Worth 400k USD Here, Asian Side Of Istanbul
#80 A Brand New Cemented Road In Bangalore, India
#81 This University Building In Bangladesh Looks Like A Scene From A Dystopian Sci-Fi Film
The building in question is BRAC university campus located in Dhaka | Photo by arekta_photogram on Instagram.
#82 Baghdad’s Arab Shore Promenade: From A Green Oasis In 1993 To A Concrete Desert By 2025
#83 Al Ba’sa Building, Beirut: A 60cm Wide Building Built By A Man To Obstruct His Brother’s Sea View After A Real Estate Dispute
In 1954, a thin wedge-shaped building was erected by architects Salah and Fawzi Itani on a 120 sq m plot in Beirut, Lebanon at the request of a man wanting to spoil the sea view of his brother after they failed to agree to jointly develop their neighboring plots. The street facade appears to be an ordinary apartment building, but is 60 cm at the narrowest and four meters at the widest. It is known as Al Ba’sa (The Middle Finger) and formerly as The Queen Mary due to its resemblance to the cruise ship.
#84 Potholes On Railway. Guess The Country (Not Japan)
#85 Turkey Is The Largest Destination For Waste Exported From The EU
#86 Jinan University Dormitories, China
#87 A Girl Rides The Subway In NYC In 1986
#88 Urban Sculpture Disasters Of Turkey
#89 New Delhi Train Station
#90 Panelkas With Bridges, Tbilisi, Georgia
#91 Hanoi, Vietnam During Foggy Night
#92 An Alley In Kabukicho, Tokyo’s Largest Red Light District
#93 In A Love Hate Relationship With This Building
“White Magnolia”, Batumi, Georgia
#94 Modern Korean Cities Are Pretty Ugly
#95 Las Vegas, Nevada
#96 Moscow
#97 New York City In The 1970s
During this decade, the city gained notoriety for high rates of crime and social disorders; the city’s subway system was regarded as unsafe and dangerous, and people were warned not to walk the streets after 6 PM. Prostitutes and pimps frequented Times Square, while Central Park became feared as the site of muggings and harassment.
#98 Taipei, Taiwan
#99 Guangzhou, China 🇨🇳
#100 Wanhua, Taipei. 1965 V.s. 2025
