7. Gulliver’s Kingdom, Japan, (1997 – 2007)

Jonathan Swift's Gulliver served as the central theme for this unsuccessful and forgotten theme park.
Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver served as the central theme for this unsuccessful and forgotten theme park.

Gulliver’s Kingdom Theme Park was built in the shadow of Japan‘s Mount Fuji by a private operator backed with oodles of government stimulus money.
Gulliver
The surreal theme park was based on the novel Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift. At the centre of the park lay a giant model of the novel’s titular character, Lemuel Gulliver, tied to the ground – a vivid depiction of the famous scene where he is captured by the tiny people of Lilliput.
Surprisingly, not many Japanese were interested in visiting a theme park based on a semi-obscure 18th-Century British novel.
Surprisingly, not many Japanese were interested in visiting a theme park based on a semi-obscure 18th-Century British novel.

The park was a massive failure for several reasons: Swift’s 18th Century English novel seemed an odd choice for a central theme and the park was located amidst Japan’s famous “Suicide Forest” and the home of the terrorist cult responsible for the 1995 terrorist nerve gas attacks on the Tokyo subways. People stayed away in droves and the park was shuttered within a decade. The ruins of the park are accessible to urban explorers, with the massive remains of Gulliver visible in the shadow of Mt. Fuji.
[sc name=”content-ad-horiz-3″]
NEXT: Closed after a series of child deaths, this South Korea park rots in silence.
Subscribe to Dusty Old Thing