We came across some pictures from Detroit recently, showing, not the familar stretches of vacant land where homes once stood, but of interiors of once-grand Detroit buildings that have been abandoned and left to rot. If that is not a vivid picture of a declining civilization, we don’t know what could be. Here they are:
http://io9.com/5435724/the-grandiose-decay-of-abandoned-detroit/gallery/
We recommend that you click on each of the pictures, one at a time, to get an enlarged version of each photo. Amazing! Also depressing.
Follow up. For additional pictures of Detroit ruins, though not as vivid as these, go to http://www.forgottendetroit.com/