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I will assume we are limiting ourselves to more recent cities? If not, Teotihuacan is certainly a candidate with estimates of 125,000+ residents.
We also need to determine whether or not ever being occupied counts. While it exceeds the population threshold of 0-500 that you set, the Kangbashi New Area in China is supposedly the largest empty city in the world. It was built to house upwards of 1 million people, but currently has a population of around 25,000. Just for reference that would be like Dallas only being inhabited by 25,000 people, but all of the buildings and public works still being there.
If we stick to the modern era, cities that were inhabited and then abandoned and currently have your estimated population, then I believe the answer is Agdam in Azerbaijan. At one point it was the capital of Azerbaijan and had a population of over 150,000 people. In 1993 it became the scene of a battle in the Nagorno-Karbakh War between Armenian troops supporting the Nagornoa-Karbakh Republic and the army of Azerbaijan. Most of the population fled eastward during the battle, but around 40,000 people remained. The city then became a strategic defense point for the Karbakh Army and the remaining population left. Whatever parts of the city weren't destroyed in the fighting were heavily looted afterwards for building materials.
The city of Babylon in Mesopatamia must have been a marvel to be considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. After its vaunted walls were breached by Cyrus and the city captured, it went into decay. As predicted in the bible (Jer. 51:37), "Babylon will be a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals ...." It was never occupied by humans again.
Other large ghost towns include Varosha, Cyprus (abandoned after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus), Kolmanskop, Namibia (buried in the sand), Quneitra, Syria (abandoned after the Six-Day War), Wittenoom, Australia (abandoned due to asbestosis), and Kilamba, Angola (built to house 500,000 people, still largely unoccupied).
Although never very large, Centralia, Pennsylvania was abandoned due to a coal seam fire that has been burning beneath it since the 1960s.
remember "Centralia", in Pennsylvania, a coal mine still to this day burning underground...
everyone had to be evacuated and the place leveled and the zip code removed
Centralia's an interesting story. The fire wasn't from the mining, but that the old mine shafts were being used for landfill. Workers were burning trash in the landfill and that spread to a coal vein and there goes the neighborhood. At it's peak it had over 2,700 residents. Today, it's not completely abandoned, but there are only 10 people still living there. Most of the buildings were razed, but some structures remain as well as streets and foundations. You can, at your own risk, go exploring there if you want to. Reportedly there is enough coal for the fire to burn for 250 more years, but experts think it may burn itself out in as few as 100 years.
remember "Centralia", in Pennsylvania, a coal mine still to this day burning underground...
everyone had to be evacuated and the place leveled and the zip code removed
Well, not exactly. There wasn't a mass evacuation at work here. Realize that not all of this happened at once. The mine fire started back in 1962; however, no one started to evacuate the town until the late 1970s/early 1980s when people noticed affects from the fire.
Even though most people left (and there was a division amongst townspeople about whether or not they should accept the state's buyout offer or not) a few people stayed put and refused to move. They've sued the state several times to have the imminent domain designation reversed but they've lost each time.
Even though most of the town was leveled between the late 80s/early 90s, there are a couple of houses left. The town's zip code wasn't revoked until 2002, and the town apparently continues to have borough meetings. I'm not sure if the borough is officially recognized anymore or if it's been absorbed by surrounding Conyngham Township.
There's a lot out there on the Interwebs about Centralia, including an interesting message board.
I did a lot of reading on Centralia, I google maped it and all, I find it very interesting.
Glad to see i am not the only one that knew about it.
can you imagine, it has been burning for all these years??
"A local sign warning of the underground fire. The sign no longer stands."?
50 years 1962-2012
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