In pictures: Cold War missile base

Larson Site A, a former Titan 1 Missile Base in the US state of Washington, became operational in 1962 - and was decommissioned only three years later.

Since then the base, which covers 57 acres (23 hectares), has been redundant. It is now up for sale for $1.5m - and could make an unusual home or children's summer camp site.

Below ground are 16 buildings, including three 160-foot (50m) tall missile silos, between which snake thousands of feet of connecting tunnels.

At one time a team of 25 would have lived in the complex, poised at the height of the Cold War to launch its incredibly powerful missiles.

The base was built to withstand a nuclear blast from as little as a kilometre away but was decommissioned when the Titan 1 missiles proved hard to maintain.

The site's current owner, amateur historian Bari Hotchkiss, bought the site on a whim in 1998. He is now selling it on internet auction site eBay.

Any purchaser will find, within the barbed-wire fenced perimeter, an eerie reminder of an era when nuclear Armageddon seemed only the twist of two launch keys away.

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