Abandon

The word "Abandon" means to leave a place that is dangerous or unfavourable for living. Notice that the word has a sense of threat in it. Consider this sentence:

Lahore, the ancient city of Pakistan, is finally abandoned due to its poor social conditions.

Abandon is often used for the situations that have negativity in them, so it's a good idea to choose Abandon instead of any other similar word, like "Desert". Desert is a neutral word and it has more semantic space than Abandon. One can desert a place for any reason, but cannot abandon a place without having something obnoxious happening. Consider this sentence:

The ancient city of Pakistan is deserted.

OR

The birds have deserted the nest.

In the above two sentences there are no external factors influencing the decision of the leaver; therefore, the choice of leaving a place could be just - well - anything! Anything subjective.

Let us compare two more sentences to further explore the depth of the words.

Allen deserted the flat a few months later.
Allen abandoned the flat a few months later.

After having a refined word sense we can, now, suggest that deserting a place is not due to an unfavourable force that is external and objective in nature; rather it is more of a subjective force, a reason that could be more emotive than causative. Allen's deserting the flat evokes sympathetic questions in mind - a deep sense of emptiness and loneliness is conceivable. What could be wrong with Allen? While, Allen's abandoning the flat evokes a sense of disturbance in the mind. What could be wrong with the flat? Someone's deserting a place marks a question on the leaver, and someone's deserting leaves a question mark on the place that is left.

This is my analysis about the two words - and after this research I would suggest that we can use Desert when we want the reader to focus on the leaver, and use the Abandon when we want the reader to focus on the place left.

Both of the words also have the meaning of leaving a person. I will post on this topic as well, someday.