Pripyat, Ukraine – once home to 50,000 people was swiftly abandoned immediately after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 (Wiki).
For the past 22 years the city has been totally uninhabited with the exception of a few (about 300 or so) elderly people who returned to their homes in surrounding villages.
Today Pripyat remains an empty and dreary desert of concrete, wild animals, and rampant flora. There are plants busting through pavement to reach the sky and wild horses roam free through vast open fields…untouched for 22 years by manking, perhaps for the better.
These are some photos I pulled together from various sources around the interwebs – enjoy!
Photo of the control board at Chernobyl…before the disaster
(May be from Reactor 3…but not Reactor 4)
Pripyat before the disaster…it was a well-planned city – you can see the Pripyat pool in the backdrop:
Look at this amazing photo of the Pripyat city center…after the nuclear disaster:
The abandoned Pripyat Ferris Wheel:
Children were affected physically and mentally by this tragedy…so many of them got Thyroid Cancer from simply drinking milk that originated from cows that ate contaminated grass…Here are some children drawings that depict the disaster:
Another child’s depiction
Decontamination Team
Even better prepared
A Child After Radiotherapy
Relics of the Soviet Era…still remain — as nobody was left to even care to take them down.
Toys are strewn about all over… Items were scattered around by looters in the event’s aftermath.
Rogue art has been drawn inside the Pripyat pool…that use to stand in city center.
Life still thrives in Pripyat…twenty-two years later (Chernobyl happened in 1986)…wildlife like these Mongolian horses roam the open fields…and continue to breed
After evacuation about 300 elderly people returned to Pripyat’s surrounding villages – to continue living their lives, however lonely, in their old homes. One old lady went back to live near her son’s grave…he was a ‘liquidator’ – one of the people that went back to help clean up the disaster.
Pripyat cultural palace…COMPLETELY Abandoned
Pripyat Central Square — You can see that the woods have come into the city – most of the vegetation pictured is new…and only started growing after the disaster.
The above Images and Information Sourced from these websites :
- Chernoblyee.com – Mark Resnicoff’s well-documented visit to Chernobyl
- A series of photos on English Russia
- Wikipedia page on Pripjat, Ukraine
- Facts about Chernobyl
- Pripyat.nu – Photo Resource
- Chernoybl Diary @ IAEA.org
- 26-04-1986 / A movie and photography website about the event
- fotomat.cz / Photos of Chernobyl aftermath
- Subterranea Brittanica site on Chernobyl
abandoned cities include pripyat ukraine of the chernobyl nuclear disaster
чернобыльская катастрофа
The photo of the control room may be from Reactor 3, not from Reactor 4. These control rooms were exact duplicates of each other.
Also, Pripyat’s residents did not move back to their old homes. No one has lived in the city since the evacuation. There are approximately 300 elderly people (samosels) who moved back to their homes in some of the surrounding villages.
The evacuation was fast, but most, if not all the items scattered around the buildings were strewn about about looters, who hit the city hard.
I personally visited the Chernobyl area for two days in June 2006 with a friend and former resident of Pripyat. We toured the Chernobyl Plant (including the Reactor 4 control room), several of the abandoned villages, and Pripyat. I have posted a photo journal of my trip at:
My Journey to Chernobyl: 20 Years After the Disaster
this is awesome
Hi, I also like Mark have visited the area twice in the last year, we got permission to visit some areas that are not normally on tours, such as reactors 5 and 6 and Yanov railway station, you can see my write up and photos here :
http://firesuite.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54&Itemid=58
cool pics
cool pics
More pics on Pripyat and Chernobyl
http://smithjan.com/blog/2011/02/05/1252/
Damn, I saw the blog and I just wanted to go there. It looks like something EVERYONE has to see before they die.
Thanks for posting earlier a link to my site. For updated material please visit this link, it has pictures from Pripyat 25 years (2011) after the accident.
smithjan.com/pripyat.html
or
http://smithjan.com/blog/2011/04/27/pripyat-atoms-wake/
my dad goes to ukraine a lot!!! he’s never been there before but i heard about this city in call of duty and my dad
Get out of here STALKER…
Wow…I really like those pics and I have also seen a movie related on Chernobyl tragedy. The movie’s name is Chernobyl Dairies. In this movie, few friends from US went to Ukraine to visit one of the friend’s brother. They planned to go to the banned place where the tragedy happened. They went there and explored the place and they went to the top floor of a building and saw the reactor no. 4 from there. When they were returning back to their van they saw a mutant bear chasing them and they rushed to their van and finally saw that their van was wrenched. It was getting dark and the driver went out and from there, their journey of being returning safe begins. The driver was caught by some mutant human beings were trapped in Chernobyl due to some reason. I don’t know whether there are mutant homo sapiens or not but I have seen them in this movie and the movie was very nice. I would recommend everybody to see this movie. The next part I am not telling because the joy of seeing a new movie will be over. You will know about the whole story before watching. I have just given the summary.