Prypiat

Ukraine / Kyyivska / Prypyat /
 city, ghost town
A large, modern Soviet ghost-town near the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, within the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, part of Kyiv Oblast (province) of northern Ukraine, near the border with Belarus. It was evacuated days after the 1986 Chornobyl disaster, & remains contaminated; & thus uninhabitable for the foreseeable future.

The city was abruptly evacuated 36 hours after the accident. Since the inhabitants were told that the evacuation would only be for 3-days, they left their possessions behind, but they were never allowed to return. Since then, the city has been extensively looted & vandalized. Former residents of the city view the accident & evacuation as a major tragedy in their personal lives; as well as a tragedy for their nation.

Prypiat was sometimes referred to as a “Dormitory City” in that much of the population were employees of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant. It was a planned, purpose-built & modern city, & the layout of the buildings reflect part of its history.

Passes to Prypiat can be found in the Chornobyl tour here:
www.chernobyl-tour.com/english/?action_skin_change=yes&...

Google panorama: goo.gl/maps/Tcs991aZp4PjzPEp7
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prypiat,_Ukraine
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   51°24'18"N   30°2'48"E

Comments

  • At the time one of the newest cities in the Soviet Union and was used as a model for several to follow. There were 50,000 people living in Pripyat at the time of the accident. The residents were some of the best and brightest nuclear people the State had to offer. The average age of the residents was 26 and the city had 16,000 children under the age of 16. Life in Pripyat was paradise compared to many places in the Soviet Union and people who could competed to live there. As someone who has spent many days wandering Pripyat's deserted streets, homes, restaurants, schools ect, I can tell you visiting this place is a deeply moving and sad experience. My best wishes to it's former residents.
  • Even abandoned, the city is beautiful... it is sad to know it was forever lost in one night. I plan to take all the pictures I can when I finally get to visit.
  • If you go there as I plan to do so, go with someone else. To go alone, as I read, makes you feel an intense feeling of sadness and nostalgia. The plan for a long time visit then get frustrated. Simply you can't stand it alone. And something else, is better to visit it in a motorcycle. If you go to the buildings that face the reactor, don't do it. It is very dangerous to do so. Is a beautiful city and a symbol of what comunism is about. Death and sadness. That is what comunism is, death and sadness.
  • VERY beautiful city before and even after(in a different way) the accident. if this place wasnt dangerous to live in id live here in a heartbeat!!! its so sad that such a beautiful city died after only 16 years.....:(
  • The city has a few inhabitants mainly old people. The goverment lets them live there since they are old and will die soon
  • I was born in Prypiat... But we were lucky enough to leave the city 4 years before the disaster. Family photos of those days are still impressing - there were really beautiful places around... I still keep relations with some people from Prypiat who was evacuated after the disaster but still work at Chernobyl NPP. And some time ago one of them showed me several photoes of Prypiat's today's state. I was in shock - these were really apokalyptic pictures...
  • I was also born in Pripyat and I visited it for several times after the disaster. I can say that there are no any inhabitants in Pripyat (but they are in the alienation zone). What i can say it's quite difficult to express the feeling when you are walking by streets and yards of your childhood... Dead streets and yards... With the trees in the playing grounds and sandpits, abandoned swings... And the silence... Oh, God, save our souls.
  • I used to live in Ukraine. It is very sad to see a city that was a heaven in the union so destroyed...
  • 50.000 people use to live here now its just a ghost town never seen anything like it
  • i wanna visit this place!
  • it is not so difficult, all you need is your desire
  • I'm not so sure that with a family history of cancer I would like to visit. If not for that however I would have already done so.
  • Some people still live in the nearest regions. Nobody was making them to do that. They've just came back. Someone right after the evacuation in 1986, the others nowadays. Some people even refused to evacuate.
  • I first saw Prypyat on Call of Duty 4 but even there the idea of vibrant town suddenly flushed empty is just uncanny. Seeing it for real - even from just a sat photo is sadder.
  • its amazing how 100% accurately they recreated this place in stalker call of pripyat...
  • I don't remember how i first came across this town, but after hours of reading stories and looking at photographs, it really saddens me the events that occurred here. I would love to visit one day, walk the streets and see everything i can. I'm sure this feeling will last a lifetime for me.
  • I think, this town was nice and modern.
  • looks like the maker of silent hill game based his ideas here. radiation, mutation, abandoned hospitals, abandoned amusement park, etc. scary..
  • optimus prime and shockwave fights here..
  • Pripyat is In call of duty 4
  • It's wrong that game makers and now even film directors use the Chernobyl incident as an excuse to get rich, this incident is almost one of a kind (despite the fukushima power plant nearly going up in smoke) people died which is sad, but you need to take into account the arrogance that the Soviet union had by not using the correct safety requirements, if that had happened, the Russian empire would be 18 billion roubles richer and the city of pripyat would be something more than a concrete graveyard. Sorry if this comment offends but although the tragedy was deeply shocking and was felt all over Europe, you need to consider the fact that it was human error that caused this. Also if such an event occurred surely you would think that we as a race would re-consider using such power plants and look to using more conventional alternatives.
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