The ghost town of Pripyat - excursions in the past

The recently released HBO series, which talked about the worst nuclear disaster on Earth, again increased people's interest in the city of Pripyat. The number of tourists who have visited Pripyat in the past six months has tripled. This is quite obvious. Indeed, only in the place where it all happened, you can find out the whole truth about the accident.

How can tourists see this city today?

Sometimes people get confused, believing that Chernobyl and Pripyat are one and the same city. In fact, Chernobyl and Pripyat are completely different cities. However, of course, they have something in common: the fate of both of them was forever changed by the accident at the power plant.

Previously, in the USSR, Pripyat was a well-maintained, beautiful, happy city. About 50 thousand people lived there.

But tourists who visit Pripyat now can only see a ghost town. Although Pripyat exists on the map, people cannot live there. And constantly being in Pripyat is strictly prohibited. The city is located three kilometers from the nuclear power plant. Those who visit it see desolation. Gloomy, collapsing buildings of no more than five floors, hospitals and parks, a cinema, a house of culture. And, most importantly, the ferris wheel from Pripyat, known throughout the world. All this is now crumbling, crumbling, and not being restored.

But in April 1986, people did not yet know that they would not return. Then they left their homes only temporarily. This was what the authorities told them about it. Therefore, a lot of things, equipment, furniture have been preserved in apartments and state institutions. Often even documents. Not too modest tourists sorted out some of the things for souvenirs. But all the same, the premises managed to maintain Soviet realism.

Every day, visiting excursions to Pripyat and Chernobyl, people often worry because of the high level of radiation. But usually this is unnecessary excitement. In most places of the city, radiation is not more than 30 micro-roentgen. It is absolutely safe for humans. Get sick will not work. But what is more dangerous is the old buildings. Often they are destroyed, so during an excursion to Pripyat you can’t go inside.

The Ferris Wheel in Pripyat became the symbol of the Chernobyl Zone

One of the most "dirty" places in Pripyat in the sense of radiation is an amusement park. It was supposed that it will be open for the May Day holiday. But then no one was expecting a nuclear disaster. However, a lot of reminders remained of the triumph in the city. Here and there tourists can find holiday posters, banners, yellowed cards. And so it happens: at the end of April, people were preparing for the first of May, but in the end they celebrated the holiday very far from home, not knowing what would happen to them and how to live on.