This zone attracts not only tourists who come here for short excursions, but also stalkers who spend a lot of time here and travel through abandoned cities and villages.
A photo report with the story of one of the stalkers will tell you how stalkers spend their time in the exclusion zone.
Under the waning moon we walked through the thick summer air, infused with the aromas of field herbs. In the cool of the night he walks easily. Various night creatures scurrying around in the bushes periodically stalk.
After a short halt and replenishing water supplies from a nearby swamp, we forded the Uzh River. 
After meandering through the fields, we came to the ruins of a church and decided to spend the night in an abandoned village; our strength was running out after the night in the fields. 
We found a perfectly preserved hut in the village and decided that it would shelter us. In the morning we laid out our belongings and began to have breakfast while the dosimeter peacefully crackled. 
It was impossible to go during daylight hours. We used the day to have a good rest and replenish our water supplies. We had a lot of walks around the beautiful nature and abandoned village. There are ruins in the village Orthodox Church, the local priests seem to be keeping an eye on it and installed metal-plastic windows in the room with the altar (!), it looks wild in these parts. 
It was a long and difficult journey at night. We crashed through the forests along the paths of wild animals, scratched under high-voltage lines, and by dawn we reached the outskirts of Pripyat. 
A checkpoint of an abandoned city with traces of a stalker's camp. The forest between the checkpoint and the Jupiter plant made a very depressing impression on me. Scattered among the trees are the remains of radioactive equipment, which glow so much that even the looters did not cut them into metal. 
We have breakfast on the roof overlooking the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and go to bed. It’s not safe to walk during the day; you might run into a police patrol. 
In the morning and at night we saw another stalker group and later met friends with whom we periodically crossed paths right up to the exit from the zone. We met, drank moonshine with lard and garlic in a luxurious apartment and went for a walk around the city at night.
Stained glass window of the Pripyat cafe near the pond. 
On the far bank of the pond there are huge abandoned port cranes, 30 meters high. Against the background of the starry sky, they looked like equipment from Star Wars. 
In the rays of dawn, we quietly made our way through some radioactive burial grounds to the oil depot to photograph the ISU-152 - a self-propelled artillery unit from the time of the last world war, which rests behind the fence of the residential part of the oil depot. Now I won’t confuse the smell of a radioactive garbage dump with anything else. 
126 medical unit in the basement of which is one of the dirtiest places in the zone. In a small room lie the belongings of firefighters who received doses of radiation several times higher than lethal and are still glowing wildly. I have often thought about the dedication of the people who cleared up the consequences of the radioactive disaster. I watched a lot of old videos, and there people really realized what they were doing, that they were sacrificing themselves for the sake of others - this is very... It is important when the conditions in which people grew up make them capable of such actions for the sake of others. 
Abortion magazine. There was no sex in the Soviet Union, but there were abortions. 
Shoes on a shelf in a kindergarten. It’s hard to imagine a darker place. 
Traditional sunset on the roof of a 16-story building with a hookah and our new friends. From here you have a beautiful view of the city. 
View of the fifth microdistrict at night. The ghostly nine-story panel buildings, like gnawed animal bones, reflect the pale moonlight. 
One of the strongest places is the two chairs on the roof, which one of the stalkers brought there. We stuck there for many hours, smoking hookah, looking at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the density of the starry sky and the ghost town where nocturnal animals roamed around the overgrown streets. 
Ferris wheel in an amusement park. 
Ferris wheel in the center of Pripyat. Against the background of the starry sky, it can only be seen illegally. 
We met the dawn on the roof of a sixteen-story building with a coat of arms. The coat of arms interested me very much; I had never seen anything like it anywhere else. 
I fell asleep without waiting for dawn. 
They say that sometimes these letters on the roof of the building are rearranged by stalkers and the local police organize a wild riot throughout the city about this. 
Swimming pool of school No. 3. 
Some places in the city are specially furnished with very high quality for excursion photography, like this room with gas masks. 
A fresco at the post office, we went to take a couple of shots, a long road through the night forests awaits us. 
Entering the dark zone after the red forest, somewhere very close we heard the polyphonic howl of a large pack of wolves. It was scary, because they were howling right on course, we gathered our point into a fist and, getting ready to break through, we moved forward. I kept firecrackers with me in the hope that in a critical situation the loud bangs would scare away predators. Everything worked out well and closer to morning we arrived at a trolleybus abandoned by someone in the middle of a field. This is a popular stalker base, here we drank tea and had a snack. This place seemed somewhat similar to the bus from the movie "In wild conditions", where he spent his last days main character. 
Stalker's shelter. We caught up with our friends not far from Chernobyl-2. 
A long and gloomy corridor between the antennas and the military camp. 
Closer to sunset, we climbed onto the Duga-1 radar station, an abandoned huge antenna, towering 150 meters above the forests of the zone. Obiwan climbed onto the resonator. There was a wind, he swayed and swayed, but he simply gathered his balls into his fist and walked along the pipe at a height of a hundred meters. 
The higher we rose, the stronger the wind became and with it a special almost ultrasonic “Ringing”. The wind whistled through millions of steel cables and antenna resonators, singing a brain-burning song. 
From the top we looked after the setting sun and observed columns of smoke. Somewhere far away the forest was burning. Stalkers say that the current authorities are deliberately burning forests, pushing through some kind of bill to divide the zone and shrink it next year from 30 to 10 kilometers. 
Another creepy story. In an abandoned military town there is a room with dead wolves. It is not clear how they got there, but the walls of the room are scratched from the inside by paws and there are two mummies on the floor. 
And then there was a long road home. The zone for me is an endless starry sky, open space. 
While passing under the power lines, we saw that a tree had fallen on the wires. It smoldered, pulled wires and could cause a fire. Going into the foresters’ house, we drank tea and left them a note with the exact coordinates of the accident. 
In the third part of our cartographic collection, the chapter will be replenished with a collection of modern maps of the Exclusion Zone, Chernobyl and Pripyat. It will include scanned copies of Soviet-era and modern publications.
In the small picture below, use the “magnifying glass” - just point at Right place mouse, and a scaled fragment will appear on the right.
The first map presented in this section is called “Reclamation systems of the Exclusion Zone.” It is informative in its own way. For example, it is clearly visible where is Chernobyl and Pripyat on the map regarding problematic radioactively contaminated areas, and those that have a high chance of rehabilitation.
If you carefully study the explanations and compare them with maps of contamination of the Chernobyl zone with radionuclides, then under the scientific formulation “protected areas” the most dangerous zones are hidden.
The map of Chernobyl and Pripyat can be downloaded, simply by right-clicking the file on HDD. When viewing locally, the scale will be larger - similar to the “magnifying glass” mode in the first picture.
But below is an equally interesting find. Legal Chernobyl map on a scale of 500 meters - this is even more accurate than army kilometers. The cartographic basis of the map is from 2002, edits and publication around 2007. A detailed comparison with the real relief shows that the actual basis is older, the detailing has not been done for a long time and does not correspond to the stated dates.
But if you analyze, for example, kilometer maps before the accident (1985) and after (1991), you can already see differences in the details of the Pripyat River, its channels, creeks, and marshy areas. Unfortunately, later maps with high detail are not available, with rare exceptions.
For a quarter of a century after the Chernobyl accident, the riverbed Pripyat River and the tributaries dependent on it have significantly changed their relief. The reason for this, in addition to the natural passage of time, is the pit-traps dug immediately after the accident in the bottom of the rivers to prevent the flow of silt downstream into the Kiev reservoir. Over a quarter of a century, some of these traps turned into islands, in some places blocking small channels. Which in turn clogged them: some dried up, others became lakes. And it’s just that the swampy area expanded its borders without human influence.
The chapter will be added with new maps, the search for interesting materials continues.
Previous materials
How many years have passed since the tragedy? The course of the accident itself, its causes and consequences have already been completely determined and are known to everyone. As far as I know, there is not even any double interpretation here, except in small things. Yes, you yourself know everything. Let me tell you some seemingly ordinary moments, but perhaps you haven’t thought about them.
Myth one: Chernobyl is remote from big cities.
In fact, in the case of Chernobyl disaster, only an accident did not lead to the evacuation of Kyiv, for example. Chernobyl is located 14 km from the nuclear power plant, and Kyiv is located only 151 km from Chernobyl (according to other sources 131 km) by road. And in a straight line, which is preferable for a radiation cloud and 100 km will not be - 93.912 km. And Wikipedia generally gives the following data - the physical distance to Kyiv is 83 km, along roads - 115 km.
By the way, here's a complete map to complete the picture
Clickable 2000 px
IN During the first days of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the battle against radiation was also waged on the outskirts of Kyiv. The threat of infection came not only from the Chernobyl wind, but also from the wheels of vehicles traveling from Pripyat to the capital. The problem of purifying radioactive water formed after the decontamination of cars was solved by scientists from the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.
IN In April-May 1986, eight radioactive control points for vehicles were organized around the capital. Cars heading to Kyiv were simply sprayed with hoses. And all the water went into the soil. Reservoirs were built in a fire emergency to collect used radioactive water. In just a matter of days they were filled to the brim. The capital's radioactive shield could turn into its nuclear sword.
AND Only then did the leadership of Kyiv and the civil defense headquarters agree to consider the proposal of polytechnic chemists to purify contaminated water. Moreover, there have already been developments in this regard. Long before the accident, a laboratory was created at KPI for the development of reagents for wastewater treatment, headed by Professor Alexander Petrovich Shutko.
P The technology proposed by Shutko’s group for disinfecting water from radionuclides did not require the construction of complex treatment facilities. Decontamination was carried out directly in the storage tanks. Within two hours after treating the water with special coagulants, radioactive substances settled at the bottom, and the purified water met the maximum permissible standards. After that, only radioactive fallout was buried in a 30-kilometer zone. Can you imagine if the problem of water purification had not been solved? Then many eternal burial grounds with radioactive water would be built around Kyiv!
TO Unfortunately, Professor A.P. Shutko. He left us at just 57 years old, just 20 days short of the tenth anniversary of the Chernobyl accident. And the chemist scientists who worked with him side by side in the Chernobyl zone, for their dedicated work, managed to receive the “title of liquidators”, free travel in transport and a bunch of diseases associated with radiation exposure. Among them is Associate Professor of the Department of Industrial Ecology of the National Polytechnic University Anatoly Krysenko. It was to him that Professor Shutko was the first to suggest testing reagents for purifying radioactive waters. Together with him in Shutko’s group worked Associate Professor of the KPI Vitaly Basov and Associate Professor of the State Air Force Institute Lev Malakhov.
Why is the Chernobyl accident, and the dead city is PRIPYAT?
There are several evacuated settlements located on the territory of the exclusion zone:
Pripyat
Chernobyl
Novoshepelichi
Polesskoe
Vilcha
Severovka
Yanov
Kopachi
Chernobyl-2
Visual distance between Pripyat and Chernobyl nuclear power plant
Why is only Pripyat so famous? This is simply the largest city in the exclusion zone and the closest to it - according to the last census conducted before the evacuation (in November 1985), the population was 47 thousand 500 people, more than 25 nationalities. For example, only 12 thousand people lived in Chernobyl itself before the accident.
By the way, after the accident Chernobyl was not abandoned and completely evacuated like Pripyat. 
People live in the city. These are EMERCOM officers, police officers, cooks, janitors, and plumbers. There are about 1500 of them. It's mostly men on the streets. In camouflage. This is the local fashion. Some apartment buildings are inhabited, but people do not live there permanently: the curtains are faded, the paint on the windows is peeling, the windows are closed.
People stay here temporarily, work on shifts, and live in dormitories. Another couple of thousand people work at the nuclear power plant; they mostly live in Slavutich and go to work by train.
Most work in the zone on a rotational basis, 15 days here, 15 days outside. Locals say the average salary in Chernobyl is only 1,700 UAH, but this is very average, some have more. True, there is nothing special to spend money on here: you don’t need to pay for public utilities, housing, food (everyone is fed three times a day for free, and not bad). There is one store, but the choice there is small. There are no beer stalls or any entertainment at the sensitive facility. By the way, Chernobyl is also a return to the past. In the center of the city stands Lenin in full height, a monument to the Komsomol, all the street names are from that era. In the city, the background is about 30-50 microroentgen - the maximum permissible for humans.
Now let’s turn to the blogger’s materials vit_au_lit :
Myth two: lack of attendance.
Many people probably think that the only people who go to the accident zone are radiation seekers, stalkers, etc., but normal people They will not approach this zone closer than 30 km. How fitting they are!
The first checkpoint on the road to the plant is Zone III: a 30-kilometer perimeter around the nuclear power plant. At the entrance to the checkpoint, such a line of cars lined up that I couldn’t even imagine: despite the fact that the cars were allowed through the control in 3 rows, we stood for about an hour, waiting for our turn. 
The reason for this is active attendance former residents Chernobyl and Pripyat from April 26 to the May holidays. They all go either to old places residence, or to cemeteries, or “tombs,” as they also say here.
Myth three: closedness.
Were you sure that all entrances to the nuclear power plant are carefully guarded, and no one except maintenance personnel is allowed in, and you can only get inside the zone by stepping on the guards’ paw? Nothing like this. Of course, you can’t just drive through the checkpoint, but the police just issue a pass for each car, indicating the number of passengers, and go ahead and get exposed. 
They say that before they also asked for passports. By the way, children under 18 years old are not allowed into the zone.
The road to Chernobyl is surrounded on both sides by a wall of trees, but if you look closely, you can see the abandoned dilapidated ruins of private houses among the lush vegetation. No one will return to them.
Myth four: uninhabitable.
Chernobyl, located between the 30- and 10-kilometer perimeters around the nuclear power plant, is quite inhabitable. The service personnel of the station and surrounding areas, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and those who returned to their former places live in it. The city has shops, bars, and some other amenities of civilization, but no children.
To enter the 10-kilometer perimeter, it is enough to show the pass issued at the first checkpoint. Another 15 minutes by car and we arrive at the nuclear power plant. 
It's time to get a dosimeter, which my madam carefully provided me with, having begged this device from her grandfather, who was obsessed with this kind of gadgets. Before leaving vit_au_lit I took readings in the courtyard of my house: 14 microR/hour - typical indicators for an uninfected environment.
We put the dosimeter on the grass, and while we take a couple of shots against the backdrop of the flowerbed, the device quietly calculates itself. What did he intend there? 
Heh, 63 microR/hour - 4.5 times more than the average city norm... after that we get advice from our guides: walk only on the concrete road, because... The slabs are more or less cleared, but don’t get into the grass.
Myth five: the inaccessibility of nuclear power plants.
For some reason, it always seemed to me that the nuclear power plant itself was surrounded by some kilometer-long perimeter of barbed wire, so that God forbid some adventurer would come closer to the station than a few hundred meters and receive a dose of radiation.
The road leads us straight to the central entrance, where regular buses arrive from time to time, transporting plant workers - people continue to work at the nuclear power plant to this day. According to our guides, several thousand people, although this figure seemed too high to me, because all the reactors had long been shut down. Behind the workshop you can see the pipe of the destroyed reactor 4.
The area in front of the central administrative building has been converted into one large memorial to those killed during the liquidation of the accident.
The names of those who died in the first hours after the explosion are carved on the marble slabs.
Pripyat: that same dead city. Its construction began simultaneously with the construction of the nuclear power plant, and it was intended for plant workers and their families. It is located some 2 kilometers from the station, so it suffered the most.
There is a stele at the entrance to the city. In this part of the road the radiation background is the most dangerous: 
257 microR/hour, which is almost 18 times higher than the city average. In other words, the dose of radiation that we receive in 18 hours in the city, here we will receive in an hour.
A few more minutes and we reach the Pripyat checkpoint. The road goes close to the railway line: in old times The most ordinary passenger trains ran along it, for example Moscow-Khmelnitsky. Passengers traveling this route on April 26, 1986 were then issued a Chernobyl certificate.
People are allowed into the city only on foot; we were never able to get permission to travel, although the guides had IDs.
Speaking of the myth of non-attendance. Here is a photo taken from the roof of one of the high-rise buildings on the outskirts of the city, near the checkpoint: among the trees you can see cars and buses parked along the road leading to Pripyat. 
And this is what the road looked like before the accident, during the time of the “living” city. 
The previous photo was taken from the roof of the rightmost of the 3 nine areas in the foreground.
Myth six: The Chernobyl nuclear power plant does not work after the accident.
On May 22, 1986, by resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 583, the commissioning date for power units No. 1 and 2 of the Chernobyl NPP was set as October 1986. Decontamination was carried out in the premises of the power units of the first stage; on July 15, 1986, its first stage was completed.
In August, at the second stage of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, communications common to the 3rd and 4th units were cut, and a concrete dividing wall was erected in the turbine room.
After the work was completed to modernize the plant's systems, provided for by the measures approved by the USSR Ministry of Energy on June 27, 1986 and aimed at improving the safety of nuclear power plants with RBMK reactors, on September 18, permission was received to begin the physical start-up of the reactor of the first power unit. On October 1, 1986, the first power unit was launched and at 16:47 it was connected to the network. On November 5, power unit No. 2 was launched.
On November 24, 1987, the physical start-up of the reactor of the third power unit began; the power start-up took place on December 4. On December 31, 1987, by decision of the Government Commission No. 473, the act of acceptance into operation of the 3rd power unit of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant after repair and restoration work was approved.
The third stage of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, unfinished power units 5 and 6, 2008. Construction of the 5th and 6th blocks was stopped with a high degree of readiness of the facilities.
However, as you remember, there were many complaints foreign countries regarding the operating Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
By the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated December 22, 1997, it was recognized as expedient to carry out early decommissioning power unit No. 1, shut down on November 30, 1996.
By the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated March 15, 1999, it was recognized as expedient to carry out early decommissioning power unit No. 2, shut down after an accident in 1991.
From December 5, 2000, the reactor's power was gradually reduced in preparation for shutdown. On December 14, the reactor was operated at 5% power for the shutdown ceremony and December 15, 2000 at 13:17 By order of the President of Ukraine, during the broadcast of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant - National Palace "Ukraine" teleconference, by turning the fifth level emergency protection key (AZ-5), the reactor of power unit No. 3 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was stopped forever, and the station stopped generating electricity.
Let's honor the memory of the heroic liquidators who, without sparing their lives, saved other people.
Since we're talking about tragedies, let's remember The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy was made - Reading time approximately: 4 - 6 minutesThe accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred more than 30 years ago. The destruction of the reactor led to a colossal release of radioactive substances into environment. According to the official version, 31 people died in the first 3 months, and in subsequent years this figure approached a hundred. There is still some debate as to what caused the disaster. The consequences of what happened will be felt for many more decades, if not hundreds of years. After the accident, a 30-kilometer zone was established, from which almost the entire population was evacuated, and free movement was prohibited. This entire territory froze in 1986. Today we will look at the 7 most interesting objects in the Chernobyl exclusion zone.
Today Pripyat is not such a “dead city” - excursions are regularly organized there, and stalkers walk around. Pripyat is considered a Soviet open-air museum city. This abandoned place has retained the energy of the mid-80s, which attracts tourists from all over the world. We will look at some of the most interesting places of this city.
The Polesie Hotel was once the hallmark of Pripyat. It is located in the city center, next to an amusement park, which is clearly visible from its windows, and from the observation deck the main city square and the no less famous Energetik Palace of Culture are clearly visible. Climbing onto the roof becomes more and more dangerous every year, since it has not been in the best condition for a long time, but visitors to the Zone are drawn to touch the huge letters that make up the name of the hotel.
The emergency response headquarters was set up in the hotel building. From the hotel roof the 4th power unit is clearly visible, so it was possible to correct the actions of the helicopters that were putting out the fire.
In some rooms there are dilapidated interior items. In general, looters did a good job in Pripyat at one time. They took out equipment, furniture, cut off batteries and took away everything that had at least some value, without even thinking that all this could cause great harm to health.
Paradoxically, even today the hotel receives tourists who, of course, do not come there to rent a room. They admire the views of Pripyat, get acquainted with the features of Soviet apartments and are amazed at the trees that grow through the floor.
This artificial reservoir was created to cool the station's reactors. The cooling pond is located on the site of an abandoned quarry, several small lakes and the old bed of the Pripyat River. The depth of this reservoir reaches 20 m. A dam divides it in the middle for better circulation of cold and warm water.
Today the cooling pond is located 6 meters above the level of the Pripyat River, and maintaining it in this condition is costly. Taking into account the fact that the station is no longer operating, the water level is gradually reduced, and over time the reservoir is completely planned to drain. This causes concern among many, because at the bottom there is a lot of debris from the reactor of the fourth power unit, highly active fuel elements and radiation dust. However negative consequences can be avoided if the gradual decrease in water level is correctly calculated so that the bare areas of the bottom have time to acquire vegetation that will prevent the rise of radioactive dust.
By the way, the Chernobyl NPP cooling pond is one of the largest artificial reservoirs in Europe.
The condition of the pond is constantly monitored in order to assess how its ecosystem has suffered from radiation exposure. Although the diversity of living creatures has decreased, it has not disappeared completely. Today, it is quite possible to catch a normal-looking fish in a pond, but it is not recommended to eat it.
DK Energetik
Let's return to the center of Pripyat. The main square of the city is overlooked by the Energetik Palace of Culture, which, along with the Polesie Hotel, is a must-see.
It is logical to assume that all the cultural activities of the city. Circles gathered here, concerts and performances were held, and discos were held in the evenings. The building had its own gym, library and cinema. The recreation center was a favorite place for the youth of Pripyat.
Today you can still find the remains of the marble tiles that lined the building, stained glass windows and mosaics. Despite the destruction, the building still retains that famous spirit of the Soviet era.
City amusement park in Pripyat
Perhaps the most famous attraction of Pripyat is the city amusement park with its Ferris wheel. It is worth noting that this one of the most contaminated places in the city, but once upon a time in the park, enthusiastic children's voices were heard every now and then.
Cars, swings, carousels, boats and other attributes of the amusement park will never be used for their intended purpose, but among numerous tourists and stalkers they are popular as a kind of attraction.
Ferris wheel managed to become a symbol of the already deserted Pripyat. Interestingly, it was never put into operation. It was supposed to open on May 1, 1986, but 5 days before that there was an accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant...
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
Today, for a certain amount of money, you can visit the territory of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant itself. There you will see how it goes construction of the "Arch", which should cover the 4th power unit along with the old sarcophagus. In the power plant building itself, you can walk along the “golden corridor”, get acquainted with the reactor control panel, and also find out how the Chernobyl nuclear power plant worked in general. Regular excursions are limited only to tourists staying near the station.
The arch should cover the message of the 4th power unit Of course, illegal travelers cannot enter the heart of the Zone - everything is reliably guarded. However, the station and the “Arch” under construction are clearly visible from the high-rise buildings of Pripyat. Every self-respecting stalker is sure to capture a photo of the view of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
By the way, about 4,000 people now work at the station. They are engaged in the construction of the Arch and work on decommissioning power units.
Red forest
This area of forest, located not far from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, during the accident took on the largest share of radioactive dust, which led to the death of trees and coloring of their foliage brown-red. It is noteworthy that the enzymes of the trees reacted with radiation, which is why a glow was observed in the forest at night. As part of the decontamination, the Red Forest was demolished and buried. Today the trees are growing again, of course, already having a normal color.
However, today there are young pines with signs of mutations. This can be expressed in excessive or, conversely, insufficient branching. Some trees, having reached the age of about 20 years, were never able to grow above 2 meters. The needles on pine trees can also look intricate: they can be elongated, shortened, or completely absent.
By the way, the remaining power units were still operating for some time. The last one was turned off in 2000.
An unpleasant feeling may arise from the burial grounds where the demolished trees were buried. Mounds and branches sticking out of the ground evoke unpleasant associations for many.
The remains of unburied trees are also of interest. This view clearly demonstrates how nature can suffer from human activity. This section is perhaps one of the saddest places in the Exclusion Zone.
Arc
The object is represented by a huge complex of antennas. This radar station performed the task of detecting launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Our military could see the American missile, actually looking over the horizon. Hence the name "Arc". To ensure the operation of the complex, about 1000 people were needed, which is why a small town was organized for the military and their families. And so it arose object "Chernobyl-2". Before the accident, the installation was used for only a few years, and after that it was abandoned.
The radar antennas are of Soviet engineering. According to some reports, the construction of “Duga” cost twice as much as the creation of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Western countries were not happy with this setup. They constantly complained that it interfered with civil aviation. Interestingly, “Duga” created a characteristic knocking sound on the air, for which it was nicknamed “Russian Woodpecker”.
The height of the antennas reaches 150 m, and the length of the entire building is about 500 m. Due to its impressive size the installation is visible from almost anywhere in the Zone.
Nature is gradually destroying the buildings of the Chernobyl-2 facility. But the “Duga” itself will still stand for more than one year, unless, of course, the Ukrainian authorities (or some others) want to waste tons of contaminated metal, as happened with the fleet of vehicles that were involved in eliminating the consequences of the accident...
Many stalker-roofers, not afraid of the guards who patrol those places, climb as high as possible onto one of the antennas and capture Chernobyl landscapes in photos.
In the well-known series of games S.T.A.L.K.E.R. there is a so-called “Brain Burner” installation, with which “Arc” is associated, which further attracts adventurers.
Conclusion
The Chernobyl exclusion zone is undoubtedly a unique place on Earth, a kind of piece Soviet Union in the 21st century. It is very sad that the city of Pripyat was thoroughly plundered by looters - they could have at least left the finishing intact, but no - they even pulled out the wiring. However, it is important for today's generation to view the Zone not as a tourist attraction or a place where you can see places from the games, but as a reminder that our scientific achievements can leave scars on Earth that will take centuries to heal.
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The map of Pripyat belongs to the so-called one, closed to visits by ordinary citizens. You can get into this zone using special passes, which are issued either to tourist groups or to workers of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, who are still monitoring the dilapidated station.
It is noteworthy that all other villages and urban settlements of the Exclusion Zone were recognized as virtually non-existent and deprived of any legal status. After 1986, the entire population of the city was evacuated. For 30 years, Pripyat has remained empty, but despite the status of a place abandoned by people, Ukraine has not deprived it of its status as a populated area. Chernobyl and Pripyat are still existing cities in the country’s documentation.
To get to Pripyat and see the ghost town with your own eyes, you need to overcome a difficult route with checks and checkpoints. We will tell you how to get to the mystical atom-city, where Pripyat is located and what the map of the abandoned city looks like.
Pripyat on the world map is a small Soviet town designed for 75 thousand inhabitants (however, only 49 thousand people lived in it). It is located on the territory of Ukraine, bordering Belarus. The city is surrounded by impenetrable forests with unique flora and fauna, and a protected area is located nearby.
Where is Pripyat? Pripyat on the map of Ukraine is located in the north of the country, “above” Kyiv, very close to the border with Belarus. The city is part of the Ivankovsky district of the Kyiv region. The entire Exclusion Zone occupies the north of the Ivankovsky and northern Polessky districts (there are 25 district units in the Kyiv region in total). In fact, Pripyat is subordinate to the Kyiv Regional Council.
Interestingly, the Chernobyl region previously existed on the territory of Ukraine. It is not difficult to guess that its administrative center was Chernobyl, and largest city- Pripyat.
In 1988, the Chernobyl district was abolished, and its territory was given to the Ivankovsky district (the administrative center is the urban-type settlement Ivankov).
After the annexation, the Ivankovsky district became the largest geographically in Ukraine. Its area is 3616 sq. km. About 35 thousand people live in the area.
The main attraction of the area (except for the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, of course) is the Chernobyl special reserve. In fact, this is a nature reserve created in 2007 in a forest area near. Its main goal is to preserve and increase the population of rare animals and plants. The reserve is home to brown bears, European minks and Eurasian lynxes. Despite the proximity to places contaminated with radiation, the animals are alive and well - by the way, just like in the city of Pripyat itself.
Interestingly, there is another one in Ukraine locality with the name Pripyat. The village of Pripyat, Shatsk district, Volyn region, is located 150 km from Lutsk, in the north-west of the country. The village of Pripyat on the map of Ukraine occupies only 0.001 square meters. km. About 600 people live there. This settlement was founded earlier than the ghost town of the same name, in 1946.
How to get to Pripyat?
The Pripyat map allows you to get to your destination different ways. Let's consider each of the possible routes.
Routes Kyiv - Pripyat
How to get to Pripyat from Kyiv or Moscow? What checkpoints need to be overcome? How many kilometers from Kyiv to Pripyat will you have to travel? Is it possible to get to Pripyat as a “savage” and how dangerous is it?
Since Pripyat is part of the Kyiv region, the easiest way would be to first get to the capital of Ukraine, and from there move towards the Exclusion Zone. The distance from Kyiv to Pripyat is 152 kilometers. This is approximately 2-2.5 hours by car. You need to travel from south to north, from Kyiv and higher on the map. As for the distance from the beginning to the end of the journey, it is approximately the same on different Kyiv-Pripyat routes. There are no significant differences in the condition of the roads.
The Kyiv Pripyat route by car can take two roads. The first option will look something like this: Kyiv – Vyshgorod – Demidov – Katyuzhanka – Ivankov – Dityatki – Chernobyl – Pripyat. In this case, the path will run directly through the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Near the village of Dityatki there is a checkpoint into the 30-kilometer Exclusion Zone. It’s called “Checkpoint – Dityatki”. Be prepared to present documents.
How to get to Pripyat by another route?
The second route “Pripyat Kyiv” is more roundabout; it runs along the T-1019 highway. From Kyiv you need to head for the village of Dmitrovka, then Mikulichi - Shibenoe - Sosnovka. After Sosnovka the route will go to Ivankov, then the route will be exactly the same as if you had chosen the Pripyat map in the first option.
In the second route, the distance Kyiv-Pripyat will be a couple of kilometers longer, but locals say that the second road is less congested and more convenient.
It is almost impossible to get lost along the way: the map of Pripyat is quite simple. There is only one properly paved road in the area, and besides, local old-timers are always ready to tell you where the city of Pripyat is located. Despite the fact that after 1986 the majority of residents of the territories adjacent to the Exclusion Zone left their homes, Lately there is a tendency to return. Of course, few people dare to live in the Zone, but the surrounding areas are no longer empty.
Routes Moscow - Pripyat
The Moscow-Pripyat route will, of course, be much longer. Direct distance from Moscow to Pripyat - from 950 to 1050 km, depending on which way you prefer to go.
Options highways three. First: Moscow - Obninsk - Kaluga - Bryansk - Konotop - Brovary - Kyiv - Pripyat. The journey will take 13 hours excluding Russian-Ukrainian customs.
With the second option of the Moscow-Pripyat route, the distance will be maximum - through the city of Orel. It looks something like this: Moscow – Podolsk – Serpukhov – Tula – Orel – Konotop – Brovary – Kyiv – Pripyat. The drive will take about 12 hours.
The third road route lies through Belarus. You will have to cross two borders along the way, but it is worth noting that all Belarusian-Ukrainian borders are considered less congested than Russian ones, and going through customs will most likely be much faster. You will have to go like this: Moscow – Smolensk – Mogilev – Gomel – Slavutich – Pripyat.
In addition, the distance from Moscow to Pripyat can be covered by many train options. You need to go from the capital of Russia to Kyiv or Mogilev, and then get there by car, because There are no trains or buses to Pripyat. However, it is impossible to reach Kyiv by plane; Russian airlines do not operate on Ukrainian territory after the events of 2013-2014.
Pripyat. Checkpoints
It is important to know that the entire map of Pripyat is divided into three territories: a 30-kilometer zone, a 10-kilometer zone and a dangerous zone.
The danger zone is the land in the immediate vicinity of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the nuclear power plant itself.
This 10-kilometer zone extends around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, as is clear from the name of the zone, for 10 km.
30-kilometer zone - by 30 km, respectively.
The entire territory of the Exclusion Zone is surrounded by various checkpoints. No matter from which direction you arrive or enter, you will have to show your pass to the Zone or issue it on the spot. Who issues passes to the Zone? Pass office of the Exclusion Zone Administration.
To receive a pass, you must fill out an application, explaining why you are visiting the closed area. As a rule, passes are not issued to specific individuals, applications are filled out by certain enterprises, for example, excursion bureaus, research centers or law enforcement agencies. After filling out the application, the Zone Administration will issue a pass within 10 days.
In a 30-kilometer zone there are checkpoints (from east to west) such as Cape Verde, Dityatki, Starye Sokoly, Dibrova, Polesskoye, Ovruch, Vilcha. The latter is already right on the border with Belarus.
IT IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW:
In the 10-kilometer zone, the checkpoints are: Paryshev, Lelev (near the city of Chernobyl), Pripyat and Benyovka.
How to get to Pripyat without a pre-prepared pass? It's possible. But only twice a year. On April 26 and May 9, the map of the city of Pripyat becomes available to everyone. These are the so-called “memorial days”, when relatives of those buried in the Zone can come to their relatives’ graves.
In the case of memorial days, you must inform the checkpoint that you are going to the cemetery and the guards are required to issue you temporary passes. You need to know that according to the law, checkpoint employees can inspect the car and ask you to open the trunks and glove compartments.
To Pripyat without a pass
How to get to Pripyat “savage”, that is, without passes and accompanying people? (people who study abandoned places) have long organized their secret paths. Based on information from bloggers and stalkers, we will briefly tell you how to get to Pripyat in a roundabout way. But you need to understand that this is an illegal and even judicial matter.
The most popular illegal route is from the abandoned village of Rudnya - Veresnya, which stands on right side Uzh River. This settlement is the first thing that the map of Pripyat opens on the western side of the Kyiv region.
The beginning of the path, Rudnya - Veresnya, is located quite far from the city of Pripyat, where the final destination of the walking journey is located. They are separated by 25 kilometers. You will have to walk less to the city of Chernobyl, about 13 km.
After an abandoned village, where quite intact houses remain, you will have to cross the Uzh River.
Then keep to the Chernobyl direction, after Chernobyl you need to walk a little more than 10 km to Pripyat. The path, of course, is extreme, but on the road from Chernobyl to the city of ghosts there are many abandoned places that will be interesting to look at. Tour groups show them infrequently, the route is inconvenient, but the places deserve attention. We will talk about them below.
The illegal journey from the border with the Zone to Pripyat on foot takes stalkers about two days.
Objects of Pripyat: what to see?
What is the map of Pripyat today? This is 8 sq. km of an abandoned Soviet city, 5 residential neighborhoods, hospitals, schools, cinemas and parks. Everything has long since fallen into disrepair. Most of the buildings either collapsed on their own or were helped to collapse by looters and homeless people.
After the evacuation of residents in 1986, people in trucks often visited the city. Food, equipment and furniture were removed from empty apartments and shops. Today it is unlikely that anything will be taken out of the Exclusion Zone: at the checkpoint, cars are inspected in search of radioactive objects. With dosimeters this is made easier than ever. And if you load an old chair from an abandoned apartment in Pripyat into the trunk, it will quickly become known.
However, now there is nothing to take out from the territory. There's almost nothing left there. The city of Pripyat on the map has turned into an empty wild jungle.
Few people know that the map of Pripyat is not only an abandoned city and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. In the immediate vicinity of the ghost town there were many interesting objects, the ruins of which still exist near Pripyat.
If you take the usual car route, you will only be able to look at these objects from afar and briefly, but if you stop and explore the area, you can discover a lot of interesting things.
Object "Arc"
Pripyat on the map of the Kyiv region is located in close proximity to the city of Chernobyl, about 10 kilometers between them. In any case, you will have to pass Chernobyl along the road to the ghost town. But not only the well-known city, but also the secret, small town of Chernobyl-2, built for the workers of the Duga radar station.
The Duga over-the-horizon radar station (OHRLS) is an object whose main purpose is to detect intercontinental ballistic missiles that will fly to the territory in the area of three kilometers from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Outwardly, it is a pile of very tall antennas that caught radars of approaching objects. The station was super secret, and the map of Pripyat is silent about such a large-scale construction close to the city. ZGRLS performed an important strategic function, even the map of Ukraine does not know about it, Pripyat disguised “Duga” as a children's summer camp.
It is interesting that in the USSR there were only three such missile-detecting complexes: in addition to “Duga”, also near Nikolaev (it was called “Duga-N”) and in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. “Duga” has been preserved, albeit in ruins, only near the city of Pripyat; the map, however, still does not indicate this object. Interestingly, because of the constant characteristic knocking, “Dugu” was called “Russian woodpecker”.
Chernobyl-2 object
This is a super small town near Duga for the families of station workers. However, no matter how small it was, there was a kindergarten, a hospital, and small residential buildings there. Chernobyl-2, like Duga, was classified. The city still exists in an abandoned state today.
Anti-aircraft missile system S-75 "Volkhov". It seems that all the secret objects of the Ukrainian SSR were “stuffed” into a map of the city of Pripyat and its environs. S-75 objects are a popular weapon in the Union and are still used today.
It is impossible to say for certain whether the weapons map of Ukraine included the Pripyat fortifications. On the territory there were barracks, canteens, all military palaces and observation platforms. They remain to this day. Naturally, there are no more missiles.
No one has ever seen the Volkhov missile. This is a secret object that was located in a forest area, a couple of kilometers from Pripyat. Its task is to provide air defense for the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and Duga.
The most famous “monument” of the missile complex is a now abandoned bunker. It is believed that ammunition was stored there. It is located next to all the buildings of the S-75 complex in a forest area near Pripyat.
Map of Pripyat in detail
The city of Pripyat on the map of the country is a very popular place for excursion groups, stalkers and scientific researchers. But the map of Pripyat today is a rather vague thing, because... some objects that existed previously have long been erased from the face of the Earth, and no one records new, recently discovered finds that were previously classified.
Therefore, it is theoretically impossible to indicate the exact location of “Duga” or “Volkhov”; no one counted the kilometers to these places. The same thing happens with abandoned villages. Some especially small ones completely collapsed, while others, on the contrary, became populated by self-settlers and found a “second wind”.
In addition to self-settlers, the territory of Pripyat is occupied by looters who are still exporting scrap metal, and drug addicts who are trying to grow drugs near the city. There are also homeless people who, out of desperation, occupy old apartments and houses of residents - among them there are many escaped criminals, who are caught by law enforcement agencies from time to time.
Due to the proximity of forested areas, Pripyat has become a favorite place for many wild animals that roam around the ruins of the city. Of course, often due to the large amount of radiation that fell on their heads, but it’s already good that they did not die out completely.
Other objects on the map of Pripyat
On the territory of the Exclusion Zone, in addition to Pripyat and Chernobyl, there are several other fairly large abandoned objects. For example:
The village of Novoshepelichi. Until 1986, the village residents were mainly engaged in cattle breeding. The population before the evacuation was slightly less than two thousand people. The village is notable for the fact that there for a long time lived the most famous self-settlers - heroes of many documentaries– Savva Gavrilovich and his wife. The couple became something of a symbol of the Exclusion Zone.
The village of Polesskoe. A very old village, in which only 11 thousand people lived at the time of the accident. Today, about 50 self-settlers live there and, interestingly, the only fire station in the area operates.
Village Kopachi. This settlement was located a couple of kilometers from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Therefore, he suffered especially severely from radiation. Kopachi is interesting because all the objects of the village were completely buried, that is, dug into the ground. Only the building remains kindergarten, and then pretty worn out by time.
There really is something to see in Pripyat - come!
