This post is part of an occasional series where we visit some of the world’s most interesting abandoned places.

On April 26, 1986, reactor number four at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded, resulting in the worst nuclear disaster in history. The explosion itself killed 56 people, but the accident caused four hundred times more fallout than the atomic bombing of Hiroshima; the full consequences of which have yet to be realised.

GSS have visited Chernobyl twice before, but this article will discuss the city of Prypiat, Ukraine, which was home to a population of over 50,000 residents before the accident, and which today is merely a ghost town.

The city sits right in the middle of a 30km exclusion zone around the plant. Trees and weeds have grown over most of the streets and buildings, but remarkably much of the town is still intact. Schools¹, parks, a stadium, and even a ferris wheel can still be seen today.

On the day following the explosion, government workers ordered the residents to evacuate. Many families were told they would only be gone for three days, but the evacuation was actually permanent. As a result, many buildings within the town still contain personal belongings that were left behind by their owners. Items such as TVs, furniture, children’s toys, and clothing can be seen inside the buildings, left just where they were on the day of the accident.

As a result of the fallout from the explosion, much of the land around the city has been designated “inappropriate for farming or agriculture” for the next 200 years. One area hit especially hard is known as the Red Forest. These woods, just south of Prypiat, turned a deep red colour after the explosion, and slowly the trees began to die as a result of the radiation. Eventually, much of the woods were bulldozed and buried, but they remain one of the most contaminated areas in the world.

Following some of the roads out of the city will lead to the control points that secure the 30 km exclusion zone around the plant. These checkpoints are staffed by guards and police.

Even with all of the potential health hazards of visiting the city today, several Ukrainian companies actually offer guided tours of the area. If you plan on visiting Prypiat yourself, make your way to the nearby town of Chernobyl, another settlement evacuated by the disaster. There, a few apartments, a lodge, and even a hotel exist and are still in use today.

Prypiat and the Chernobyl disaster are of course well documented on Wikipedia.

Locations: Ukraine / Categories: Abandoned, Buildings

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The train has just left neighbouring Romania and is passing through Moldova on its way to Ukraine… but as you may have guessed by now, this train passes through Moldova at the exact point where the three countries meet. If the train had been just a little longer, it could have actually straddled all three countries at the same time!

Elsewhere in Europe, we find the Belgian town of Baarle-Hertog – which is in the Netherlands.

Baarle-Hertog is made up of twenty separate Belgian exclaves in the Netherlands, and three other pieces on the Dutch-Belgian border. Even more confusingly, there are also seven Dutch exclaves within the Belgian exclaves!

The Dutch parts of the town are called Baarle-Nassau, and the border is so complicated that there are some houses that are divided between the two countries. Allegedly there was once a Dutch law which required restaurants to close earlier than those in Belgium, which for some restaurants simply meant that the clients had to move tables to the Belgian side.

Read more about Moldova, Baarle-Hertog and Baarle-Nassau at Wikipedia. BLDG blog also has an excellent article about Baarle-Hertog.

Thanks to Eric Hagerman and Nev Stokes.

Locations: Belgium, Moldova, Netherlands, Romania, Ukraine / Categories: Buildings, Other Vehicles

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Designed in 1988, the Bora is by far the largest military hovercraft going and are odd in the fact that they are not for troop landing or transportation. The hovercraft are instead designed for coastal defense, particularly carrying out missile attacks on ships. They’re well suited to the task though, with 8 ‘Mosquito’ missiles, 20 anti-aircraft missiles, an artillery complex, a machine-gun and an interference creating device.

Only two such craft have been built and this is probably the first of the two. Wikipedia has more info and photos.

Thanks: SickFinga

Locations: Ukraine / Categories: Watercraft

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Thanks: Old (Funny name…)

Locations: Ukraine / Categories: Buildings

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No one submitted this, and I couldn’t find it on any of the other sightseeing sites either! See, there’s still plenty of stuff out there to be found

Locations: Ukraine / Categories: Monuments, Shadows

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This statue is an absolutely massive 102 metres tall (although 40 metres of that is actually plinth). However at 62 metres its still flippin’ huge, and the statue itself supposedly weighs something approaching half a million kilos. I found a photo on flickr which begins to give you an idea of scale, and also clearly demonstrates that the Soviet Union appears to have been engaging in a certain form of flattery.

For those of you still paying attention, her plinth is 7 metres taller but she’s actually 16 metres shorter, meaning that Kiev’s Mother Motherland wins in terms of height if not in recognition.

Thanks to BBC2.

P.S. No, I’m afraid this one isn’t on Google Maps yet :-/

Locations: Ukraine / Categories: Monuments

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Originally designed to carry space shuttle as part of the Soviet Space Program the An-225 is now available commercially if you happen to need 250 metric tonnes of stuff carried about the world (5 tanks? 8 buses? 1,500 people?). Alternatively, it can carry up to 200 metric tonnes externally on the specially designed “roof-rack”.

There’s loads of ground-level pictures showing the six engines and 32 wheels on air and space.com.

Thanks: Al Cohole, Scott Richardson, Eddie & Paul

Locations: Ukraine / Categories: Aircraft

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We previously posted Chernobyl in June last year, but this new image update really gives you an idea of just how desolate this area has become.

Or has it? According to this article at the bbc the area surrounding Chernobyl has become an unexpected haven for all manner of wildlife, with hardly a Blinky in sight! In fact, even the sarcophagus itself has become a nesting ground for birds. Just to the north west is the deserted town of Prypyat where you can see the woods are slowly taking over from the abandoned tower blocks.

See Wikipedia for the full history of the Chernobyl Disaster.

Thanks to Juras Michiod, biseptol, Randall Berg, Eddie, Joshua Szentpaly, Yuri, Marco Olivo, Anton Matt Clark and Andrew Barrett.

Locations: Ukraine / Categories: Buildings, Structures, Towers

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Thanks: Erin, Aaron & Thomas

Locations: Ukraine / Categories: Buildings

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