As you probably know, the Chernobyl NPP is surrounded by a 30-kilometer exclusion zone. To enter it you must have a special permission. But do you actually want it? If you do, see how to enter there after the jump.

If you are coming from Kiev you must pass through the “Dityatki” checkpoint where your passport and all other documents will be carefully checked.

Not far away from the plant there is a fire department and a monument to those who extinguished a fire during the first hours and days after the accident.

Another tragedy occurred at Chernobyl in the fall of 1986. The helicopter flying above the plant accidentally caught on a cable and crashed. The whole crew consisted of 4 people died. This is their memorial.

Such roadsigns are everywhere throughout an exclusion zone. It gives the information about evicted settlements: their name, the number of people living there, the date and place of their relocation.

The monument near the entrance to Pripyat. The background radiation on the road exceeds the natural one.

Before entering Pripyat your documents and a permission paper are checked one more time. If you are in Pripyat for the first time, you would probably feel ill at ease while walking down its empty streets, passing by the houses with broken windows… NO ONE has lived here for a quarter of a century and no one will EVER live here again. It’s a ghost town reminding us of impermanent and transitory nature of all things.

The recreation center called “Power Engineer”. Graffiti on its walls depict the silhouettes of people. Actually, you can see graffiti everywhere – on walls and roofs, landings and in a pool. They are like ghosts that settled in a ghost town. They play, climb stairs, fish, cry and scream in terror. They were painted by some artists from Moscow, Kiev and Berlin who are now forbidden to enter Pripyat again. Though their graffiti was decided not to wash off.

The Soviet Union doesn’t exist anymore but its emblem still adorns the house.

A square before the recreation center.

The helicopter pilots who took part in liquidation.

A small birch sprouted through the floor on the top of the “Pripyat” Hotel.

View of the park from its roof. This ferris wheel should have been opened in May 1, 1986.

On the roof of the hotel.

The distance from the city to the nearest station is about 3 km. The next morning after the accident people were sunbathing on the roofs and balconies of their houses knowing nothing about what had happened…

Cars in a park don’t wait for their young drivers anymore.

Trees make their way through asphalt. Some more decades and the city will be overgrown.

The city pool. They say Pripyat was a very comfortable city with many schools, kindergartens, sports facilities and shops.

And now it’s dangerous not only to live here but stay for a short period of time.

A school.

Ruined classrooms.

The notebooks haven’t yet got rotten.

On the blackboard are the conditions of the problem in physics written 25 years ago. On the bottom right is a more recent inscription: “05.09.2008. Tanya Vladimirova studied here. Our first loss. We remember her. “Apparently written by her classmates.

An empty school corridor. A quarter of a century without laughter and scurry.

Pilots-liquidators. In May-June of 1986 they made hundreds of flights over the plant. Aerial surveys, air sampling, visual observations. Both of them are awarded with the Order of the Red Star. 93 rubles (at that time it was about $3,1) were added to their military pension. The problem is that not all of their companions lived till retirement.

The monument to liquidators standing before the sarcophagus of the NPP. Not exactly the cleanest place in the zone.

Leaving the zone, all cars must pass the radiometric control.

As well as its passengers must pass through detectors.

Radiation has different effects on people. Someone dies at once, someone suffers from a heap of diseases and dies slowly, and someone continues to live no matter what. Meet, Hanna Zavorotnya, 78 years old, a resident of the 30-kilometer exclusion zone of Chernobyl.

In 1986, all residents in the area were evacuated, but Hanna, as well as hundreds of other people came back shortly and continued to live at home. Now there are about 200 of them. The government prefers not to notice their presence.

This aged woman takes care of her paralyzed sister. Her son and husband died long ago.

25 years in the exclusion zone means a lot! Grandma got used to the intrusive journalists and behaves like a true star when meeting with them. She says that the worst thing is not radiation but hunger…

She lives quietly, keeps chickens, pigs and grows vegetables. She often asks God to help her to live without medicine.

Thank you for your incredible courage, granny Ganya! God Bless you with strength and many more years of life!

Location: Chernobyl

via gp-russia