The Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 transformed the Ukrainian city of Pripyat into a ghost town.

Other towns have also been abandoned after nuclear disasters, and each is a skeleton of its former self, strewn with deserted cars and dilapidated buildings.

Photos reveal what these places look like years after being abandoned.

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Hours after the accident at the Chernobyl power plant, the worst nuclear disaster in history, residents of the city of Pripyat were going about their Saturdays as normal. Children picked wildflowers and played outside. Adults gardened, fished, and even got married.

By the following day, however, they were rounded onto buses and told to bring just a few belongings — important paperwork, personal mementos, and a bit of food. The move was only temporary, the city council said, but most residents would never return.

Today, Pripyat is still relatively abandoned, aside from tour groups that walk along designated pathways and gather inside blighted kindergartens, hospitals, and schools.

The city is perhaps the world's most famous nuclear ghost town, but it's not the only one.

Other major nuclear accidents have prompted evacuations that abruptly emptied cities and villages. Here's what some of these abandoned areas look like.