Destinations around Chernobyl

Friday, March 20th, 2009 | project wormwood

Finally, my vacation has started! I will spend the next few days making the last preparations for the trip, which starts on Tuesday with a stop-over in Riga, Latvia. From there we will travel to Kyiv on Wednesday, and spend Thursday to Friday in the zone of exclusion.

But what can you actually see around Chernobyl? Well, check out our Google map of the area (the resolution is amazing!):

Link

The zone contains 5 main areas to visit:

• Prypiat, the ghost city (west of the danger symbol): Once a city of 10 000 people which was abandoned over night; contains a lot of buildings and interesting sights, including a school, a hospital, a public swimming pool and a ferris wheel.
• The power plant area (east of the danger symbol): Includes the Chernobyl sarcophagus, the other reactors 1-3, a large power grid, as well as an island with the unfinished reactors 5 and 6.
• Chernobyl city (southeast of Prypiat): Once abandoned, now home to the research station and about 500 citizens, mostly nuclear scientists
• The radar station “Chernobyl 2″ (west of Chernobyl city): Once a Soviet military secret, now a rusty installation
• The abandoned vehicle yard (southwest of Chernobyl city): A huge graveyard for vehicles deemed too contaminated to leave the zone – zoom close, it’s worth it!

We haven’t decided which areas we will be visiting, but we will likely spend a whole day in Prypiat because it’s such a big area, and use the other day for specific sites such as the reactors or the shipyard. The weather will have a big influence as well.

Any postcard wishes? What areas would interest you most?

Tags: Chernobyl, map, Prypiat, sights, travel

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