A Chernobyl Tour Unearths Haunting Images of the Nuclear Accident

The forlorn, long-forgotten amusement park swing blew ever so slightly in the breeze. Hauntingly, the neighboring, abandoned Ferris wheel creaked quietly as the wind passed through its never-used carts.

It was a scene from a scary movie in many ways. It was quite literally the set of a disaster horror film, 2012’s Chernobyl Diaries. And it was also one of many areas affected by the world’s worst manmade disaster, the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster in 1986.

As disaster tourism and urban exploration continue to surge in popularity, sites like Chernobyl become increasingly interesting to tourists. In 2016, approximately 40,000 visited the Ukrainian site, opting for daytrips or multiday journeys of up to seven days. That number is only expected to climb.

Chornobyl Tour operates daytrips, departing Kyiv around 7:30 a.m. Before departing, it’s important to keep in mind the guidelines required by Exclusion Zone regulations. No one is allowed in without a passport, so you must bring this with you. A jacket or a shirt with long sleeves and trousers (no shorts, skirts or leggings are allowed) and fully enclosed boots or sneakers are required.

The daytrip includes several different stops, starting with the Dytyatky checkpoint, the official entrance to the Exclusion Zone; and the village of Zalissya, an abandoned town including the house of the only self-settler, Rozaliya Ivanivna. The village of Kopachi is almost fully buried, but a kindergarten remains. More than 30 years later, it’s still highly radioactive, yet children attended classes there the day after the reactor fire.

With a few other stops along the way, you finally arrive in Pripyat, to explore on foot the land Mother Nature is reclaiming. A former four-lane highway now is a barely discernible trail. The dilapidated buildings and soccer stadium remain home to everyday items like shopping carts, and some curtains still sway in the breeze, visible through the shards of broken glass. Soviet-era vending machines stand ramshackle against a building, while the never-used, aforementioned amusement park lives on eerily. Urban explorers were once able to walk in these buildings, but today the threat of collapse renders the structures off limits.