An abandoned city

I wish that this was my photograph, but it isn't. It is an aerial shot of the city of Pripyat, in the Ukraine. You may not have heard of Pripyat, an abandoned city in the 'Zone of alienation' in northern Ukraine, near the Belorussian border. It was home (amongst others) to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant workers. The city was abandoned in 1986 following the Chernobyl disaster, its population had been around 50,000 prior to the accident. That's what makes this photo so spooky to me. It is not often that you can see a city where one day, 23 years ago, everybody just upped and left. It must be an eerie experience to wander through the streets today.

I found this image at a website titled simply "Pictures from the sky". If you are into impressive photographs, give it a click and check out some more stunning images.

Comments

Louis la Vache said…

Eerie, indeed! "Louis" will visit that website - and give the link to his brother who will also appreciate it!

On a different subject: Saturday was Flag Day in the U.S.

15 June 2008 at 16:23

Dina said…

What a disaster that was. Hard to imagine the aftermath.
That website shows what power the earth and nature have. Good to reawaken our awe from time to time.

16 June 2008 at 00:42

Benjamin Madison said…

Very weird. Like something out of a science fiction novel.

16 June 2008 at 03:59

MarkR said…

The most eerie thing in Pripyat is standing in the middle of the city and hearing absolutely nothing - prior to the accident, almost 50,000 people used to live there.

I personally visited the Chernobyl area for two days in June 2006 with a friend and former resident of Pripyat. We toured the Chernobyl Plant (including the Reactor 4 control room), several of the abandoned villages, and Pripyat. I have posted a photo journal of my trip at:

My Journey to Chernobyl: 20 Years After the Disaster

18 June 2008 at 09:29

Kris McCracken said…

Thanks for the link Mark, I'm trawling through my comments to see if there was anything I have missed over the past few months, and only just discovered it!

Dina, well said.

24 August 2008 at 15:49

Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it...

I still have the robot on the job. Here you can see the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery . And here is a poem: Soliloquy for One Dead Bruce Dawe Ah, no, Joe, you never knew the whole of it, the whistling which is only the wind in the chimney's smoking belly, the footsteps on the muddy path that are always somebody else's. I think of your limbs down there, softly becoming mineral, the life of grasses, and the old love of you thrusts the tears up into my eyes, with the family aware and looking everywhere else. Sometimes when summer is over the land, when the heat quickens the deaf timbers, and birds are thick in the plumbs again, my heart sickens, Joe, calling for the water of your voice and the gone agony of your nearness. I try hard to forget, saying: If God wills, it must be so, because of His goodness, because- but the grasshopper memory leaps in the long thicket, knowing no ease. Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it... I like Bruce Dawe. He just my be my favourite Austral...

There was nothing left. No reason, no conscience, no understanding; even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, good or evil, right or wrong.

Here is a self portrait. I’m calling it Portrait of a lady in a dirty window . Shocking, isn’t it? However, it is apt! Samhain , Nos Galan Gaeaf , Hop-tu-Naa , All Saints , All Hallows , Hallowmas , Hallowe'en or HALLOWEEN . It’s Theme Thursday and we’re talking about the festivals traditionally held at the end of the harvest season. Huh? No wonder Australians have trouble with the concept of HALLOWEEN. For the record, in my thirty-two L O N G years on the planet, I can’t say I’ve ever seen ghosts ‘n goblins, trick ‘n treaters or Michael Myers stalking Tasmania’s streets at the end of October. [That said, I did once see a woman as pale as a ghost turning tricks that looked like Michael Myers in late November one time.] Despite the best efforts of Hollywood, sitcoms, and innumerable companies; it seems Australians are impervious to the [ahem] charms of a corporatized variant of a celebration of the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darke...

In dreams begin responsibilities.

A life at sea, that's for me, only I just don't have the BREAD. That's right, Theme Thursday yet again and I post a photo of a yacht dicking about in Bass Strait just off Wynyard. The problem is, I am yet again stuck at work, slogging away, because I knead need the dough . My understanding is that it is the dough that makes the BREAD. And it is the BREAD that buys the yacht. On my salary though, I will be lucky to have enough dough or BREAD for a half dozen dinner rolls. Happy Theme Thursday people, sorry for the rush.

This will hurt me...

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