Prypiat, Ukraine
Encyclopedia
Pripyat is a ghost town
near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
in the Kiev Oblast
(province
) of northern Ukraine
, near the border with Belarus
.
The city has a special status within the Kiev Oblast, being the city of oblast-level subordination (see Administrative divisions of Ukraine
), although it is located within the limits of Ivankiv Raion. The city also is being supervised by the Ministry of Emergencies of Ukraine
as part of the Zone of Alienation jurisdiction.
Pripyat was founded in 1970 to house workers for the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. It was officially proclaimed a city in 1979 but was abandoned in 1986 following the Chernobyl disaster
. It was the ninth nuclear city ("атомоград" (atomograd) in Russian, literally "atom city") in the Soviet Union
at the time and its population was around 50,000 before the accident. The annual rate of natural increase
for the city's population was estimated at around 800 persons, plus over 500 newcomers from all corners of the Soviet Union each year. , and Pripyat's population had been expected to rise to 78,000. The Yanov railroad station (part of Chernigov-Ovruch railroad link) was less than 1 km away from the city, and the navigable Pripyat River
flowed nearby.
, was not restricted before the disaster as nuclear power stations were seen by the Soviet Union as safer than other types of power plants. Nuclear power stations were presented as being an achievement of Soviet engineering, where nuclear power was harnessed for peaceful projects. The slogan "peaceful atom" was popular during those times. The original plan had been to build the plant only 25 km (16 mi) from Kiev
, but the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, among other bodies, expressed concern about it being too close to the city. As a result, the power station and Pripyat were built at their current locations, about 100 km (62 mi) from Kiev. After the disaster the city of Pripyat was evacuated in two days.
plant's employees, Pripyat had been viewed as a major railroad and river cargo port in northern Ukraine.
The urban nomenclature was quite typical for the time. There were traditional ideological names on the city map such as Lenin Avenue, International Friendship Street, Heroes of Stalingrad Street, etc. There also were some street names that had local bearings, e.g. Embankment Street, Builders Avenue, and Enthusiasts Avenue. Lesya Ukrainka
Street has cultural implications: it bears the name of one of the greatest poets of Ukraine. The standard Soviet theme was also included in the naming scheme: Igor Kurchatov
Street was named after the "Father of the Soviet Atomic Bomb
".
Pripyat had a defined city centre where the city hall (or city council), the largest shopping centres, major recreational and public catering facilities and the Polissya hotel
were located.
The chief idea behind the urban layout was the so-called triangular principle, developed by Moscow architects in the project run by the then famous Nicolay Ostozhenko. After adjustments by Kiev architects, the plan of the city's development was finally approved. At the time this triangular one-of-a-kind layout was unique, though by the time the building of Pripyat started it had been implemented in dozens of Soviet cities and the novelty soon wore off.
The triangular plan featured alternating five-story buildings and high-rises, with the city lined with broad vistas, open spaces, and the horizon visible from almost every corner. Unlike the old cities with their tiny yards and narrow streets, Pripyat had been initially planned to look free and vivid, all for the comfort of its inhabitants. Besides the calculated boost of street space, the goal had been achieved by making the streets and blocks symmetrical. Taken together, these solutions were intended to immunize Pripyat from such scourges of modern times as traffic jams.
In 1986 the city of Slavutich
was constructed to replace Pripyat. After the city of Chernobyl, this is the second largest city for accommodating power plant workers and scientists in the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS).
Many of the building interiors in Pripyat have been vandalised and ransacked over the years. Because the buildings have not been maintained since 1986, the roofs leak, and in the springtime the rooms are flooded with water. Trees can be seen growing on roofs and even inside the buildings. All this adds to the deterioration process; the four-story school collapsed in July 2005.
One notable landmark often featured in photographs of the city, video games (such as Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare and the Stalker series), are visible from aerial-imaging websites such as Google Maps
, is a long-abandoned ferris wheel
located in the Pripyat amusement park.
of 1 μSv (one microsievert
) per hour.
The city and the Zone of Alienation are now bordered with guards and police, but obtaining the necessary documents to enter the zone is not considered particularly difficult. In 2005, a New York-based entrepreneur David C. Haines founded a company to provide guided tours of the city. A guide accompanies visitors to ensure nothing is vandalised or taken from the zone. The doors of most of the buildings are held open to reduce the risk to visitors, and almost all of them can be visited when accompanied by a guide. The city of Chernobyl, a few kilometers south from Pripyat, has some accommodation including a hotel
, many apartment buildings, and a local lodge, which are maintained as a permanent residence for watch-standing crew and tourists.
. For these reasons, starting from April 27, 1986 2 p.m. each apartment block will be able to have a bus at its disposal, supervised by the police and the city officials. It is highly advisable to take your documents, some vital personal belongings and a certain amount of food, just in case, with you. The senior executives of public and industrial facilities of the city has decided on the list of employees needed to stay in Pripyat to maintain these facilities in a good working order. All the houses will be guarded by the police during the evacuation period. Tovarishch
s, (Comrade) leaving your residences temporarily please make sure you have turned off the lights, electrical equipment and water off and shut the windows. Please keep calm and orderly in the process of this short-term evacuation."
with:
Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
Ghost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant or Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant is a decommissioned nuclear power station near the city of Pripyat, Ukraine, northwest of the city of Chernobyl, from the Ukraine–Belarus border, and about north of Kiev. Reactor 4 was the site of the Chernobyl disaster in...
in the Kiev Oblast
Kiev Oblast
Kyiv Oblast, sometimes written as Kiev Oblast is an oblast in central Ukraine.The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Kyiv , also being the capital of Ukraine...
(province
Administrative divisions of Ukraine
Ukraine is subdivided into 24 oblasts , one autonomous republic, and two "cities with special status".- Overview :...
) of northern Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, near the border with Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
.
The city has a special status within the Kiev Oblast, being the city of oblast-level subordination (see Administrative divisions of Ukraine
Administrative divisions of Ukraine
Ukraine is subdivided into 24 oblasts , one autonomous republic, and two "cities with special status".- Overview :...
), although it is located within the limits of Ivankiv Raion. The city also is being supervised by the Ministry of Emergencies of Ukraine
Ministry of Emergencies (Ukraine)
The Ministry of Emergencies of Ukraine is the main body in the system of central bodies of the executive power that provides realization of a state policy in a sphere of a civil defense, rescue, creation and functioning of the system of insurance fund documentation, utilization of radioactive...
as part of the Zone of Alienation jurisdiction.
Pripyat was founded in 1970 to house workers for the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. It was officially proclaimed a city in 1979 but was abandoned in 1986 following the Chernobyl disaster
Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine , which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities in Moscow...
. It was the ninth nuclear city ("атомоград" (atomograd) in Russian, literally "atom city") in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
at the time and its population was around 50,000 before the accident. The annual rate of natural increase
Rate of natural increase
In demographics, the rate of natural increase is the crude birth rate minus the crude death rate of a population. If we neglect the migration, then a positive RNI number means that the population increases and a negative number means that the population decreases.When looking at countries, it...
for the city's population was estimated at around 800 persons, plus over 500 newcomers from all corners of the Soviet Union each year. , and Pripyat's population had been expected to rise to 78,000. The Yanov railroad station (part of Chernigov-Ovruch railroad link) was less than 1 km away from the city, and the navigable Pripyat River
Pripyat River
The Pripyat River or Prypiat River is a river in Eastern Europe, approximately long. It flows east through Ukraine, Belarus, and Ukraine again, draining into the Dnieper....
flowed nearby.
Background
Access to Pripyat, unlike cities of military importanceClosed city
A closed city or closed town is a settlement with travel and residency restrictions in the Soviet Union and some of its successor countries. In modern Russia, such places are officially known as "closed administrative-territorial formations" ....
, was not restricted before the disaster as nuclear power stations were seen by the Soviet Union as safer than other types of power plants. Nuclear power stations were presented as being an achievement of Soviet engineering, where nuclear power was harnessed for peaceful projects. The slogan "peaceful atom" was popular during those times. The original plan had been to build the plant only 25 km (16 mi) from Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, but the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, among other bodies, expressed concern about it being too close to the city. As a result, the power station and Pripyat were built at their current locations, about 100 km (62 mi) from Kiev. After the disaster the city of Pripyat was evacuated in two days.
Development
Along with its prime goal as being home to nuclear powerNuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
plant's employees, Pripyat had been viewed as a major railroad and river cargo port in northern Ukraine.
The urban nomenclature was quite typical for the time. There were traditional ideological names on the city map such as Lenin Avenue, International Friendship Street, Heroes of Stalingrad Street, etc. There also were some street names that had local bearings, e.g. Embankment Street, Builders Avenue, and Enthusiasts Avenue. Lesya Ukrainka
Lesya Ukrainka
Larysa Petrivna Kosach-Kvitka better known under her literary pseudonym Lesya Ukrainka , was one of Ukraine's best-known poets and writers and the foremost woman writer in Ukrainian literature. She also was a political, civil, and female activist....
Street has cultural implications: it bears the name of one of the greatest poets of Ukraine. The standard Soviet theme was also included in the naming scheme: Igor Kurchatov
Igor Kurchatov
Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov , was a Soviet nuclear physicist who is widely known as the director of the Soviet atomic bomb project. Along with Georgy Flyorov and Andrei Sakharov, Kurchatov is widely remembered and dubbed as the "father of the Soviet atomic bomb" for his directorial role in the...
Street was named after the "Father of the Soviet Atomic Bomb
Soviet atomic bomb project
The Soviet project to develop an atomic bomb , was a clandestine research and development program began during and post-World War II, in the wake of the Soviet Union's discovery of the United States' nuclear project...
".
Pripyat had a defined city centre where the city hall (or city council), the largest shopping centres, major recreational and public catering facilities and the Polissya hotel
Polissya hotel
The Polissya hotel is one of the highest buildings in the abandoned city of Pripyat, Ukraine . It was built in mid-70's to house delegations and guests visiting the Chernobyl Power Plant. These days the hotel is half-ruined. The hotel is featured in the computer game Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare....
were located.
The chief idea behind the urban layout was the so-called triangular principle, developed by Moscow architects in the project run by the then famous Nicolay Ostozhenko. After adjustments by Kiev architects, the plan of the city's development was finally approved. At the time this triangular one-of-a-kind layout was unique, though by the time the building of Pripyat started it had been implemented in dozens of Soviet cities and the novelty soon wore off.
The triangular plan featured alternating five-story buildings and high-rises, with the city lined with broad vistas, open spaces, and the horizon visible from almost every corner. Unlike the old cities with their tiny yards and narrow streets, Pripyat had been initially planned to look free and vivid, all for the comfort of its inhabitants. Besides the calculated boost of street space, the goal had been achieved by making the streets and blocks symmetrical. Taken together, these solutions were intended to immunize Pripyat from such scourges of modern times as traffic jams.
Infrastructure and statistics
- Population: 49,400 before the disaster. The average age was about 26 years old. Total living space was 658,700 m2: 13,414 apartments in 160 apartment blocks, 18 halls of residence accommodating up to 7,621 single males or females, and 8 halls of residence for married or defacto couples.
- Education: 15 primary schools for about 5,000 children, 5 secondary schools, 1 professional school.
- Healthcare: 1 hospital that could accommodate up to 410 patients, and 3 clinics.
- Trade: 25 stores and malls; 27 cafes, cafeterias and restaurants could serve up to 5,535 customers simultaneously. 10 warehouses could hold 4,430 tons of goods.
- Culture: 3 facilities: a culture palace, a cinema and a school of arts, with 8 different societies.
- Sports: 10 gyms, 3 indoor swimming-pools, 10 shooting galleries, 2 stadiums.
- Recreation: 1 park, 35 playgrounds, 18,136 trees, 249,247 shrubs, 33,000 rose plants.
- Industry: 4 factories with total annual turnover of 477,000,000 rubles. 1 nuclear power plant.
- Transportation: Yanov railway station, 167 urban buses, plus the nuclear power plant car park of about 400 units.
- Telecommunication: 2,926 local phones managed by the Pripyat Phone Company, plus 1,950 phones owned by Chernobyl power station's administration, Jupiter plant and Department of Architecture and Urban Development.
Post-Chernobyl years
Slavutych
Slavutych is a new city in northern Ukraine, named after the Old Slavic name of the nearby Dnieper River. As of 2007, its population was 24,549.-Geography:...
was constructed to replace Pripyat. After the city of Chernobyl, this is the second largest city for accommodating power plant workers and scientists in the Commonwealth of Independent States
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics, formed during the breakup of the Soviet Union....
(CIS).
Many of the building interiors in Pripyat have been vandalised and ransacked over the years. Because the buildings have not been maintained since 1986, the roofs leak, and in the springtime the rooms are flooded with water. Trees can be seen growing on roofs and even inside the buildings. All this adds to the deterioration process; the four-story school collapsed in July 2005.
One notable landmark often featured in photographs of the city, video games (such as Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare and the Stalker series), are visible from aerial-imaging websites such as Google Maps
Google Maps
Google Maps is a web mapping service application and technology provided by Google, free , that powers many map-based services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit, and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API...
, is a long-abandoned ferris wheel
Ferris wheel
A Ferris wheel is a nonbuilding structure consisting of a rotating upright wheel with passenger cars attached to the rim in such a way that as the wheel turns, the cars are kept upright, usually by gravity.Some of the largest and most modern Ferris wheels have cars mounted on...
located in the Pripyat amusement park.
Safety
A natural concern is whether it is safe to visit Pripyat and the surroundings. The Zone of Alienation is considered relatively safe to visit, and several Ukrainian companies offer guided tours around the area. The radiation levels have dropped considerably, compared to the fatal levels of April 1986, due to the decay of the short-lived isotopes released during the accident. In most places within the city, the level of radiation does not exceed an equivalent doseEquivalent dose
The equivalent absorbed radiation dose, usually shortened to equivalent dose, is a computed average measure of the radiation absorbed by a fixed mass of biological tissue, that attempts to account for the different biological damage potential of different types of ionizing radiation...
of 1 μSv (one microsievert
Sievert
The sievert is the International System of Units SI derived unit of dose equivalent radiation. It attempts to quantitatively evaluate the biological effects of ionizing radiation as opposed to just the absorbed dose of radiation energy, which is measured in gray...
) per hour.
The city and the Zone of Alienation are now bordered with guards and police, but obtaining the necessary documents to enter the zone is not considered particularly difficult. In 2005, a New York-based entrepreneur David C. Haines founded a company to provide guided tours of the city. A guide accompanies visitors to ensure nothing is vandalised or taken from the zone. The doors of most of the buildings are held open to reduce the risk to visitors, and almost all of them can be visited when accompanied by a guide. The city of Chernobyl, a few kilometers south from Pripyat, has some accommodation including a hotel
Hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
, many apartment buildings, and a local lodge, which are maintained as a permanent residence for watch-standing crew and tourists.
Cultural references
- The city of Pripyat is the location of filming of the 2008 documentary White HorseWhite Horse (film)White Horse is a short documentary by filmmakers Maryann DeLeo and Christophe Bisson that features a man returning to his Ukraine home for the first time in twenty years. Evacuated from the city of Pripyat, Ukraine in 1986 due to the Chernobyl disaster, he has not returned since then...
. - The short film The Door was shot in 2008 in Pripyat.
- The exclusion zone is the setting for Karl SchroederKarl SchroederKarl Schroeder is an award-winning Canadian science fiction author. His novels present far-future speculations on topics such as nanotechnology, terraforming, augmented reality and interstellar travel, and have a deeply philosophical streak...
's science fiction short story "The Dragon of Pripyat". - Pripyat plays a very important role in the video games S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of ChernobylS.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of ChernobylS.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is a first-person shooter video game by the Ukrainian developer GSC Game World, published in 2007.It features an alternate reality theme, where a second nuclear disaster occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone in the near future and causes...
and its sequel S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of PripyatS.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of PripyatS.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat is the sequel to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, a first-person shooter computer game by Ukrainian developer GSC Game World. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat is the third game in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series....
; in both the player is able to visit and explore various parts of the city. - The novel Wolves Eat DogsWolves Eat DogsWolves Eat Dogs is a crime novel by Martin Cruz Smith, set in Russia and Ukraine in the year 2004. It is the fifth novel to feature Investigator Arkady Renko, and the first set during the new independent era.-Plot:...
by Martin Cruz SmithMartin Cruz SmithMartin Cruz Smith is an American mystery novelist.-Early life and education:Born Martin William Smith in Reading, Pennsylvania, he was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing in 1964...
uses Pripyat as the setting for an investigation by Arkady RenkoArkady RenkoArkady Renko is a fictional detective who is the central character of seven novels by the American writer Martin Cruz Smith.-Character timeline:... - Much of the James RollinsJames Rollins* For the American baseball pitcher, see Jim Czajkowski* For the American baseball shortstop, see Jimmy Rollins* For the 19th century American politician from Missouri, see James S. Rollins...
novel The Last Oracle takes place in Pripyat and around Chernobyl. The story revolves around a team of AmericanUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
"Killer Scientist" special agents who must stop a terrorist plot to unleash the radiation of Lake KarachayLake KarachayLake Karachay , sometimes spelled Karachai, is a small lake in the southern Ural mountains in western Russia. Starting in 1951 the Soviet Union used Karachay as a dumping site for radioactive waste from Mayak, the nearby nuclear waste storage and reprocessing facility, located near the town of...
on the world during the installation of the new sarcophagusSarcophagusA sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek σαρξ sarx meaning "flesh", and φαγειν phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarkophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagos...
over the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. - The city is also the setting for two missions in Call of Duty 4: Modern WarfareCall of Duty 4: Modern WarfareCall of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a 2007 first-person shooter video game, developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii. A handheld game was made for the Nintendo DS. The game was released in North America, Australia, and...
based around the main square and the amusement park, set after the disaster. Also the multiplayer maps "Bloc" and "Vacant" in the game take place in Pripyat. - The American paranormalParanormalParanormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...
investigation series Destination TruthDestination TruthDestination Truth is a weekly American paranormal reality television series that premiered on June 6, 2007 on Syfy. Produced by Mandt Bros. Productions and Ping Pong Productions, the program follows paranormal researcher Josh Gates around the world to investigate claims of the supernatural, mainly...
conducted an overnight investigation within Pripyat. - The Irish alternative rockAlternative rockAlternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band AshAsh (band)Ash are an alternative rock band that formed in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland in 1992. The band has sold 8 million albums worldwide.-Band beginning, Trailer and 1977 :...
have a track called "Pripyat" on their 2010 singles collection A–Z Vol. 1. - The beginning of the 2011 movie Transformers: Dark of the Moon takes place at Prypiat.
- The PBS documentary Radioactive Wolves analyzes and compares the health of wildlife within and without the Exclusion Zone.
Evacuation note, April 27, 1986
"For the attention of the residents of Pripyat! The City Council informs you that due to the accident at Chernobyl Power Station in the city of Pripyat the radioactive conditions in the vicinity are deteriorating. The Communist Party, its officials and the armed forces are taking necessary steps to combat this. Nevertheless, with the view to keep people as safe and healthy as possible, the children being top priority, we need to temporarily evacuate the citizens in the nearest towns of Kiev OblastOblast
Oblast is a type of administrative division in Slavic countries, including some countries of the former Soviet Union. The word "oblast" is a loanword in English, but it is nevertheless often translated as "area", "zone", "province", or "region"...
. For these reasons, starting from April 27, 1986 2 p.m. each apartment block will be able to have a bus at its disposal, supervised by the police and the city officials. It is highly advisable to take your documents, some vital personal belongings and a certain amount of food, just in case, with you. The senior executives of public and industrial facilities of the city has decided on the list of employees needed to stay in Pripyat to maintain these facilities in a good working order. All the houses will be guarded by the police during the evacuation period. Tovarishch
Tovarishch
Tovarishch or tovarisch is a Russian word meaning comrade, friend, colleague, or ally. In pre-revolutionary Russia also any official's assistant...
s, (Comrade) leaving your residences temporarily please make sure you have turned off the lights, electrical equipment and water off and shut the windows. Please keep calm and orderly in the process of this short-term evacuation."
See also
- Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone
- Elena FilatovaElena FilatovaElena Vladimirovna Filatova is a Ukrainian motorcyclist and photographer who uses the online nickname "KiddOfSpeed". Her website, containing a photo-essay of her purported solo motorcycle rides through Chernobyl's zone of alienation, gained her internet fame. It was later suggested that the...
- Alexander SirotaAlexander SirotaAlexander Sirota ; — Ukrainian photographer, journalist, filmmaker. He writes in Russian and Ukrainian languages...
Sister cities
Prypiat is twinnedTown twinning
Twin towns and sister cities are two of many terms used to describe the cooperative agreements between towns, cities, and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties.- Terminology :...
with:
Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
External links
- The photobook Chernobyl 1986 by Tom Bossi with images of Pripyat
- Pripyat.no - Art project about the decay in pripyat
- Chernobyl Tour & Good Photos
- Life changing photos from a 2010 tour
- Street View of Prypiat
- Prypiat pollution - Radioactive contamination in the Prypiat city
- Pripyat.com - Site created by former residents
- Photos from a visit shortly before the zone was closed to visitors
- A visit to Prypiat and the zone of alienation
- Prypiat on Soviet map (1986)
- Prypiat: Ghost City Chronicles
- The Chernobyl Poems of the former inhabitant of Prypiat Lyubov SirotaLyubov SirotaLyubov Sirota is a Ukrainian poet, writer, playwright, journalist and translator. As a former inhabitant of the city of Pripyat and an eyewitness of the Chernobyl disaster, she has devoted a great part of her creative output to the 1986 catastrophe...
- "Our Prypiat" — YouTube channel with some films about Prypiat before Chernobyl catastrophe and to present time.
- Touring Chernobyl In 2010 - A photo tour from 2010 including many photos from Prypiat
- Turkish article about Prypiat
- 25 years of satellite imagery over Chernobyl Pripyat map
