Welcome to Chernobyl – the infamous site for nuclear disaster that happened in 1986. If you want to visit the city now, you would have to file documents seeking a permit two weeks prior to visit. Instructions are provided at the checkpoint; visitors are not allowed to eat in the open, take any item away from the site, smoke or to drink water from any ground source. Bodies are to be covered completely while ensuring that as little as possible area is exposed.
The territory is guarded quite strictly and you will feel like being in another universe once you are here. Constructions have been consumed by rust and it really isn’t possible to ascertain their intended purposes. It is prohibited to approach them as well because of any surprise that might prove to be fatal.
Curretnly, Chernobyl has 6 shops, several gyms, 2 cafes, a library and the House of Culture. However, many other buildings – the kind you would find in any ordinary town – are far away in the future. As per law, any person younger than 18 years isn’t allowed in the town and therefore, the town doesn’t feature any maternity hospitals and kindergartens.
A total of five thousand people work here on a rotational basis; two weeks in the town and two weeks out of it. There’s a memorial for the resettled villages as well. The city also has a monument in honor of the first rescuers that came to the accident site.
The city had 15 churches before the accident took place, however, now it only has one functional Church. Nuclear monster is the name given to the sarcophagus where the exploded reactor has been buried and it is also known by the name of ‘breadwinner’ by the locals.