Long Lost Bother's 10 Scariest Ghost Towns #4

Pripyat, Ukraine

Where is it?

The Kiev region of Ukraine. Built under the Soviet regime in 1970 as a planned community for the workers of the nearby power station.

Hey, where did everybody go?

If you hadn’t heard of Pripyat before, but the words “power station” tipped you off, then you can guess exactly where this is going. The power station in question was the notorious Chernobyl nuclear reactor complex and Pripyat was hastily evacuated in 1986 when reactor #4 blew the fuck up, and forever linked the words “nuclear” and “meltdown” to the “pants-shitting terror” gland in the brain of almost every human being on the planet.

Why it’s scary as hell

Places with ominous names like The Zone shouldn’t exist in real life, that’s supposed to be restricted only to cheesy sci-fi horror scenarios.

But Pripyat and the surrounding Zone is a post-apocalyptic nightmare. As you would expect, Pripyat is incredibly radioactive. Certain areas have far more concentrated contamination than others, with strong enough radiation to kill you within minutes. Many of these are where equipment from the reactor were buried, and nobody is quite sure where all of these spots are anymore. 

Biologically, the whole area around Pripyat has gone back to the dark ages. Wolves, wild boars, feral dogs freely roam and would be more than happy to maul the shit out of would-be sightseers.
Oh, and the squatters who bravely live in The Zone and have been known to shoot intruders on site after years of being hassled by police and military to move out of the most radioactive place on Earth.