Friday 14 September 2012

Kadykchan - Ghost town in Siberia.

Kadykchan was a small thriving mining town until 1996. Now it is one of the bizarre ghost towns reminding of the times of the Soviet Union (there will be more coming:). It looks much like Pripyat (desolated after the Chernobyl distaster) however here the reason for the depopulation is much less creepy. The town was built in the 50-s by prisoneers of GULAG camps with the explicit purposes of exploiting the vast coal resources of the Soviet Far East. However, the economic realities after the dissolution of the Soviet Union did not require so much coal and the existance of mines at such inhospitable places far from any economic activity was deemed unnecessary.. Finally, in 1996 after a mining explosion killing 6 people the mines were closed and all the people left. Nowadays getting there is so hard, that Kadykchan's apocalyptic atmosphere remains completely unspoiled by the occasional tourist.
Coordinates:  63° 8′ 0″ N, 147° 1′ 0″ E
Google-Maps: 

https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=63.133333,147.016667&spn=0.1,0.1&t=h&q=63.133333,147.016667
Its website:
http://kadykchan.ru/

Good pictures of the place:
http://englishrussia.com/2009/04/07/another-trip-to-kadikchan/


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