The creepy photos capture Bi’s journey to the ghost town near Chernobyl. Before the nuclear disaster, 50,000 people lived here.

• Business insiders recently headed to Pripyat, an abandoned town next to Chernobyl.

• Pripyat was immediately evacuated after the disaster at the nuclear power plant in 1986.

• The city is a complete ghost town. These photos show what they are now.

Pripyat Ukraine – Pripyat’s silence is disturbing, but also haunting. There is no traffic or commotion on the street or sidewalk. In fact, there are no cars or people in this city at all.

Pripyat’s misfortune is only a few miles from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the present northern Ukraine.

To the peak, nearly 50,000 people live in Pripyat, an industrial city founded in 1970 and located near the Belarusian border. From a grocery store to a restaurant, it may take everything. This is a relatively new city with a vibrant community.

But on April 26, 1986, the disaster occurred in Chernobyl.

A reactor at the plant exploded, sending highly radioactive pollution to the air throughout the Soviet Union and Europe. The day after the fatal collapse killed 30 operators and first responders, Pripiat was evacuated. Now it is a ghost town.

Business Insider recently headed to Pripyat within the now established Chernobyl exclusion zone, a highly radioactive 1,000 square miles covering nuclear power plants.

Arriving at Pripyat is not easy. Visitors need permission to enter the two-hour drive area north of the Ukrainian capital, Kief. We came across the guide at the entrance, which is a military checkpoint. The soldiers viewed our files before allowing us to enter the restricted area.

Driving through the real town of Chernobyl and passing through the nuclear power plant, this is a constant reminder that Ukraine is in war.

The Russian army initially occupied the area in the early days of the invasion three years ago, but is now back under Ukrainian control. There are soldiers, checkpoints, armored vehicles and fortifications everywhere.

When we finally arrived at Pripyat (formerly the main road to the city was full of potholes, which made it difficult to travel – we were in time light. The IAEA said that lingering radioisotopes in the atmosphere were tolerant exposure levels, but only for a limited time. We couldn’t stay too long.

We walk through the city, be careful not to deviate from the path taken by the guide.

A glance through the town reveals the signs of the former Soviet Union, with street lights and tops of buildings. The city is silent – abandoned in every sense. Vegetation spreads into the buildings, some of which no longer have windows. No one was nearby except for the short-lived Ukrainian military vehicles and two other tourists.

These photos show the weirdness of Pripyat:

When it was time to leave, we packed our luggage and returned to Chernobyl, where a soldier walked through my camera to make sure I wasn’t taking pictures of the sensitive military ruins.

Set out, we drove through a checkpoint where we had to stand in the radiation detector equipment. These are similar to airport-like rectangular scanners. These devices check our clothes, shoes and hands to find any radioactive residues. To my surprise, I was clean.

However, when I returned to my hotel in Kiev, I washed everything.

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