Many of these former settlements are in much better condition than Pripyat and offer a unique peek into Soviet rural life.

BBC: A day trip to Chernobyl

Pripyat was home to 50, 000 people, including workers from the nearby Chernobyl plant, until its evacuation some 36 hours after the blast at the reactor.

BBC: A day trip to Chernobyl

She took us first to Pripyat, the town built to house the Chernobyl workers when it was built in the 1970s, now utterly abandoned.

BBC: Chernobyl nuclear power station

Pripyat, and all the immediate surroundings of the power plant, will be uninhabitable for hundreds of years but the plant itself is still working.

BBC: Chernobyl nuclear power station

From forgotten toys in kindergartens to the ubiquitous, fading Soviet-era propaganda, a stroll through Pripyat feels very much like being on the set of a Hollywood post-apocalypse movie.

BBC: A day trip to Chernobyl

For a first time visitor, though, Pripyat is a sobering place.

BBC: Chernobyl nuclear power station

"Each year, there are fewer of us to attend this service, " 40-year-old Tatyana Lazarenko, who was evacuated from the nearby town of Pripyat following the disaster, told AFP news agency.

BBC: NEWS | Europe | Chernobyl victims remembered