UKRAINE. TRAVEL. ABANDONED
It’s All That Will Remain After us
Sometimes the ground slips from under our feet
The oldest travel I want to talk about will be the most sorrowful at once. The long past day, June 13, 2010, there was planned blasting works on Orgonikidze mine in Kryvyi Rih, my native city. And something went wrong. After the explosion, a few hectares of territory between the mine and a village collapsed down.
The victim territory had long been uninhabited, so only a few small, mostly abandoned enterprises were located there. One person perished officially.
There are two satellite maps for comparison, of 2011 and 2015.
The chasm got the greatest depth from the southern side; it is about 80 meters. The rest was stretched toward it like some tablecloth. The small crater on the north appeared two years later (it’s absent on the first shot), but the surface literally went down before that. It was decided to close a road west from the chasm, which buses had gone to the village.
During some time, this place was guarded. Later it was given up, of course. A barbed-wire fence was stolen to scrap metal or for someone’s cottages. Bikers, bicyclists, and pedestrians began to use the dangerous road again. And I, with my friend, decided to explore exactly the abyss.
We started by a former road from the village to the mine. Well as, road… Something remained after it.
Once, there was a post office on the right. Currently, all this even isn’t visible, littered with garbage.
The asphalt was broken like dry cookies. I’m sorry for the low-quality part of the photos. My photography skills ten years ago left much to be desired. But without these snapshots, I have no chances to tell and show all I want.
There were mass graves after the post office. And no, I didn’t flood the horizon. The trees are inclined, really.
A sad soldier was still standing at that moment. I remember politicians celebrated the 65th Victory Day in a big way, but at the same moment, this place was absolutely forgotten. The relics of two USSR heroes were exhumed, but the rest, about 600 dead soldiers, are still here.
“Small” cracks on the road.
Turned right. This road had gone to Kolachevskyi’s park abandoned in the eighties and now is going into the chasm’s depth. The road to the mine had turned left.
On the edge of the cliff, the ventilation shaft buildings remained standing.
Roads of my childhood. I never thought that returning to them would be such an extreme.
All the riches of Kryvyi Rih subsoils in a vertical incision.
The abyss bottom was all covered by stems of dead trees stiffened in unnatural positions.
On the most profound point, there was wet, cold, and dark, even on a warm, dry day.
Got back by the west slope.
The last mine buildings are visible on the opposite side.
Though the slope looks easy from afar, sometimes we should move on all fours. Or at least with the help of this improvised rope.
The ruins right under the mine are leftovers of Kolachevskyi’s power plant.
The ventilation shaft up close. Most likely, it is now destroyed by marauders.
There used to be parking in this place, that’s why there is so much asphalt.
The view from a former road (facing north):
The mine:
I took this photo the next spring. Cracks on the ground are well visible through the low grass:
It is worth mentioning about Kolachevskyi’s park. The park was wonderful, according to retellings. Nowadays, it is joined with the surrounding forest, and in general, the part of it has collapsed down. Exactly in that place where the biggest depth is. It’s impossible to convey impressions of being on the very edge.
And a ruin that had been the fountain before. Anyway, I loved this place even in its current condition. Later, police began to arrange raids against addicts and caught me together. So I’ve stopped going here after it.
That’s what this fountain looked like in 1954:
Maybe once in the future, I’ll publish more photos from different years to show how this place changed in dynamic, but not today. Now I’m leaving it forever, again. But some part of my soul forever will remain there.
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