The Red Forest is the ten-square-kilometre (4 sq mi) area surrounding the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant within the Exclusion Zone, located in Polesia. The name "Red Forest" comes from the ginger-brown colour of the pine trees after they died following the absorption of high levels of ionizing radiation as a consequence of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster on 26 April 1986. The site remains one of the most contaminated areas in the world today.
The Red Forest during the winter
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Zone of Alienation is an officially designated exclusion zone around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster. It is also commonly known as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the 30-Kilometre Zone, or simply The Zone.
The entrance to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone at Checkpoint "Dytiatky"
Satellite image of the reactor and surrounding area in April 2009.
The oak Partisan's Tree or Cross Tree. The power plant is visible in the background.
Abandoned apartment blocks in Pripyat