#almost brutalist monuments

[architectural-omega]

“The Polygon” Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, Kazakhstan

A fascination with ruins of fallen empires takes us to this desolate region of steppes serving as a graveyard to nearly 500 nuclear tests.  Soviet testing began around 1949 and ended around the 1980′s, due to the intensely remote vicinity of the test site this region was largely unknown to outsiders until the advent of the satellite.  The irreversible damage done to this region is scorched in the earth, the few remaining Measurement towers which were once placed at varying distances from the epicentre of atomic bombs, are the only constructed evidence of man’s dark history in this region.  Over 60,000 people have died as a result of pollution from nuclear testing done in The Polygon as well as the irreversible damage done to the citizens living in proximity of these bombs.   Today the region south of the Irtysh river is still dotted with minor radiation pockets, although plenty of wildlife flourishes in the absence of intense human activity.  

Photo: Nadav Kander