The Polygon, Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, Kazakhstan

The Polygon, Semipalatinsk test site - darkometer rating : formerly 10 - (see Top-20 list ) - but no probably only 6 or 7 ---------------------------- UPDATE 2025: I have been informed that the more interesting western part of the Polygon, with the Opynoe Pole test site, where the first Soviet test was conducted, as well as all those still standing measuring tours etc. are no longer accessible, and the roads leading there are closed off. That leaves only the estern part with the 'Atomic Lake' and some smaller structures. Looters are heavily at work trying to extract even the rebar from whatever concrete structures they find. So the place is in constant flux. But I have been assured by one of the tour operators that is it still worth going, just not as much as it had used to be. ---------------------------- Also known as the Semipalatinsk Test Site (STS), this ia a desolate area in the steppe of eastern Kazakhstan that formerly was used by the Soviet Union for most of their tests of nuclear weapons during the Cold War years. It was thus the USSR 's equivalent to the USA 's Nevada Test Site (NTS) , but unlike the latter it was shut down for good in 1991. The area has since become partly accessible for daring travellers. Other than the NTS, no place on Earth has seen more nuclear explosions than the Polygon, and for that reason alone it has to rank as one of the darkest places in the world, but there're even more scary aspects about it … > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: the Soviet Union's programme to develop nuclear weapons had at first been a slow and somewhat half-hearted undertaking.