Связанный объект: город Шураб

I was there in 2024.

It's harder to visit than you think. The Kyrgs and the Tajiks have/had a border dispute/minor war. This city is close to the border, consequently people are a bit paranoid there. Is my theory.

It's also an active gold mine in the area I believe with extreme security precautions, allegedly not even the police are allowed to stop the trucks carryiing the gold.


I was just walking around the streets there taking photos, looking at an abandoned playground. The playground is somewhat close to some gold mine processing thing.

Some of the locals opened a window and yelled something to me. Probably something about the local mine. I have no clue but I recognized the word stolnya.

Consequently I was ordered out of the city by local authorities. Just for being a foreigner and looking suspicious. Not doing anything illegal whatsoever. Bizzarre.

Also, this city is not really a ghost town anymore. While in a bad condition it is more bustling with activity and people than you would expect.

Связанный объект: Заброшенные урановые шахты

I visited this place at the worst possible timing a couple of years ago. They had just hired Rosatom to clean up the site. This is something I found out afterwards after reading some news about it.


There was workers there doing stuff related to demolishing, and a police oficer stationed. Not private security, but employed by the state. Serious stuff.


My taxi drove straight up to that scene of people by the ruins. And then I was driven straight down to be interrogated by the local police who I am, what I doing there etc. They seemed to have no concept of urbex or why it might be interesting to visit such places.


In the end I was treated quite nice by the authorities, and they let me go after 1-2 hours as they realized I was not a danger to anyone and just a stupid tourist. I also had my flight back to Europe the very same day as I was arrested, maybe that helped. Fortunately I made it back home :)


I never got to start up my camera here, and if I did they would have made me delete the photos.


I am pretty sure it is nothing to see there now, surely they must have finished bulldozing everything.