In-game, it has become a legend among stalkers, as it is rumored to be full of artifacts, and to be the only way to the heart of the Zone - Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, where the legendary Wish Granter is located. It was officially proclaimed city in 1979, and had grown to a population of 49,360 by the time it was evacuated, in early afternoon on 27th April 1986 - the day after the Chernobyl disaster, which occurred in the early morning (1:23h/AM) of the previous day, the April 26. Originally built to serve as the living quarters for people working the nearby Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (CNPP), Pripyat later became populated with younger inhabitants which were not connected with CNPP in any way, due to which it was back in the Soviet times often known as ''the city of youth'', since the average age of inhabitants was only 26 years.
Named after the nearby Pripyat river, it was officially founded on 4 February 1970, as the ninth and by far the largest nuclear city in the Soviet Union (only the towns of Enerhodar and Sosnovy Bor, as the nuclear cities serving the Leningrad and Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plants are nowadays larger, as they have over 50,000 inhabitants).
Pripyat or Pripiat (Russian/Ukrainian: При́пять, Prýp'jat́) is an abandoned city in northern Ukraine, located just a few kilometers south from the border with Belarus.
