Source: Atlas Obscura
Min Kush, which means “a thousand birds” in Kyrgyz, was formally established in 1955 as an industrial town built around a uranium mine. At its peak, the population reached around 20,000. After the fall of the Soviet Union and closure of the mine, it dropped to just 2,000.
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Today the impoverished village is deteriorating; many buildings are empty and boarded up, and radiation levels can reach 10 times higher the norm. While some coal mines…