Comprehensive information and links about Belarus Mozyr

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Mozyr ) is a town in the Homiel Province of Belarus on the Pripyat River about 210 km east of Pinsk and 100 km northwest of Chernobyl. The population is 107,000 (1996). Mazyr is known for as a center of oil refining, machine building, and food processing in Belarus. It is home ot one of the largest oil refineries in Belarus, pumping out 18 million metric tons per year. The Druzhba pipeline carries crude oil from Russia splitting in two at Mazyr. One pipeline branch is directed into Poland and the other one to Ukraine.

The right bank of the Pripyat River, where the city is located, is elevated above the left bank at substantial s (up to 80 m). The overfall of surface of that scale is assumed to be a consequence of a glaciation: the Pripyat River is running right along the edge where an ancient glacier was located. Since both the banks of the river are sandy, the right bank is cut through by a number of great ravines (more than 2.5km length, up to 200m width). The city is also located on the ravines, so its streets look much like streets of a mountain town. One of the ravines is proclaimed a reserve. Some of the nearby ravines are currently also equiped with elevators and transformed into skiing winter resorts.

During the World War Two a lot of jews were executed in Mazyr. There are several memorials devoted to this fact in the modern city.

In 1986, the city suffered from heavy radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl accident.

External links

Satellite photo of Mazyr (from Google Maps). Ravines can be seen very clearly.

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