The Lazurniy (Azure) swimming pool was one of three Olympic-class pools in Pripyat. It sits in a glazed hall a few blocks east of the central square, near the Avanhard sports complex, and is one of the most photographed interiors in the Exclusion Zone. The bottle-green tiles, the empty rectangular basin, and the high diving platform are usually framed in low afternoon light.
Walk along the gallery above the pool but do not go down to the basin floor — the tiles are loose and the ladders unsafe. Background radiation in the hall itself is among the lower readings in central Pripyat, which is partly why the liquidators were able to use it for so long.