![]() In this photo, you can see Mine 2B just above the town. Throughout Longyearbyen there are large-scale mining ruins. It’s very common to see people walking around with rifles, as they are required for polar bear protection for anyone leaving the compound. The town of Longyearbyen, where the snowmobiles outnumber the residents. In the projector room, countless reels of Soviet films litter the floor. Much of the old equipment still remains, including this vintage movie projector in the town’s recreational hall. There are many touching reminders of the families that spent their lives here. ![]() Pyramiden was abandoned rather quickly in 1998. The main square at Pyramiden with Soviet-era insignia - propaganda signs, hammer & sickle, and a bust of Lenin.Īlthough located some 650 miles from the North Pole, the town’s comforts included an Olympic-sized pool. The sign at the abandoned Soviet coal mining colony of Pyramiden. This was his second trip to the High Arctic, and, he says, “I am absolutely captivated by remote landscapes devoid of humans. A place where survival requires extraordinary adaptation.” This affinity runs through his photographs, which are a compelling account of this unique region and the remnants of the communities that lived there.īelow, Atlas Obscura has a selection of Michel’s images of Arctic ruins in Svalbard. ![]() This isolated, frozen landscape held great appeal for photographer Christopher Michel. Today the signs of its former inhabitants remain only in the guise of a decaying Olympic-sized swimming pool, a movie projector, and a room overflowing with rolls of film. Purchased by the Soviet Union from Sweden in 1927, and once home to more than a thousand people, it was abandoned in 1998. Just north of Longyearbyen is the former Russian coal mining settlement known as Pyramiden. Air travelers to Svalbard land at the world’s northernmost public airport, which was built during WWII. Today, it’s still possible to glimpse some of this history in the abandoned mining operations that still exist around the largest settlement, Longyearbyen, which has a population of 2,162 people. Getting around is another matter: roads are limited, which restricts transport mainly to snowmobiles in winter and boats in summer. But it’s also home to unexpected ruins, stark remnants of the places where people have lived on these unforgiving islands.ĭuring the 17th and 18th centuries, Svalbard was used as a base for whaling expeditions by the early 20th century, its main industry was coal mining. Located some 650 miles from the North Pole, Svalbard is a place of long, dark winters and breathtaking landscapes populated by Arctic foxes, reindeer and polar bears. High above Norway, in the cold depths of the Arctic Ocean, lies the Svalbard archipelago.
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