Discovering Pyramiden: a mysterious ghost city in the Arctic

Known as 'The Ghost City of the Arctic', this town once had hundreds of inhabitants but, today, it has just one inhabitant who cares for it and watches over it and in the summer it is lucky to receive ten visitors. Click on for a little visit to Pyramiden!

Pyramiden is located in the archipelago of Svalbard between Norway and the North Pole. As the Smithsonian magazine highlighted in a piece on the abandoned town, it is not easy to reach.

Never miss a story! Click here to follow The Daily Digest.

Pyramiden can be accessed from mid-May until the start of October by boat departing from the world's most northern settlement Longyearbyen located to the south.

During the freezing winter months, when the town experiences months without daylight, the sea ice is too thick, meaning travel to the town is far more complex.

However, it is still possible to access it from Longyearbyen by using a snowmobile, weather permitting, of course.

Pyramiden was once a booming Soviet mining town, however, nowadays it has just one inhabitant, which isn't so strange when you think about the fact that it is so hard to get there.

It's hard to believe that not too long ago, Pyramiden was a landmark for whaling and walrus hunting and, later, from the beginning of the 20th century, for coal mining.

According to Smithsonian magazine, Sweden established the town of Pyramiden in 1910 after discovery coal in the area. However, the legal status of the land was disputed as the majority of Norway's neighbors in the Arctic considered Spitsbergen (now Svalbard) international territory.

However, as the BBC highlights, in 1925 everything changed with the Svalbard Treaty was signed in 1925 which states the island archipelago is Norway's territory, the treaty is still in force today. However, it is a slightly unusual situation as Norway does not have absaloute power on the island.

The Svalbard Treaty provides that "All citizens and all companies of every nation under the treaty are allowed to become residents and to have access to Svalbard including the right to fish, hunt or undertake any kind of maritime, industrial, mining or trade activity."

But in 1927, Sweden decided, taking advantage of the legal loopholes in the agreement, to sell Pyramiden to Stalin's Russia and for decades, the Russians exclusively exploited the city's resources.

The population began to grow and the Russians built a typical city, with houses, a hospital, cafeteria, heated swimming pool, community center and everything that there is in a normal town.

The town of Pyramiden was soon booming and according to the BBC, Pyramiden had a higher population in the 1950s (2500) than that of modern day Longyearbyen.

But the USSR fell in 1991 and, with it, the decline of Pyramiden began. The mines stopped being profitable in 1998 and, without them, there was no reason to continue living in such an extreme area.

In a short time, Pyramiden became 'The Ghost City of the Arctic' because, despite the passage of time, the city's buildings are intact. In fact, the polar cold of the area leads to estimates that these buildings will continue to be visible for five centuries.

What's more, Pyramiden has no restrictions on being visited and anyone can go, what is prohibited is entering the buildings, even though they have the doors unlocked, to prevent accidents.

Never miss a story! Click here to follow The Daily Digest.

Visiting Pyramiden must be like visiting a Soviet-era 1990s time capsule. Would you like to take a journey to a town where more polar bears live than people?