cover photo by Pineta1984
 The information about this location have been automatically translated with Microsoft Translator. Rank : 10.0 (average on 1 votes)Coordinates : 78.654272, 16.347657 ( Open in Google Maps) Subjects : It has now become the most famous and coveted ghost-town in the world, a real modern Pompeii. The isolation and the Arctic climate have been keeping it unchanged since 1998: according to some it could be preserved for centuries. It was in fact a Russian mining settlement for about 70 years, and the only Soviet community in western territory. The USSR regime used the opportunity for propaganda purposes and created an ideal model of the city, with every comfort and privilege for its inhabitants, to show the world how beautiful it was to live in the Soviet bloc. Then the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Russian economic crisis of the 1990s, and an unfortunate plane crash, put an end to all this, and in 4 months all the inhabitants were forced to evacuate, leaving behind their homes, their lives, their dreams. After arriving, if still accompanied by an armed local guide, you have the privilege of browsing the city undisturbed, walking the streets, entering the houses, browsing the diaries, books and documents, and so rediscovering the secrets of that small mining community. Also beautiful are the many Soviet monuments, such as the large bust of Lenin or the red pyramid, and then abandoned vehicles and mechanical vehicles, structures in stilts on the permafrost, rusty children's games, antennas, cranes, canals, rubble of all kinds. You can also climb the mountain, enter the coal tunnel and reach the quarry and service buildings. Many animals including arctic foxes, reindeer and many birds. More rarely walrables and white bears. When it is dark, you can also photograph the Aurora. Recommended equipment : The city from outside i.e. streets, palaces, monuments, scrap, mining facilities: No special equipment is required: with a standard zoom like a 24-105 on FF you can do everything (but also with the mobile phone). If one wants to devote himself to the formal photography of the buildings certainly it is better to have the appropriate easel and grandangles, better still a decentralised and some filter. Great use of the Drone.Inside the buildings: Depending on whether you are in the home of sport, in the kgb offices, in the former kitchens or in what was the screening room, there are many different subjects to focus on. You can linger by portraying the actual rooms, and the chaos that reigns there, the peeling walls, the paintings, the nests of animals. But you can dedicate yourself to snooping with the furniture, books, small children's games, musical instruments, old cameras. The only common thing is certainly that inside these structures the light is scarce, even when there is the sun outside, because there are few rooms with large windows and almost none has electricity. So it can be useful depending on what you're interested in doing, from the fish eye, to the medium wide angle, the fifty, or even a macro, as long as they're bright. I, for example, used a lot of the 20:1.4 that I had brought to make the aurora, especially to document the rooms. Animals and the Glacier: There are many animals that have taken possession of this area, starting with the colonies of birds that nest in abandoned buildings and use artificial structures as perches. It's easy to meet arctic foxes, reindeer, and occasionally walrables and white bears (although it's really rare and everyone slams to avoid it). In this case it is obviously useful to have a fairly pushed telephoto lens, like a 100-400 or a 150-600 (which in my opinion you have to have behind anyway to shoot in Svalbard, since the naturalistic aspect is one of the main). The canvas will also serve you for the glacier that serves as the natural backdrop to the city and thanks to the crushing of the floors come interesting images composing with buildings or monuments. Best months : The winter months are characterized by perennial darkness, and everything is covered with a heavy layer of snow and these two things do not help at all the visit of the city and its buildings. Better to have at least a few hours of light and a minimum of mobility, so I would say avoid November, December, January, and February and focus on the other months. By the way I think in the winter months the hotel is closed so you won't even have that little support (not just a roof but not even an electrical outlet). Those who arrive here in winter do so independently, challenging the Arctic environment. How to get there : The easiest thing to go there is by ship from Longyearbyen. There are various boats going the boat. They are 2-3 hours of sailing in the open sea depending on the type of boat. In the middle of winter I think it can only be reached by land with snowmobiles taking a few days and camping gradually (because in the middle there is nothing). They told me that in recent years, with climate change, the bay is free of frost more frequently than ever before and ships manage to sail almost all year round. There are also icebreakers who would have to arrange crossings to reach Pyramiden.Visits : Shooting free is not allowed and you must always be accompanied by an armed local guide. Only the area adjacent to the hotel (a few dozen meters around the entrance) is considered safe. To access the buildings, there must be a special Russian guide (which is not the stretch that defends you from bears and takes you to the city) who has the keys and who opens and closes the doors, and decides how much you can stay inside. Notes : This city, like all the Svalbard Islands, is outside of the Schengen free movement agreements and you must be accompanied by an armed local guide to get out of the inhabited areas. Pyramiden is also considered Russian territory (as an embassy to say) so it has all special rules, virtually zero taxes (great if you want to drink some vodka), and you can put a special stamp on your passport. | | Nearby:   Nordenskjøldbree 13 km
 Svalbard 50 km
 Longyearbyen 50 km
 Barentsburg 81 km
 Ny Ålesund 100 km
 Capo Nord Nordkapp 873 km
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