Cities of Svalbard: Longyearbyen, Ny-Ålesund, Barentsburg

Svalbard's settlements are among the most remote on Earth. Longyearbyen, with just over 2,000 residents, is the world's northernmost city. Ny-Ålesund, once a mining town, is now an international research station at 78°55'N, and Barentsburg, still home to Russian coal miners, feels like stepping into another era. Each offers a different view of life at the edge of the habitable world.

Longyearbyen is the capital of Svalbard and the starting point for most expeditions. Founded by American businessman John Munro Longyear in 1906 as a coal mining town, it has grown into a modern settlement with a university, hospital, shops, restaurants and the world's northernmost brewery.

Life in Longyearbyen follows unusual rules. It is not possible to be born or to die here, as pregnant women and seriously ill people are flown to the mainland. It is illegal to leave town without a rifle due to polar bears. Cats are banned to protect the birdlife, and the Global Seed Vault, a backup store of agricultural seeds, is buried in the permafrost above town.

Ny-Ålesund sits at 78°55'N on the Kongsfjorden. Once a coal mining town, the site of the northernmost mine disaster in history in 1962, it is now a research village hosting scientists from over 20 nations. The old mining infrastructure remains, including the mooring mast used by Amundsen's airship Norge on its 1926 flight to the North Pole.

Barentsburg is Svalbard's Russian settlement, home to around 450 people, mostly Russian and Ukrainian coal miners and their families. A visit feels like stepping back in time: Soviet-era apartment blocks, a bust of Lenin, and a cultural centre with Russian folk art. The contrast with Norwegian Longyearbyen is stark.

The abandoned town of Pyramiden, also Russian, is one of Svalbard's most notable sights. Evacuated in 1998, it remains largely as the miners left it, including a swimming pool, a music hall and the world's northernmost grand piano.