Is this the world’s loneliest city? Inside European town where streets are unnamed and burials are BANNED

NESTLED at the top of the world, this icy, isolated European town could easily be seen as the loneliest place on Earth. Where polar bears and reindeer roam freely, life in the remote location is led by an unusual set of rules and rituals. An island town that can reach temperatures of -30C may be one of the most isolated in the world Credit: Alamy The town of Longyearbyen is located on the Svalbard islands of Norwa Credit: Alamy Longyearbyen, a town on the Svalbard islands of Norway, may be one of the loneliest places in the world. Situated at a latitude of 78 degrees, Longyearbyen is the world’s northernmost permanently inhabited town, based just over 1,000km from the North Pole. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! Nestled in a valley on the shore of the Adventfjord, Longyearbyen has a backdrop of mountains and glaciers, recording its lowest ever temperature at -46.3C. Due to its location, the island town gets 24 hours of daylight between April and August, and 24 hours of total darkness for October and February. Longyearbyen’s population inside just exceeds 2,500 residents, where all visitors and residents rely on a singular grocery store in its four-square-mile vicinity. The picturesque town, characterised by its brightly coloured houses and scenic mountainous views, also features a kindergarten, school, church, post office, and gourmet restaurant. Over the years, Longyearbyen has become a renowned research and educational hub, boasting a university where students can learn about Arctic biology and geophysics, and a North Pole Expedition Museum. The settlement now welcomes over 100,000 tourists a year, reached on a three-hour flight from Oslo. Most read in The Sun Longyearbyen welcomes a number of arctic animals, such as reindeers and polar bears Credit: Jack Hill It has intriguing rules, such as banning burials and using numbers instead of street names Credit: Jack Hill Indeed, Longyearbyen does not exclusively welcome human visitors, seeing frequent appearances from polar bears and reindeers. What makes Longyearbyen so intriguing is the rules that guide its residents – whether it be categorising streets by numbers, or banning burials. In Longyearbyen, dying has been banned since 1950, where it was discovered that bodies in the local cemetery were not decomposing because of the sub-zero temperatures. The graveyard no longer takes any new bodies over fears disease will spread across the town – meaning, anyone who dies there, cannot be buried. There is no old people’s home there, so the frail and elderly must be moved off Longyearbyen ahead of their death. More unique rules govern the town – cats are forbidden and alcohol can only be acquired with ration cards. Anyone venturing outside the boundaries of the settlement must also carry a gun to protect themselves from polar bears. Longyearbyen, with some of the coldest temperatures on the globe and a set of unusual rules, may be the loneliest, but also is one of the most unique. Comment now