Pyramiden — the Soviet ghost town on Svalbard 🏔️ Deep in the Arctic, just 1,000 km from the North Pole, lies Svalbard — a remote Norwegian archipelago where Russia still operates settlements under a unique international treaty. Pyramiden was once a model Soviet mining town, built by Trust Arktikugol 🇷🇺. It had everything: a concert hall, a gym, a greenhouse — even the world’s northernmost grand piano. In its prime, over 1,000 people lived here. But in 1998, it was abandoned almost overnight.