35 Mysterious Abandoned Places Around the World You Can Still Visit

17. Pyramiden, Svalbard, Norway: The Soviet Ghost Town of the Arctic

Deep in the Arctic Circle, beneath snow-covered peaks and icy winds, lies one of the world’s most isolated ghost towns: Pyramiden. Founded by Sweden in 1910 and sold to the Soviet Union in 1927, this coal mining settlement flourished into a model Soviet utopia. At its peak in the 1980s, Pyramiden was home to over 1,000 residents and boasted amenities rare for such a remote locale—schools, a theater, greenhouses, and even a heated indoor swimming pool. The towering statue of Lenin gazes over the settlement, a symbol of ideological pride amidst a frozen frontier. When the mine closed in 1998, Pyramiden was abandoned almost overnight, leaving behind a perfectly preserved time capsule of Soviet life. Today, the site is accessible via guided tours from Longyearbyen, offering eerie insights into Arctic resilience and the Soviet dream in the most unlikely of places. Despite its isolation, Pyramiden’s silent buildings continue to whisper stories of human ambition and endurance on the edge of the world.