Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Despite its inhospitable latitude (79°N), you'd be hard pressed to find a more awesome
backdrop anywhere on earth than the scientific post of Ny Ålesund, 107km northwest of
Longyearbyen. Founded in 1916 by the Kings Bay Kull Compani, Ny Ålesund likes to
claim that it's the world's northernmost permanently inhabited civilian community (al-
though you could make a case for three other equally minuscule spots in Russia and
Canada).
Throughout much of the 20th century Kings Bay mined for coal. As many as 300 people
once lived and worked here but, after the last of several lethal explosions resulted in 21
deaths, mining stopped in 1963. Ny Ålesund has since recycled itself as a prominent sci-
entific post, with research stations of several nations, including Japan, France, the British
Antarctic Survey and China (bizarrely, in this land of polar bears and Arctic foxes, two
marble lions stand watch over the Chinese quarters). There's a hardy year-round popula-
tion of around 30 scientists, rising to 130 in summer (never more as that's the number of
beds available) as researchers from about 15 countries fly in.
Sights
There's a 1.5km trail with multilingual interpretive panels that takes you around the main
sites of this tiny settlement.
In the early 20th century several polar explorers set off from Ny Ålesund, including the
likes of Roald Amundsen, Lincoln Ellsworth, Admiral Byrd and Umberto Nobile. The
an-
chor pylon
was used by Nobile and Amundsen to launch the airship
Norge
on their suc-
cessful flight over the North Pole to Alaska in 1926; it came in handy again two years
later, when Nobile returned to launch the
Italia
on his ill-fated repeat attempt. You'll see
memorials
to these missions around the settlement.
Perhaps the most unusual sight is the stranded
steam locomotive
near the dock. In 1917
a narrow-gauge railway was constructed to connect the coalfields with the harbour and it
remained in use until 1958. The restored locomotive is, naturally, the world's northernmost
railway relic.
The town also supports a neat little
Mine Museum
(Gruvemuseum; donation suggested;
24hr)
in the old Tiedemann's Tabak (tobacco) shop, relating the coal-mining history of this
area.
All nonprofessional visitors arrive in Ny Ålesund on tourist cruises and linger for an
hour or two.
