Why was Pyramiden Norway abandoned?

In 1996, a tragedy struck the two mining communities when a plane from Moscow carrying 141 miners and their families crashed during approach to Longyearbyen airport. Everyone on board was killed. The accident was one of the reasons for Arktikugol, who had chartered the plane, to close Pyramiden.

Does anyone live in pyramiden?

Owned by the state-owned Russian mining company Arktikugol Trust, which also owns the settlement of Barentsburg, Pyramiden once had over 1,000 inhabitants. In 2012, Aleksandr Romanovsky became the first person to return to live in Pyramiden. He has since been joined by five others.

When was pyramiden abandoned?

1998
In 1998, Pyramiden was abandoned. The reasons lay in the bad general economical situation of Russia in the 1990s, lack of political support, shrinking coal reserves and finally the catastrophic airplane crash at Operafjellet in 1996, where 141 Russians on the way to Barentsburg lost their lives.

Is there a Russian town in Norway?

Barentsburg (Russian: Баренцбург) is the second-largest settlement in Svalbard, Norway with about 455 inhabitants (2020). The settlement is almost entirely made up of ethnic Russians and Ukrainians….

What happened to Akarmara?

Akarmara, once a bustling coal mining town, is now overtaken by trees. It lies in Abkhazia, a breakaway region on Georgia’s Black Sea coast. Wars and economic change have emptied the town of the 5,000 people who lived there in the 1970s. Today, with only 35 residents left, only the forest can really call it its own.

Can you visit Pyramiden?

You can visit Barentsburg and Pyramiden by boat in summer or snowmobile in winter. These trips feature guided tours of the settlements and it’s possible to enter some of the buildings. Both places have hotels where it’s possible to eat a meal and stay overnight.

Is Svalbard Russian or Norwegian?

Svalbard, (Old Norse: “Cold Coast”) archipelago, part of Norway, located in the Arctic Ocean well north of the Arctic Circle. The islands lie between longitude 10° and 35° E and latitude 74° and 81° N, about 580 miles (930 km) north of Tromsø, Norway.

What was mined in Pyramiden?

An abandoned coal mine located at Billefjorden close to the pyramid-shaped mountain which is called Pyramiden (the pyramid). Mining started here by Sweden in 1910, and was later in 1927, sold to the Soviet Union. The Russian coal company Trust Arktikugol (Russian: Арктикуголь) mined coal here until 1998.