Pyramiden is an abandoned Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n settlement and coal mining

Coal mining

The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...

 community on the archipelago of Svalbard

Svalbard

Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic, constituting the northernmost part of Norway. It is located north of mainland Europe, midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The group of islands range from 74° to 81° north latitude , and from 10° to 35° east longitude. Spitsbergen is the...

, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. It was founded by Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 in 1910 and sold to the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 in 1927. It lies at the foot of the Billefjorden

Billefjorden

Billefjorden is the central fjord of the three branching from the innermost part of the Isfjorden to the northeast, in Svalbard, Norway. It is 30km long and 5-8km wide. Billefjorden lies between Dickson Land to the northwest and Bünsow Land in the southeast. Located on its northwestern shore is the...

 on the island of Spitsbergen

Spitsbergen

Spitsbergen is the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Constituting the western-most bulk of the archipelago, it borders the Arctic Ocean, the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea...

 and is named for the pyramid-shaped mountain adjacent to the town.

The settlement once had a population of over 1,000 inhabitants, but was abandoned on 10 January 1998 by its owner, the state-owned Russian company Arktikugol Trust. It is now a ghost town

Ghost town

A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...

. Within the buildings, things remain largely as they were when the settlement was abandoned in a hurry.

There are no restrictions on visiting Pyramiden, but visitors may not enter any buildings without permission, even if the doors are open, due to the health and safety hazards involved. While most buildings are now locked, breaking into the buildings, vandalism and theft have become a serious threat to Pyramiden.

The nearest settlements are Svalbard's capital, Longyearbyen

Longyearbyen

Longyearbyen is the largest settlement and the administrative centre of Svalbard, Norway. It is located on the western coast of Spitsbergen, the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago, on the southern side on Adventfjorden , which continues inland with Adventdalen...

, some 50 km to the south, Barentsburg

Barentsburg

Barentsburg is the second largest settlement on Svalbard, with about 500 inhabitants , almost entirely Russians and Ukrainians. The Russian-owned Arktikugol has been mining coal here since 1932.-Status:...

 approximately 100 km south-west and the small research community of Ny-Ålesund

Ny-Ålesund

Ny-Ålesund is one of the four permanent settlements on the island of Spitsbergen in the Svalbard archipelago. It is located on the Brøgger peninsula at Kongsfjorden...

, 100 km to the west. Pyramiden is accessible by boat or snowmobile

Snowmobile

A snowmobile, also known in some places as a snowmachine, or sled,is a land vehicle for winter travel on snow. Designed to be operated on snow and ice, they require no road or trail. Design variations enable some machines to operate in deep snow or forests; most are used on open terrain, including...

, and guided tours are available in Russian, Norwegian, and English.

A book has been written about Pyramiden by Norwegian author Kjartan Fløgstad. A recent episode of the History Channel programme "Life After People" featured Pyramiden. It predicted that due to the low rate of decay in a frigid climate, the abandoned town's major buildings would be visible 500 years from now.

The world's northernmost grand piano is located at Pyramiden; a "Red October" (Красный октябрь) grand piano is located in the auditorium of the cultural centre.

Pyramiden is currently being re-developed by the Russians to accommodate tourists. 5-6 people are currently stationed there to upgrade the facilities, including the Pyramiden hotel. At the moment there is a small hotel made of old shipping containers that can accommodate a small number of visitors.