Pyramid of Spitsbergen. Detailed Pyramid village satellite map. Communication in the Pyramid

The Pyramid coal deposit is located 120 kilometers from the Barentsburg mine in the depths of the mountains at almost half a kilometer above sea level.

In 1910, the Swede Bertil Högbom received permission to mine coal in the Pyramid area, and in 1911 construction and equipment of the mine began. Rights to land area 47.05 sq. km were purchased by the Anglo-Russian Grumant society from the Swedish company Spetsbergens Svenska Kolfalt. In 1927, the Severoles state trust became the owner of the Pyramid, and since 1931, the Arktikugol trust.

Construction of the mine in the Mount Pyramid area began in July 1939 and continued until August 1941, when all residents of the archipelago were evacuated. At the time of evacuation, there were 99 people at the mine. Before the start of the War, premises for a diesel station and a technical warehouse, a dormitory and a bathhouse were built at the foot of Mount Pyramid, the construction of a residential building, a canteen, a radio station, a boiler room and the passage of ventilation and haulage adits began. Work was carried out mainly on the surface of the mine. The first wintering was organized in the winter of 1940-1941.

The pyramid is the only place that remained untouched by military action during the Second World War. However, during the evacuation of the population in 1941, all geological exploration towers and fuel tanks were burned on the Pyramid, a coal warehouse was set on fire, a warehouse of explosives was blown up, diesel stations, cars and other equipment were destroyed.

August 1946, when 609 polar explorers arrived at Pyramid, is considered the beginning of construction of the mine.

The first street in Pyramid appeared in March 1947. It began at the port under construction and led to the village. On both sides there were little houses called “fincas”. After this, they began to build two-story cobblestone houses, and the village gradually grew and its living and living conditions improved.

In 1947-1950, a large volume of geological exploration work was carried out, mining exploration was carried out, from which coal was mined - about 70 thousand tons of coal were mined.

Mine No. 2 “Severnaya” was put into operation on March 30, 1956 with a design capacity of 235 thousand tons of thermal coal per year. The mouth of the mine adit, which provided access to the coal deposit, was located at an altitude of more than 400 m above sea level, and the mined coal was transported along the surface Bremsberg to an inter-navigation warehouse, from where it was loaded onto cargo ships.

The decision to close the mine was made at the end of 1997. At the time of closure, the annual coal production plan was 135 thousand tons, or 57 percent of the mine's design capacity. The decrease in the level of coal production was mainly due to the impossibility of timely replenishment of the mining front due to difficult geological conditions. The main reasons for the decision to liquidate the mine were limited reserves and high costs of coal mining associated with the need to carry out a large volume of preparatory mining, as well as the constantly growing costs of localizing an endogenous fire in the mine, which arose in 1970 and is still active today.

The last tons of coal at mine No. 2 "Severnaya" were mined on March 31, 1998. It should be noted that liquidation work was carried out mainly in the mine and on the mine surface, as well as at objects that posed a threat to the environment and human safety. Over the years of operation of mine No. 2 “Severnaya”, about 9 million tons of coal were produced.

The liquidation of the mine provided for the preservation of the housing stock, except for dilapidated houses, social and cultural facilities and some industrial buildings. The conservation of the Pyramid mine facilities was carried out based on the use of the created infrastructure for exploration and, possibly, exploitation of the low-sulfur light oil deposit, which was identified when drilling wells for coal in the Petunia Bay area.

The village of Pyramid is located at the foot of the mountain of the same name on the shores of Petunia and Mimer bays, and is located at a distance of about 120 km from Barentsburg. Until 1998, Pyramid was the world's northernmost operating mine. The village was built taking into account the experience gained during the construction of Barentsburg, Grumant and Colsbay and became, according to the Norwegian King Harald V, who visited the village in 1995, one of the “pearls” of the archipelago.

During the operation of the mine, a thermal power plant, a port, a garage, and three artificial lakes with drinking water, livestock farm, greenhouse, other production and social facilities. Up to a thousand workers lived in the well-maintained village; a wonderful sports complex with a swimming pool was built for them sea water, dining room for 200 seats.

The area around the Pyramid is extremely beautiful - mountains, valleys, glaciers. Opposite the Pyramid there is a large Nordenskiöld glacier, huge blocks of which, hovering above the water, break off from time to time with a roar to begin their journey in the form of icebergs. On a one-day hike you can see Blue Lakes, and waterfalls and the bottle house, which has become a popular attraction.

After the cessation of coal mining and conservation of the village in 1998, the infrastructure was preserved, allowing for scientific research and receiving tourists.

To revive the village of Pyramid and turn it into a tourist area, in recent years the Arktikugol trust has restored and overhauled a hotel, heat and water supply and sewerage networks, put into operation two new thermal boilers, two new diesel stations, and installed three guest houses for tourists in the port .

As part of the program for the protection of cultural monuments in Spitsbergen, in February 2011, the Arktikugol trust reached an agreement with the Governor of Spitsbergen on the joint implementation of work on the repair and maintenance of part of the buildings in the village of Pyramid.

The pyramid is located 120 km north of Longyearbyen, Norway; it was the world's northernmost coal mine. The prefix “the northernmost” here can be substituted for everything: “the northernmost monument to Lenin” or “the northernmost swimming pool in the world” and so on, whatever your imagination allows. In 1998, coal mining ended and the village was mothballed. In the 1980s, up to 1000 people lived in the village; when Lebedev visited this place in the 2000s, only a crazy German lived here. Due to the special status of Spitsbergen (any state could conduct economic activity there), the Soviet Union tried to make this village a real showcase of communism; the Norwegians were jealous of how luxuriously a citizen of the USSR lived. It was real paradise, getting here was considered real luck.

The pyramid is located in picturesque place at the foot of a mountain whose shape resembles a real pyramid overlooking the Nordenskiöld glacier. During the difficult crisis years of the conservation of the village, when no one remained in the Pyramid for the winter, vandals ruled here. The Norwegians came on snowmobiles and took away everything that could be taken away. For example, in the Kroa bar in Longyearbyen there is a bust of Lenin, it is just from the Pyramid. The city could have become another ghost town, like Pripyat in Ukraine, but we came to our senses in time and are now trying to breathe life into the city new life due to tourism.

Ghost town Pyramid on Spitsbergen // elnarperm.livejournal.com

And now a little history. There is constant debate about who was the first to discover this polar archipelago. The Pomors of Spitsbergen have been known as "Grumant" since the 15th century; at the entrance to the harbors, the Russians left wooden crosses with the names of those who erected them. The Pomors left traces of settlements, there is no doubt - they were the first to engage in fishing on the distant island of Spitsbergen. Radiocarbon dating of the objects shows that they are much earlier in time than the Viking journeys to these lands. The Norwegians, of course, claim the opposite. Allegedly, the Pomors arrived much later and brought with them old utensils and used centuries-old logs in the construction of houses, so radiocarbon analysis does not count :) Ours claim that the Vikings only sailed to Bear Island, which they called “Svalbard,” i.e. cold ground in Norwegian. The question is quite political.

Officially, the island was discovered by the Dutch navigator Barents, who was looking for the shortest route from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The discovery of new islands led to whaling companies settling here, and the bowhead whale produced 1.5 tons of baleen and 30 tons of blubber!

// elnarperm.livejournal.com

The British and Danes were the first to declare their territorial claims to this land. Unlike Western Europeans, our people felt great on Spitsbergen, built camps and spent the winter in harsh conditions. Norwegians actively began to appear at the end of the 19th century, the land was officially recognized as “no man's land” just at this time. Question about legal status islands was supposed to be resolved in 1914 between Russia, Norway and Sweden, but due to the First World War the issue was returned to only in 1920, the Soviet Union was not invited to the Paris Conference, but the possibility of Russian rights to use natural and other resources was spelled out in the agreement before the USSR joined the treaty. The treaty itself recognized Norway’s sovereignty over the islands, but the Norwegians pledged not to build military bases and fortifications on the islands, and now the most interesting thing: “citizens of all countries that signed the treaty, on an equal basis with Norwegians, have the right free access to the archipelago to engage in shipping, industrial, commercial and commercial activities on conditions of complete equality.

In other words, the islands actually belong to Norway, but any company or any citizen can live on the island and use its resources. A unique situation!

Ours in 1924, we joined the agreement, bought the land plots managed by the Arktikugol company, its task was simple - to provide the northern part of Russia with coal. Until 1941, two mines operated - in Barentsburg and Grumant, and a third village - Pyramid - was built. Every day the ships departed for Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. During the war, all the workers were evacuated to the north of England, and after the war, in 1946, the first miners and builders arrived, restored two villages in 3 years and completed the Pyramid in 1956.

So, it turns out that we had three settlements, the first is Grumant, which was mothballed in 1961, the miners say that when the coal runs out in other places, they can return here, the explored reserves will last for a long time. The second village is Barentsburg, an active village with the Russian Consulate, a swimming pool, a school and other infrastructure, I will write about it later. The most interesting is the third mine, Pyramid.

My first story will be about him.

And it all started with this issue of the Russian Reporter; in 2009, I read the article “The Archipelago NO WAY” about this place and got excited. I knew I'd get here. Necessarily

// elnarperm.livejournal.com

Our ship is in the port, the Russians call it the “polar girl”, the port of registration is Tromsø, in the winter it takes athletes to the fjord mountains, in the summer it takes tourists to the Pyramid and Barentsburg.

// elnarperm.livejournal.com

The most important thing is to be lucky with the weather, then 3 hours of sailing will seem like a pleasant walk. In total, two ships carry it to the Pyramid in the summer.

// elnarperm.livejournal.com

Barents, the discoverer of the island, wrote this: “The land along which we sailed was hilly and elevated, but these were not mountains, although the hills looked like sharp spiers, so the land was piled on Spitsbergen.”

// elnarperm.livejournal.com

Northern nature is gorgeous, of course

// elnarperm.livejournal.com

Guide Vadim talks in Norwegian and English about the animal world and the history of the island. Basically, half of the tourists are from mainland Norway, the rest are a complete hodgepodge of Germans, French, and Americans.

// elnarperm.livejournal.com

Approaching the Pyramid

// elnarperm.livejournal.com

Buildings, view from the water

// elnarperm.livejournal.com

We are greeted by the bus and the tour guide Sasha from St. Petersburg, a colorful character with a “moose” gun. You can’t go without a gun; polar bears are extremely dangerous animals. I wonder what murder polar bear is being investigated by the police, shooting can only be done in self-defense, which still needs to be proven. The role of the police is performed by the governor from Norway or, as he is called here, the Susselman. The punishments and fines here are severe, they say that in times of famine, our people killed deer, and they were with chips, and the Norgs (that’s what the Norwegians are called) immediately flew in by helicopter and tied everyone up. The fines are scary!

Good afternoon my name is Vladimir, I'm 33 years old and I'm a guide (which allows me to travel a lot). In the spring of 2013, I worked in the village of Pyramid, which is located on the Spitsbergen archipelago (Arctic).

Since this is the 78th degree north latitude, then from here to north pole close at hand - about 1300 km. There are only 2 cities in the entire archipelago where people live, but I went to work in the officially evicted village of Pyramid, in which no one officially lives today...

Here, look what one spring day is like at the edge of the Earth (to be absolutely precise, it’s March 26, when it’s already very close to the onset of the polar day)

under the cut there are 68 photos

The pyramid was mothballed in 1998 and stood as an absolute ghost town for almost a dozen years. Nowadays it is an increasingly popular item in Norwegian tourist routes. For a long time, Pyramid remained the northernmost settlement in the world, and here many things have a prefix in the form of the words “northernest”: the world’s northernmost coal mine, the world’s northernmost swimming pool, a monument to Lenin, a working hotel, the world’s northernmost piano (more precisely, even two) - in a word, a piece of the Arctic, where by some miracle people managed to live and work.

The mine closed as unprofitable in 1998, the people were taken out, and the outpost of socialism, which, to the surprise of many foreigners, turned out to be so close to them, gradually turned into a refuge for Arctic foxes and polar bears.

After a decade of oblivion, it was decided to revive the Pyramid, inviting tourists to take a look at how a simple Soviet miner lived and worked. Tourists didn’t believe it at first, but then stood in long lines for tours.
There are six of us here. “If you think that the pyramid is still a ghost town, then in front of you stands one of them, and the only one who speaks English,” I often say to tourists, who in response give me wide smiles.

Here is one of my working days in the Arctic.
1. I wake up at about 7:30. Please note that there is no cellular network signal on the phone, there is no radio, no TV, no Internet at all, you can try to catch Norwegian cellular communication only in one place, at the so-called reiki (also known as emotional spot or spot of hope) - the usual geodetic rod, stuck by an unknown person on the outskirts of the village, but very attentive, for which he bows to the ground.

2.I live in the Tulip Hotel - a Soviet hotel built 9 years before it was closed, this is my room, which, by the way, I have to pay for from my salary *))

3. Brushing your teeth and washing your face - everything is like ordinary people

4. During breakfast I manage to fill out the tables for accommodation and excursion tours for the previous day. I have breakfast, to be honest, whatever I have, recently I found some cereal left by someone. With condensed milk and coffee - an excellent option.

5. Further, the Arctic, nevertheless, makes itself felt; To go outside you have to put all this on yourself, this kind of arctic cabbage comes out. The carbine is not here for beauty - there are bear trails around the village, in addition, while I guide guests through the village, I am responsible for their safety. So, we put on two pants, all kinds of thermal clothes, a windproof anorak and take a carbine with a knife.

That's it, it's almost 8 am. The sun has been shining since 4:30, and soon it will stop setting altogether. Let's go out!

On the street I am already met by my friends - arctic foxes. Saigon - that's what I called one of them. He is the bravest of all and takes treats straight from his hands, and in addition, he often gets into fights with another fox named Sid. By the way, Sid is the youngest and extremely handsome, I will show him to you in a separate photoset someday. You can't just walk past them.

6.Today I feed Saigon half a potato and a chicken bone.

7. This is what a real arctic fox looks like (and this is what the translation of “arctic fox” sounds like in Russian) at breakfast.

8. View of Mount Pyramid (the village is named after it). Under the mountain is a machine shop, which is still full of equipment, and on the left is the so-called “madhouse”, a house for couples with children.

While the trial is going on, in the morning I can have time to work out in the rocking chair, where, in fact, I’m heading.

9. This wooden building was called “London” because single unmarried men lived there. A sort of Arctic Soviet humor. By the way, not far from it there is the same 4-story brick house named “Paris”, once inhabited by single women. And in keeping with the best traditions of the genre, there is a dining room between the houses, apparently for social gatherings.

10. The thermometer at the garage shows minus 10 in the sun. But it just seems so simple to him, in the shade it’s about 20 degrees below zero, and every meter per second of wind cools you down by another 2 degrees. This thermometer is the biggest optimist this morning.

11. The garage is spacious. All the life support of the village is located there - a coal boiler house and all the cars, including everyone’s favorite 22-year-old Toyota, which some Norwegian guests called nothing less than a Limousine

12. Yesterday in the garage they found 4 signs, something like slogans. I like this one the most

13. Here she is - a rocking chair. In fact, it would be difficult without her, since in terms of sports there is little choice: running through snowdrifts or racing after arctic foxes

14. Good morning, Pyramid!

You need to do it in a hat and gloves and quickly. The room is not heated. Here, in general, you do everything quite quickly, although time sometimes seems to freeze at one point altogether...

15. The dips on the uneven bars were a success, which can’t be said about the photo, sorry.*)))

16. That's it, it's time to go back to the hotel.

17. By the way, in passing: who wants the keys to Paris?

18. You can take a short road, or you can take a long one, I always choose the long one - there I always look at the tiny wooden airport building. Surrounded by mountains, the building looks like David against Goliath

19. Meanwhile, I approach the Tulip Hotel. A metal flower of the same name was installed during the ceremony to commemorate the day when a tulip suddenly bloomed on the lawn, which was brought here on a barge. By the way, Pyramid is the only place on the archipelago where in summer you can find tall grass, just the same kind of grass. In winter, a local species of Arctic deer tries to dig it out from under the snow.

20. Near the entrance - short biography hotel

I have time to have a little snack. Basically, there is a carbohydrate “diet” here - the helicopter brought several bags of rice, flour, and potatoes. But with protein foods it’s more complicated. True, there is cod, and if when you hear the word cod, people on the continent usually turn their noses up suspiciously, but here it is real, northern, delicious *))

21. Now you need to go out and stomp to the staff for the communication session. You can walk - it’s about 20 minutes one way, but today we’ll take advantage of the benefits of civilization - a Toyota Helux. Along the way there is a sign like this:

22. The Pyramid’s coal past ended in 1998...

23. I change SIM cards in the car. The Moscow card accepts Net Com and is insanely expensive, the Norwegian Telenor is much cheaper and should seem to be better able to catch this weak signal coming from across the fjord. It's almost 10 am

24. Behind me is the same rail. Photo taken from the roof of a pickup truck

Then the phone makes a plaintive squeak in the cold, and, having said goodbye, thus turns off... okay, this often happens here: you always wonder who can stand it longer - fingers in the cold typing messages or the battery. Today the battery failed. I’m going to make a copy of that photo that I saw once on the Internet.

25. These are boxes with communications laid inside, and you can walk on top. It turned out pretty similar.

I’m going to the port, I need to check the houses for tourists there. Today we are waiting for three managers of the largest travel company on Spitsbergen. But I don’t know yet that they will actually stay at the hotel...

26. In the port there is a huge belt along which coal was loaded onto ships heading to the continent. Now it is just an openwork structure made of metal and wood, when viewed from a respectful distance

27. Nearby is an abandoned building of a former thermal power plant. It probably made the most painful impression on me when I was there: everything inside seemed to be exploded. A movie about the war was filmed here, and then people from the crowd said that they felt uneasy inside. In addition, there is constant noise from half-torn metal sheets; personally, for the first time I took the carbine off the safety lock there, when because of these sounds it seemed to me that someone was following me.. *))

I have about an hour and a half before the group of tourists arrives (based on the experience of previous days), so it’s time to look at a couple more barns, which always contain something interesting. Go ahead!

28. This picture is found in one of the barns

29. At first I thought it was paint or chemicals, but then, opening one of the drawers, I discovered the contents inside

30. I don’t know about you, but for me it’s incredible: all these metal barrels and six discs packed in each of them are all films that were shown at the Pyramid!

31. It’s as if the film factory was planning a move, but was never able to take away all its footage

32. We also came across two twin aliens, marked as “RNI 2.5”. If they came to life, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised; There are generally unusual things happening all around here.

33. Okay, let's move on. Not far from the beginning of the galleries along which the miners climbed and descended from the mountain there is coal The educational center. Everything is covered with the same snow. There is some kind of beep.

34. ...and also a fuse. "Check the circuit before you explode!" and check only from cover! It's good that you don't have to check anything. In addition, the shelters are all dark or covered with snow.

35. I go further to the barn, in which, according to stories, sports equipment was stored. This is what I really want to see. The contents inside speak for themselves. Judge for yourself.

36. And here’s the hit of the season, as they say: a bunch of bamboo ski poles! At 78 degrees north latitude, bamboo was actively used. Imagining Arctic skiers with poles like these, I couldn’t help but laugh, remembering the phrase “he combined the incongruous...”

I left there feeling like I had taken a ride in a time machine, and as a free option it also had a button to “make the surrounding atmosphere unreal.” I return to Tulip, where a group of guests have already arrived. All Norwegians. After a brief greeting, I take them first to see the dining room.

37. Actually inside, in the dining room

38. Meanwhile, guests are scurrying back and forth, photographing everything in their path *))

In front of the main staircase is the only mosaic in the entire archipelago. There was not a single tourist who did not freeze for a couple of seconds in front of her and then diligently began to take photographs.

39. Generally speaking, the dining room is so beautiful that I will give here a photograph in which there are no Norwegians. Judge for yourself:

Having said that, among other things, she also worked 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and all the food was free, I lead dumbfounded tourists along the main and only street named after the 60th anniversary of the Great October Revolution.

40. Traditional photo of the world’s northernmost Ilyich

41. Even though Ilyich is the most northern in the world, and has been standing here alone for many years, there is something slightly crazy in his facial expression (I photographed a lot of different images of Lenin, but this one is definitely a little crazy)

We come from KSK - a cultural and sports complex. Everything inside was preserved almost perfectly. On the walls are photographs of the latest performances of amateur ensembles. The stunned Norwegians seem to be gradually becoming envious of such luxury. There are no such permanent buildings in neighboring Norwegian Longyearbyen. A little later, when they find out about the existence of the pool, this will finally finish them off.

42. KSK (main foyer)

43. Gym

44. I show the Norwegians a small hall, something like a rocking chair. The first week I arrived, I trained here. When they say “and now I’ll show you a rocking chair in the style of Rocky Balboa,” everyone smiles broadly and agrees with what they see. By the way, the weights on the bar are made of lead, cast in some intricate shape.

45. On the second floor there is a library, from which only cards remained that could be used to order books, and a room with musical instruments. A tourist, having recognized the national Russian instrument, “gives jazz” *))

46. View from the second floor of KSK

47. Let's go to the pool now. The semi-Olympic standard is 25 meters. While the guys are in shock and confusion wandering around the perimeter, looking at the wooden decorative grilles, as well as the commentator’s booth somewhere under the ceiling, I manage to take a photo without them *))

48. This concludes the substantive, or rather spiritual, part of the excursion. Let's move on to our daily food. Today I have lunch with tourists.

49. Usually they serve borscht, main course and salad. All Scandinavians love borscht, although it is practically impossible for them to pronounce this word.

50. After this, the group leaves, and everyone waves goodbye to me. There are generally few people here and it is not customary to just leave without saying goodbye.

51. After their departure, there is a period of relatively free time during which you can drink coffee or read an e-book.

52. Then the thought overtakes me that in Moscow, for example, even in winter, my jacket is not so heavy, and all because I usually don’t carry in my pockets what I have to wear here. I empty the contents from my pockets, leaving only my hat and balaclava.

Around three in the afternoon I get dressed and go out again. One Norwegian guide from one of the local travel companies arrived. Good man, communicative. Once he served on the Soviet-Norwegian border (his phrase in complicated Russian: “Stop! Throw your hands away! This is the border of the Soviet Union!” I remembered for a long time with laughter). I promised to show him the machine shop, which we don’t usually take tourists to.

53.Actually Casper

54. Came with my brother and sister. We climb into the machine shop. They are genuinely surprised at the sight of everything that remains there.

55. Technician's dream

Then we see that another group is going to Tulip. So it's time to go back. In parting, I ask Kasper to bring wine from Longyearbyen to celebrate the birthday of Alexandrovna, our cook. He promises to convey it with one of the guides, and he himself says that he will go with a group of skiers to the continent for 2 weeks. Well, I hope our courier service (as I call these transmissions from Longyearbyen behind my back) will work. And of course, good luck to you Casper, come back!
He takes me to the hotel, a group is already sitting in the hall.

56. No one here needs to be warned about taking off their outerwear and shoes. Everyone knows this themselves.

57. Meanwhile it's almost 4 o'clock

Here, at first, you are very surprised by the sight of a person with a huge knife and a carbine behind his back, especially if it is a girl. But then you quickly get used to it - everyone walks like that here. Arctic life dictates its own standards of behavior.

58. Journalist for a local Norwegian newspaper

If you thought that why I don’t show other residents of our commune here, it’s because everyone is busy with their own business and we don’t cross paths very often.

59. A rare shot that we manage to capture: Petrovich (who is in charge here and is often jokingly called the “governor of the Pyramid”) and our cook Alexandrovna.

60. Petrovich and I are going to the port to check out the houses, that’s what they call three trailers here, converted into something like a hostel. The houses are ok. I go out to photograph the Nordenskiöld glacier. It seems to be no more than 4 kilometers away, but in fact this is an optical illusion. 17 kilometers - that's how far it is.

But still, I want to show you the rest of the residents of our village. We return to the garage. I'm looking for Vitalik and Oleg.

61. Finally I find Vitalik. He, too, like me, is from Russia. In fact, they say about him that he is closed, but this is not so. I photograph him fixing some equipment while he tells me a story about how last year a National Geographic crew did a photo shoot with him for several hours straight...

62. Then I look for Oleg. Here everything is more complicated, you have to ask permission to take a picture of him. He ends up posing in front of a coal boiler.

63. I’m leaving the garage. Guests are about to arrive.

64. Then Petrovich arrives on a scooter and says that some group has already arrived. These are the guys we are waiting for. Now he will call me to the hotel on this device by nameViking

These were the same managers from the company who turned out to be surprisingly sociable and pleasant guys. If you didn’t know that they work for the largest travel company on the archipelago, you could easily mistake them for ordinary tourists. We came on a visit to see the hotel and decide on the possibility of accommodating guests there for the night. As a result, we talked until 23-00, during which time they bought 3 bottles of vodka and a myriad of beer, asked to play “Russian artist Vychotsky” (which meant Vysotsky) and show all the rooms of the hotel. Moreover, no one looked drunk.

65. At the end of the evening, they bought vests and proudly flaunted them:

66. That's it, time to go to bed.

67. At the end of the day, I have time to run out to photograph the night, which in a week will completely disappear as a class, giving way to the polar day, but the frost of about 30 degrees does not allow me to concentrate on the camera. In the end it turns out somehow, but nevertheless:

That's all, the day is over!

Instead of an afterword: I almost forgot to show you mine best friend Sida! Always remain as optimistic and always smile as he does *)))

68. Sid

The Pyramid mine is a structural production unit of the FSUE GT Arktikugol trust, located on state-owned land plots of 73.5 hectares, and is the world’s northernmost village and mine, commissioned in 1956.

At the time of liquidation, the mine’s balance sheet included a mine, a power plant, sea port, Helipad, water supply and communications system, including space communications. The total number of employees was almost 550 people.

Houses in the village with a total living area of 3931 sq. m. m, mainly made of brick, cinder blocks, using reinforced concrete, concrete and metal structures. They housed 486 apartments, 56 hotel rooms and a 26-bed dormitory. There was a hospital, a community center, a swimming pool, kindergarten, other industrial and socio-cultural facilities. At the time of the inspection, most of the buildings and structures were in satisfactory condition, and the existing deformation of the foundations in some of them was local in nature.

All of the above objects turned out to be virtually abandoned. The decision to develop a feasibility study for the liquidation of the Pyramid mine was made at an extended meeting with the First Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy Russian Federation with the participation of the Ministry of Economy of Russia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, JSC Rosugol Company and FSUE GT Arktikugol (protocol dated July 28, 1997, No. E-5332 pr). The mine liquidation project was approved by order of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy of Russia dated March 23, 1998 No. 94 “On approval of the Pyramid mine liquidation project of the Arktikugol State Trust” and adjusted on September 3, 1998. Technical work to liquidate this mine began in August 1997, and shipping of commercial coal ceased on December 31 of the same year. Coal mining was completely stopped on April 1, 1998.

Considering that when developing a feasibility study for the liquidation of the Pyramid mine, the possibility of using all buildings and structures in the future was laid down, the decision to liquidate the Pyramid mine and mothball the residential village should be considered premature. This area remains very promising in terms of development of industrial and tourism activities.

As of 04/01/98, the remaining balance reserves of coal amounted to 3343.0 thousand tons, including industrial reserves - 1082.0 thousand tons. In 1990, an oil and gas field with predicted gas reserves of up to 4 billion cubic meters was discovered in the area where the Pyramid mine is located. m and oil - 25 million tons (Petunia Bay).

To this day, the issues of resuming the activities of the preserved infrastructure of a residential village remain relevant. There are also proposals from foreign businessmen for this issue, but they were not considered by anyone.

(from the report of the Accounts Chamber 2004)

Wiki: ru:Pyramiden (village) en:Pyramiden uk:Pyramiden (village) de:Pyramiden (Spitzbergen)

Pyramid village, description and map linked together. After all, We are places on the world map. Explore more, find more. Find interesting places around, with photos and reviews. Check out our interactive map with places around, get more detailed information, get to know the world better.