Longyearbyen, the largest settlement in Norway's Svalbard archipelago, has an unusual and often misunderstood rule: dying there is strongly discouraged due to extreme permafrost conditions.

The town lies in the Arctic Circle, where the ground remains permanently frozen (permafrost), making traditional burial unsafe.

When bodies are buried in such frozen conditions, decomposition slows drastically or even halts entirely.

In fact, during a flu epidemic in 1918, bodies were buried in Longyearbyen's cemetery, and decades later, scientists found that the virus strains remained preserved in those corpses—raising public health concerns.

Because of this, Longyearbyen officially stopped allowing burials in 1950.

If someone is terminally ill or close to death, they are typically flown to mainland Norway to pass away. The town does not have the infrastructure to handle death in the usual way, and cremation or mainland burial is required instead.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, located on the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, is a critical global resource designed to preserve the genetic diversity of the world's crops.

It acts as a safeguard for the global food supply, ensuring that seeds from thousands of plant species are securely stored.

This facility was built in response to potential threats like natural disasters, war, climate change, or other events that could disrupt food production.

The vault, often referred to as the "Doomsday Vault," is housed inside a mountain, making it resistant to both natural and man-made calamities.

It holds a diverse collection of seeds from all over the world, providing an emergency backup in case of catastrophic events that threaten the global food chain.

This is the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, often called the “Doomsday Vault.” Located on a remote Norwegian island in the Arctic Circle, it stores over 1.2 million seed samples from almost every country on Earth. Its mission? To safeguard global crop diversity in case of natural disasters, war, or climate catastrophe.

Built 120 meters into a mountain and kept at sub-zero temperatures, the vault is engineered to withstand nuclear war, earthquakes, and rising sea levels. It’s only opened about six times a year for limited seed deposits and maintenance — making it one of the most secure and least-accessed places on the planet.

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