Yakutsk, Russia
Yakutsk (Яку́тск) is the capital of the Sakha Republic (the Yakutia region, formerly the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Located in Siberia, it has some renown as the coldest city on earth. It has a population of around 200,000 people, so it defiantly qualifies as a city. But is it cold?
You bet your sweet Aunt Nelly it is! In January, daily high temperatures average around -40.9 °C. For those not impressed by facts and figures, that’s COLD. Warnings are issued to people about wearing glasses outside, as they have a tendency to freeze to the face and tear the flesh off when one tries to remove them. Nice visual there.
The coldest temperatures ever recorded outside Antarctica occur in the basin of the Yana River not far to the northeast. Conversely, July temperatures can often exceed 32 °C, making the region among the greatest in the world for seasonal temperature differences.
The biggest city built on continuous permafrost, Yakutsk is about 4° below the Arctic Circle, this roughly equates to 450 kilometres. Founded as a Cossack fort in 1632, it boomed upon the discovery of large reserves of gold and other minerals in the late nineteenth century. These reserves were developed extensively during the rapid period of industrialisation under Stalin. The influx of labour into the Siberian Gulags also ‘encouraged’ the development of the city.
Unimaginably rich in diamonds, gold, oil and gas, The Sakha Republic is the world's second largest producer and exporter of diamonds, and also has around 30 tons of gold mined within its borders annually. Signs of wealth are clear. Unlike other cities and towns in Siberia, modern buildings are sprouting up around the city. The fact that the city has eleven hotels speaks to Yakutsk's status as a regional centre.
Yakutsk has fifteen museums devoted to the history, traditions and customs of peoples of the region. It is said that the most impressive is The Treasures of the Republic of Sakha. According to the BootsnAll Travel Network (a great little site), the museum is:
well-guarded and accessible only to small groups of 2-4 visitors at a time, [and] houses the republic's most valuable and largest diamonds (by law, exceptionally large newly-mined diamonds belong to the state). Gold bricks and nuggets are also on display, along with many other precious and semi-precious stones, such as the radioactive charimite, found only in the Sakha Republic and the neighbouring Irkutsk Oblast (charamite can be bought in many tourist shops, but this is not recommended, given the radioactivity). The heart of the exhibit, however, is award-winning and often fanciful jewellery.
I would also like to visit The Permafrost Institute, which allows tourists to visit its underground research chamber. There, beneath the Earth's frozen crust, the temperature is a steady -5.00 °C all-year-round. The shaft is apparently the legacy of one early pioneer's attempt to dig a well.
The travel section in The Independent has also recently featured a fascinating piece on Yakutsk, so it is clearly must be a city on the rise!
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