Visiting the COLDEST CITY in the World (-71°C, -96°F)

Siri, what is the temperature? It's minus 47 degrees outside. Air temperature in Antarctica is negative 14.8 degrees Fahrenheit or negative 20 degrees Celsius. Here it is negative 58 degrees Fahrenheit or negative 47 degrees Celsius. Our lungs are not used, that's why we're coughing. The weather here is very cold and dry. There is a large population here. Approximately 300,000 inhabitants. Yakutsk is the capital of the Sahara Republic, an autonomous region that is allied with Russia, 280 miles away from the North Pole. Since this place is the most north-eastern point of Siberia, it is very much isolated from the rest of the world. Outside temperature is around negative 58 degrees Fahrenheit. The boiling water is about 212 degrees Fahrenheit. As you see, it instantly turns into ice crystals. The lowest air temperature ever measured in this region is negative 96.16 degrees Fahrenheit. It is as if it belongs to another planet. A banana left outside can turn into a hammer in minutes. People cannot wear metal frame glasses here because the metal could stick to their skin. And if they wanted to take off their glasses, their flesh might be teared out. This is a piece of meat that looks very much like human flesh. Let's just put it in contact with metal. As you can see, these are natural gas pipes and they have to be laid above the ground because the underground is frozen with ice. There is actually a 100-foot thick mass of ice under the city. Look, this river is completely frozen. During the Soviet era, people who contradicted Stalin's ideas were exiled to the Sahara Republic region. They were politicians, businessmen, etc. As a matter of fact, some of these people who live in Yakutsk right now are their grandchildren. So this place used to be a land of exile. Today, there is a city life going on. But we could call this life an ice hell. It pushes the limits of human nature. No matter how much we bundle up, nothing is enough to keep our bodies warm. If you have a car here, you have a big problem. Winter lasts for 6-7 months here. And in that time, you can never drive your car. If you insist on driving it, you can never stop your vehicle's engine. For example, the car with a running engine you can see here is empty. There is nobody inside. There are hundreds of cars like this. The reason why the engine is running. If it stops, it can be completely covered with ice. And the engine oil will freeze. As you can see, the owner of this vehicle must have decided not to run his or her car for a while. Just after 20 minutes of the engine being off, it is common to give up hope. Another frozen car here, waiting to be reused next summer. This car is running, right? Let's see if there is anybody inside. Yeah, nobody. Can you imagine what a huge waste of energy this actually is? Fortunately, Russia is a country that is quite rich in oil and natural gas resources. Even the exhaust smoke freezes. That's how cold it is. There are special covers for protection. Sometimes this is not enough too. People who can afford it keep their vehicles in a heated garage. Because these vehicles are constantly running, there is a constant layer of exhaust smoke over the city. Range of visibility is often below 200 feet due to the smoke. The houses here have completely different architecture. The reason why the buildings are built on pillars is that the ground is covered with ice. And there is a possibility of ice shift. Old houses start to lean over after a decade or so. Because the amount of ice either increases or decreases. It feels like pins and needles. The worst thing that could happen is to get frostbite. Considering a refrigerator operates at about 40 degrees Fahrenheit. A freezer operates at about negative 4 degrees Fahrenheit. Since the temperature here is negative 58 degrees Fahrenheit. Everywhere you can see here could function as a very high-tech freezer. That's why some people are able to store their fruits or their meats just by hanging them outside their windows. Can I make a sled out of this? I just took off my gloves for just a minute for filming. Now it hurts terribly. My eyelashes are frozen too. I'm trying to break the ice. Move. Move. If you would stay outside for more than 15 minutes, you would experience problems such as skin burns and difficulty in breathing. Chill that starts with a needle prick-like pain. Frostbite followed by sensationalism. And then it could result in death. She took off her gloves for just 5 minutes for filming. Her fingertips instantly turned white. Our microphone is giving a red warning. It is not working properly. The camera is also not working as it should. Its cover is frozen. Our phones don't work as well. Her battery was about 10% a couple of minutes ago. And then it suddenly died whereas it was actually full. What you see behind me is a cemetery. The thickness of the ice under my shoes is about 100 feet. And this ice mass under the city does not melt even in the summer. So how do people bury the dead? They gather pieces of coal and burn them for 2-3 days. Once the coal is burned, the blocks of ice thaw and it can be easily removed using shovels. Finally, the area can be excavated to a depth of 6-7 feet. The body of a person who died 100 or 200 years ago can be found very robust even today. 20% of the world's total diamond reserves are in Yakutsk. In addition to that, there are also all the elements in the periodic table. There are many mammoth and dinosaur fossils under the Yakutia territories. In these areas where mammoths once roamed, their intact corpses still show up as the ice melts today. In this land where people cannot engage in agriculture or farming, people eat fish. One of the most important features of this market is that they display the fish in public stalls rather than in refrigerators. Outside is much colder than any refrigerator. A piece of meat left outside won't spoil for months. There are also frozen rabbits here. They are consumed a lot including with the ducks. Horse meat is also very common. It is about 45 pounds. They take this fish as a whole, put it outside and consume it for days. This one is also on sale. It never spoils of course. Its ears are not moving at all. How many hours do you work here per day? For how long have you been doing this? How many layers of clothing are available? They stand on such furs, they do not feel the cold coming to their feet. Yakutian people, who make up the majority of the population, are Turkic in origin. 38% of the population are Russian in origin. There are only such dogs here. Unfortunately, cats cannot survive. Only mammals with a really thick fur. There are two layers of glass inside the cars. So when the air conditioner warms the interior, it doesn't lose its temperature immediately. The scariest thing about being on the road is that people whose cars break down have a risk of dying if they cannot fix it within 30 minutes. Otherwise, engine oil under the hood freezes in minutes. If people get stranded in these rural areas with no phone signal, they have no choice but to freeze to death within a couple of hours. That's why every driver carries a toolbox in his or her car. Our journey to the village was completed with a dog sled ride. During our time on the dog sled, I nearly lost an ear that was exposed to the wind and the cold. The pain was unbearable. Maria just accepted us to her village house. We're gonna know more about these mysterious Yakut people. Can you see it? As thick as my finger. I cannot feel it. It's quite numb. Look, my other ear is much thinner. Horses here are much shorter than the usual horses. Their bodies are conditioned to be short. That's how they can keep themselves warmer. Less surface area to worry about. They gave us their own clothes. We bundled up. You can tell by looking at the frozen boat that we're walking on a frozen lake. We try to hit it at a 90 degree angle. We just drill a 20 to 25 inch diameter hole. Cows will come and meet their water needs. We're constantly removing the ice. How long does it take for this water to again completely cover the ice? In one hour. Cows in this village are always kept in the barns in winter. They don't ever feel cold? They do, of course. That's why they don't spend much time outside. What's exactly? Your ear got first bitten. If it lasted longer, it would be very dangerous. They would have to cut it, right? If they cannot save it, they can cut it because the cells are dead. For your ear, it's a traditional Yakut medicine. Fat of a bear. Bear? Yeah, my father took it from hunters. This will help frostbite and also if you burn it. If you look at it from behind, you'll see it more clearly. It is seriously swollen and they call it frostbite. I would probably have risked my entire ear if I had been in the cold for more than 15 minutes. The nature has no joke here. What is the coldest temperature you have ever witnessed? The coldest temperature is negative 71 Celsius. What is cold for you? If I have good clothes, if I have enough clothes. Before negative 40, it's not like real winter temperature for me. Negative 41, negative 48, it's like fine. Below negative 48, it's cold. And below negative 52, it's very cold. And every degree feels... The funny thing is like cold weather feels like fire, like burning. Yeah, that's true. Now my ear is burning. I feel it's so hot. Sometimes people drink too much and they fall asleep somewhere outside. And one night outside some people didn't have proper clothes and they went to the woods and their car broke down. They couldn't call someone because no phone service. Yeah, and it ended. What do you think about nature? Whole lifestyle of Yakut people, of Saha people, it's taking care of nature, respecting it. Early childhood, me and my family, we used to go to the woods to fish, to hunt. It's just a part of our life. And we always remember that we are not the owners of this land. We are just guests. For example, we always make a ritual. When we go to pick some berries, we always take a little food with us. We leave it on the ground and say, nature, please share with us, please give us some food. It's for the master of that land, for the spirit. You believe nature has a spirit. Yes. For example, when we go to the forest, you shouldn't speak loud because you can disturb the spirits. You shouldn't drink there, have fun there, throw the garbage. Don't bother, don't disturb, don't destroy. Yakut religion is not something which is written in a book or there is a church. There is one center of our religion, but it's not something that, like in other religions, that we do every day, we should pray. We don't do something like that. But it's in our mind, it's in our lifestyle, and it's all related to nature. For what we have, you thank nature instead of gods. The gods are nature. Our gods are like part of nature. Now I understand. Why don't you migrate to the south, where it's warmer? Because living in these temperatures is like torture. It's torture for you, but not for us. The first reason is my family. My family is here, and for me the best is to be close to my parents, to my brothers. And secondly, I like the nature here, it's very pure. The ecology is very pure. For me and for my future children, breathing fresh air is very important. Third, because of our culture. I want to preserve our language, our traditions, and give them to the next generations. Yakutsk has summers as well. In July, the average daily temperature is about 67 degrees Fahrenheit. Due to global warming, ice mass of our world is melting, and mammoth corpses are coming up. But also, viruses hiding for thousands of years, which modern humans have never met before, can come to light. When Europeans migrated to North America, the flu they took with themselves to the continent killed most of the Native Americans who had been isolated for centuries. The flu didn't kill us because our immune system was strong. Similarly, ancient diseases to which we are not immune can come to light with the melting of the ice in these regions of the world and have devastating consequences. Thank you for watching. This video was the first episode of a travel documentary series called Rediscovery. I go to unique places which are not known to many and make a documentary about them with a comprehensive approach. The next coming video on this channel will be second episode of Rediscovery. I went inside of this huge ice mass and discovered the permafrost. During the whole documentary series, we got to know more about incredible daily life in negative 67 degrees Fahrenheit, these mysterious Yakut people and their surprising culture. If you don't want to miss that video and to watch all of our videos, definitely subscribe. I would also like to thank my team for creating this project with me. Goodbye now. Ruhi Sinek was here.