Weird facts about Svalbard ｜ Visit Norway

In this strange place, it's not allowed to give birth or to die. There are more polar bears than people. This is Svalbard! So if you would like to hear some more useful and strange facts about this unique place, follow along. Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago, which is located 930 kilometers from mainland Norway. And 60% of the landmass is covered by glaciers. And did you know that all of this is actually considered a desert? No way! Yeah, Svalbard is considered a polar desert or an arctic tundra. It's not illegal to be born or to die here, but pregnant women do travel to mainland to give birth. And the cemeteries in Svalbard are no longer accepting newcomers because the permafrost in the ground actually preserves the bodies and ends up pushing things to the surface. Okay, that's kind of creepy. Should we go somewhere else? Yeah, let's go. So now we've made it to the town limits and normally we wouldn't be able to go any farther past this sign. But luckily we have a local tour guide with us today. If you leave any of the settlements in Svalbard, you are required to take a rifle or a flare gun because of the polar bears. But you can't bring your rifle with you into the stores. Even though there's less than 3,000 residents of Svalbard, there's actually a great food culture here because it's so international. They only have one grocery shop here, but then again, it's freaking massive! And because so much is flown in or brought in on a ship from the mainland, things can get quite expensive. But on the other hand, a lot of things can also be much cheaper here because of the unique tax system that exists in Svalbard. Sometimes it can take up to 10 days before the groceries get here. So get your butter while you can. Here in Svalbard, between April and August, it's midnight sun, which means that the sun never sets underneath the horizon. Even though we have a lot of daylight in September, we're actually losing 20 minutes every day. And then for three whole months in the winter, it's polar dark. No sun at all. We do take a lot of vitamin D. Svalbard also has its very own type of reindeer. It has short legs and chunky bodies. It's kind of like a dachshund version of a reindeer. There hasn't been a cat in Svalbard since 2021. The cat pen is very important in preserving the wildlife of Svalbard. Svalbard is also home to some of the world's most northern places, like... Northernmost hairdresser, Northernmost gas station, Northernmost university, the brewery, and Northernmost church. Svalbard is also home to what's known as the Doomsday Vault. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault stores over a million seed varieties from around the world deep inside a frozen mountain, acting as humanity's ultimate backup plan for food security in case of global disasters. This might be either a terrible or excellent place to be when the zombie apocalypse happens. Hey, Gabriella. Did you know that there's no basements in Svalbard? That can't be true. All of the buildings in Ljungbyen are built on top of stilts due to the permafrost in the ground. Or, I'm sorry, there's like three houses here that's not on top of stilts. Everyone else is. I promise. In Svalbard, it's a tradition and common practice to actually take off your shoes when entering a business, a restaurant, a cafe, or anything, which dates back to the coal mining times when people didn't want to have to track coal into any places. We hope you learned something new about this important and unique place by the North Pole. Yes, and just remember that as long as you're not a cat, you are welcome to visit Svalbard and all its extraordinary wonder all year round.