Pyramiden: population 6. The Soviet ghost town frozen in time high in the Arctic

‘Maybe I’m the northernmost headbanger in the world.’

Once a thriving Soviet mining settlement, Pyramiden, located far above the Arctic Circle on Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, has been almost entirely abandoned since it was shut down in 1998. Now a tourist attraction, the sprawling ghost town is home to just six year-round residents. Pyramiden chronicles the quiet, largely solitary life of one of them, Aleksandr Romanovsky, who likes to go by the nickname ‘Sasha from Pyramiden’. He has worked as a tour guide at the Russian settlement since 2012 when, he thinks, he was the only person to apply for the job. A loner by nature, Romanovsky has come to feel at home in this unusual, otherworldly place, where he spends the time between giving tours and warding off polar bears by enjoying solitary pursuits, such as playing guitar and learning Spanish.