Yakutsk: Images of the coldest city in the world
While a severe cold wave sweeps across North America and Europe, the Siberian city of Yakutsk, in northern Russia, calmly endures another winter where temperatures easily reach -45 degrees Celsius!
By: Oasis Team
Photos: Amos Chapple
Located in the permanently frozen tundra of Russia's far east, Yakutsk, the capital of Yakutia (Eastern Siberia), is breaking all records for low temperatures. In recent days, due to the harsh winter, the temperature has dropped to -45 degrees Celsius daily.
Yakutsk has approximately 236 inhabitants and is a remote region covering more than 1 million square kilometers. Yakutsk is one of the coldest cities in the world. Average annual temperatures are -21 degrees Celsius. The city experiences very varied temperatures, with long summers and winters, each lasting around four months. In summer, temperatures range between 0 and 25 degrees Celsius, and in winter between -40 and -25 degrees.
It was founded as a Cossack fort in 1632 and remained just a village until the discovery of Siberian gold reserves in the late 19th century. These reserves were intensively exploited during the industrialization of the Soviet Union under Stalin's rule, which contributed to the urban development of Yakutsk.
The inhabitants of Yakutsk pride themselves on the intense cold that reigns in the city, especially during the long winters. The region is so rich in natural resources that it probably contains all the elements of the Periodic Table. A local legend tells that when God was creating the world and distributing its riches, upon arriving in Yakutia his hands became numb from the cold, causing him to drop all the riches there. The region is rich in gold and is responsible for 20% of the world's production of rough diamonds.
Gallery de fotos:
1. A woman covers her face to protect it from the gusts of wind. In Yakutsk's central square, when it's windy, the wind chill can drop to -55 degrees Celsius!
2. A woman returns home after a day's work at the university. The majority of Yakutsk's population consists of natives of Yakutia, but in recent years many Russians and Ukrainians have moved there.
3. A house almost entirely covered in ice in the center of Yakutsk.
4 frozen sneakers await next summer to be worn again.
5. Woman photographed in the center of Yakutsk. The smoke from factories, cars, and home heating systems produces a thick fog during the winter that sometimes makes it difficult to walk through the city's narrow streets.
6. "The Road of Bones": This is the nickname of the Kolyma Highway, built during the Stalinist era by prisoners from the forced labor camps that existed in the region (the gulags). To build it, many prisoners died of hunger and cold. This highway is today the most important artery connecting Yakutsk to the rest of Russian territory.
7. A woman from Yakutsk enters the Preobrazhensky Cathedral, leaving behind the freezing fog that covers the streets.
8. A strange guard dog performs its duties in a city suburb. The dogs in this region of Siberia have developed an extraordinary resistance to low temperatures.