Longyearbyen
Longyearbyen - perhaps you have heard the name before. It is the most northerly permanent settlement in the world and home to around 1700 people. It is on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard - often known as Spitzbergen - half way between the very north of mainland Norway and The North Pole. Longyearbyen is really only a hundred and twenty years old. It grew because of coal mining and owes its name to an American mining investor called John Munro Longyear. Fishing has also been an important industry and nowadays there is some tourism with associated facilities and a scientific research centre Svalbard Church - the most northerly church in the world Most inhabitants of Longyearbyen are Norwegian but other residents hail from Sweden, Russia and perhaps surprisingly Thailand. Thais form the second largest ethnic group. Mostly they arrive to undertake menial jobs including cleaning and kitchen work and invariably send the money they earn back to their families in Thailand. T...