part of a huge system for transporting coal on cables
Longyearbyen is the largest populated area on the terrirory of Svalbard, located in the high Norwegian Arctic. The settlement is popular as the most easily accessed frontier in the Arctic, and is an ideal base for the greater exploration of Svalbard.
The settlement is named after American entrepreneur John Munro Longyear (1860-1922), who as head of the Arctic Coal Company founded the town and the neighboring coal mine, the first large mine on Svalbard. Mining is still a big business here, with the roadsides and mountainsides littered with mines and their equipment, but tourism is catching up fast.
With nearly 2000 inhabitants, the town is the de facto "capital" of the islands, featuring the airport, a school, a shopping center, hotels, restaurants, and more.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Longyearbyen
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Longyearbyen - updated May 2024
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Longyearbyen Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
