Kingdom of Permafrost - uVisitRussia

Kingdom of Permafrost

Located just 30 km out of Yakutsk city, the Permafrost Kingdom’s tunnel walls lead visitors through a network of caves packed with an extensive collection of eerily lit ice sculptures.

Yakutsk is surrounded by many hills. In the Soviet era the tunnel in one of them, located near the mountain Chochur Muran, was used as a huge cellar for food storage. In November 2008, tourist center “The Kingdom of Permafrost” was opened here.

Permafrost affects almost every aspect of life in Yakutsk, obstructing drainage, causing unstilted buildings to bow and then collapse, spontaneously chucking up mounds of earth, and emitting enough methane to possibly alter the earth’s climate catastrophically. The Permafrost Kingdom is a great way to get up close and personal with this nebulous and omnipresent beast. In this subterranean permafrost zone, the temperature ranges from –7°C in summer to a balmy (relative to outside temperatures) –20°C in winter.

At the entrance to the “Kingdom” visitors receive warm coats and boots. It is necessary because in summer the temperature in the tunnel is minus 4 degrees Celsius. But in winter the temperature does not fall below minus 10 degrees C, so after minus 50 degrees C outside it is a good place to get warm.