Man and nature have rarely seen eye to eye. The history of humanity is in many ways a history of people taking more and more from nature. Today we inhabit almost every corner of the world and while there are still some places that are simply uninhabitable by people, even those places are starting to get a little crowded. Here are some of the most interesting places where people shouldn’t be able to survive, but somehow do.
Pompeii (Italy) & Auckland (New Zealand)
Most people have heard of and know why Pompeii is so famous. It is a city that sits directly beneath Mount Vesuvius. The volcano famously erupted in 79 AD, more than 2000 years ago. The city was destroyed, at the same time, it was covered in ash, which allowed much of the city to be preserved. This has made it a huge tourist attraction and incredibly useful for historians.
However, locating a civilization beside an active volcano is simply not a good idea. Once the city was destroyed you would imagine that people learned their lesson but no, today there is a city in a place with a population of 25,000 people. The volcano has erupted in 1906 and 1944 and destroyed nearby towns on both occasions. There is every chance it could happen again. If that makes you nervous than consider the numerous city in the world built on top of fault lines at danger of an Earthquake. Or better still, think of Auckland in New Zealand a city built on 53 (you read that right, FIFTY-THREE) volcanos. A recipe for disaster. The Auckland volcanic field is dormant, not extinct and scientists say that there is a 0.1% chance of it erupting in any given year.
Motuo (China)
Close to the Himalayan mountains lies the settlement of Motuo. It is one of the most isolated places on Earth. The mountains surround the small area and trap air in the region creating a rainforest environment. There are no roads in the area as it is too wet and too muddy to build them. There are no hospitals or shops either. The settlement has to receive courier packages from motorcycles. YET, 10,000 people live there at present.
Verkoyhansk (Russia)
The coldest city in the world. Today Verkoyhansk is sporting a delightful 17 degrees Celsius and can reach highs of 37 degrees in the summer. Yet in the winter the city can record temperatures as low as -67,8 degrees Celsius. This has won it the world record for the coldest city in the world. In the past Russian leaders would send their enemies to Verkoyhansk to banish them from civilization. It was thought that survival there was almost impossible. Today about 2,000 people live in this city that is located in what is famously known as ‘Stalin’s Death Ring’
La Rinconada (Peru)
Considered to be the highest town in the world, La Rinconada defies belief. To get there is almost as dangerous as living there as you must travel on incredibly narrow roads over steep cliffs with no protection if a fall, skid, or issue takes place. The town itself though is actually built on a glacier. This means that over time the town itself will likely melt away and disappear. So why did man build a town on a glacier? For gold obviously. The town is located in this strange location because of the proximity to a gold mine.
Do you think you live somewhere even stranger than these places, or have you heard of somewhere worse? If so we want to hear about it. While we have listed the coldest, the highest, the most isolated and the most vulnerable, we want to know what could possibly beat them.
