Welcome to Yakutsk, Russia. It is the coldest city on the Earth. It’s the capital of the Sakha Republic State in Russia. You might wonder why people would want to live in such a cold place with undesireable weather and uncomfortable coldness. Well, the answer to the question is: Diamonds. This city has a well known  diamond reputation when, miners used to mine for jewles, diamonds were most mined for at that time. Yakutsk is one of the biggest cities in Siberia. It is so cold because it is located at only a freezing 280 miles south of the Arctic Circle.

This city has a lot of history: originally it was a fort which was built to protect the population from the Mongolian Empire when they invaded Russia. Later on, when imperial Russia took over, it became the capital city for the local ruling prince. It hit its peak popularity in the 1880’s when gold and other minerals were found in the area. On top of that, after more digging diamonds were found. Apparently, the area around Yakutsk is full of them. Let’s just say that this region is responsible for a fifth of the world’s production of diamonds.

Also, the city is also known for the local prisons and work-camps. The workers were used to expand the intense diamond research. The people who are living there now are mostly descended from a combination of the two waves of diamond miners: the volunteers and those Stalin condemned to the mines.