The Permafrost Museum is a unique place located in the north of the Krasnoyarsk Krai, not far from the city of Norilsk. The complex includes the only underground space in the world, situated 10 meters deep in the permafrost.
In 1930 a scientific laboratory was established in Igarka to study the physico-mechanical properties of permafrost. In 1931 a research station was created based on the laboratory. To maintain subzero temperatures, an underground excavation was organized where scientific experiments and monitoring were carried out. The results of many studies conducted at the station served as the scientific basis for construction in permafrost conditions.
The idea of creating a museum within the perennially frozen ground belongs to Mikhail Ivanovich Sungin — the founder of permafrost science. He believed that samples of flora and fauna could be preserved for millennia in the museum's underground part. The museum opened in 1965, and a constant temperature of -6°C is maintained there. The museum's first exhibit consisted of documents and books about the Yenisei River frozen in ice, dedicated to the study of permafrost soils.
Today the Permafrost Museum has both aboveground and underground sections. In the aboveground part you can view an exhibition dedicated to the plants and animals that lived on the Earth's surface one and a half million years ago. Here you can learn what permafrost is and how extensive it is in Russia, and get acquainted with the region's diverse flora and fauna. Of particular interest is the historical exhibit about the small indigenous peoples of the Far North.
In the underground section the main exhibit is the permafrost itself. Here you can see layers of segregated ice with frozen air bubbles alternating with layers of soil. In a 46-meter-long ice corridor there are chambers with scientific instruments used by permafrost researchers and exhibits embedded in the ice. The museum also has a historical department that tells the story of the Chum-Salekhard-Igarka transpolar railway, which was built by GULAG prisoners. In addition, the museum regularly hosts exhibitions of ceramic works and displays paintings by local artists.
