Where is Longyearbyen?

Longyearbyen, the land of the midnight sun, is in Norway.

It is the largest settlement and the administrative center of Svalbard, Norway. As of December 2015, the town had a population of 2,144. Longyearbyen is located in the Longyear Valley and on the shore of Adventfjorden, a bay of Isfjorden located on the west coast of Spitsbergen.

Since 2002, Longyearbyen Community Council has had many of the same responsibilities of a municipality, including utilities, education, cultural facilities, fire brigade, roads and ports. The town is the seat of the Governor of Svalbard. It is the world's northernmost settlement of any kind with greater than 1,000 permanent residents.

In the northernmost city in the world, it's illegal to be buried because it’s too cold for bodies to decompose.

The freezing temperature also requires that all houses must be built on stilts, so that when the island’s layer of topsoil melts in the summer houses don’t sink and slide away. Cats are banned from the city, in order to protect endangered Arctic birds, and due to the impending threat of polar bear attacks in the frigid Arctic Circle, all residents are required to carry a high-powered rifle at all times.