Panoramio's Blog

The island of Spitzbergen is the largest island of Svalbard archipelago (names are often exchanged). It is located at latitude=78º and longitude=17º, very, very North. As you can imagine the nature there is wonderful as you can see in this mini-panoramio:

There are many interesting facts about Svalbard. Despite Norwegian sovereignty not all Norwegian law applies there. Under the terms of a Svalbard Treaty “If you’re able to find a job, you have the right according to the treaty to come here”. 40 countries have rights to exploit mineral deposits “on a footing of absolute equality”, but there are only Norwegian and Russian mining settlements. By the year 2007 the Norwegian government is going to build a ‘Doomsday Seed Bank‘ in which all species of seeds will be stored. The official language of Svalbard is Norwegian, but before they spoke Russenorsk, a mix of Norwegian and Russian, can you imagine? Skål and Nasdarovia!

Related: How to include a mini-panoramio in your site.