From an island where its native people live
in complete isolation and kill anyone who tries to visit them, to a cursed village where
its citizens only live to be 35 years old. And from super rare halos that appear in the
middle of Greenland, to the most remote piece of land on the entire planet, here are the
most isolated places on earth. What if I told you that there was a country
that has never recorded a single case of vid 19? This place is Nauru which is the smallest
republic in the world. It is only 21 square kilometers in size, which is less than half
the area of Manhattan. But that is not the only record that Nauru is currently holding.
With just 200 visitors a year it is the least visited country in the world. One of the reasons for the low number of tourists
could be its catastrophic past. About 200 years ago Europeans discovered phosphate deposits
and turned the whole beautiful island into a massive strip mine. But when the phosphate
reserves were depleted in the 1990s, all that the mines left behind was a destroyed environment.
Today, Nauru is infertile and 80% of the entire island is covered in limestone. This terrible
mining also contaminated the waters and destroyed its ancient coral reef. Speaking of islands, our next place is North
Sentinel Island where its native people have lived in complete isolation for most of the
past 30,000 years. It is officially controlled by India. But if you had the silly idea of
asking the people living there, they would very likely kill you. In fact, they will attack
anyone who tries to enter this island. In 2018, a local tribe killed an American
tourist who tried visiting the island. The 26-year-old John Allen Chau paid fishermen
to ferry him over to the island. The fishermen warned him not to go but he did not listen.
Upon his arrival, he was immediately killed with arrows by the local people. Even other
indigenous groups from nearby islands are cautious of the North Sentinelese. They ve
lived so apart from them that at this stage they can t understand their language. But some people still made the mistake to
visit the island. In 1771 British colonists shipwrecked and accidentally arrived on the
island. They spent their time fending off attacks from the locals until they were rescued
by The Royal Navy. In 1880, Royal Navy Officer Maurice Vidal Portman and his fleet arrived
on the island. All of the islanders ran away, but four children were too slow and were captured.
These children got very ill and were returned to the tribe. Thereafter, the locals associated
outsiders with spreading diseases. In the 20th Century, anthropologist Trinok
Nath Pandit spent decades trying to reach out. He would send presents like coconuts
and fruits, and in 1991 he was finally in contact. He could not understand their language
and communication was difficult, and soon a young boy made a gesture to say he was going
to cut off his head. By 1996, they had stopped giving gifts and the Indian Navy established
a buffer zone to keep curious visitors away. Speaking of places that aren't very welcoming
to tourists, our next place is North Korea, which is one of the most isolated countries
in the world. After the Korean War ended about 70 years ago, the country split into North
and South Korea. The North became a communist state and closed itself off from the rest
of the world. According to Vox, you can only own a computer
with permission from the government. Then you get access to the few websites available
that are controlled by the regime. Any information about its leader, Kim Jong Un, will be highly
complementary. According to local news outlets, he could drive at the age of three, has discovered
a drug that cures cancer, and can even control the weather. The country has a wealthy elite class and
a functioning middle class. But most of the people in North Korea are poor and struggle
for basic supplies. In 2020, Sky News reported that North Korea had ordered its citizens
to give up their pets, which were to be used as meat due to food shortages. International travel is very limited, and
anyone who visits is under strict supervision. Those with US and South Korean passports are
normally not allowed in, as North Korea sees these countries as their enemies. Most tourists
come from China, a country that is a key ally to them. North Koreans cannot freely travel around
the country, never mind travel to a different country. Since the Korean War ended, it's
estimated that around 300,000 have somehow managed to escape. But if you re caught, you
could be sent to a prisoner camp, or even killed. Worst of all, if you do escape, the
government will come for your family members and send them to a prison camp. So most people
are trapped in this politically isolated place, with little or no contact with the outside
world. From North Korea to North Africa, Siwa in
Egypt is one of the most remote oasis in the world. Although part of Egypt, the region
has its own language and culture. It is a place that you can visit, but it's very difficult
to reach. To get to Siwa, you have to take a bus from Cairo which takes roughly 9 to
12 hours, traveling through bumpy and remote terrain. However, in recent years more and more people
are trying to reach this isolated oasis as it received a massive tourist boost from being
shared on Instagram. The oasis s salt pools contain so much salt that the water is extremely
clear and you don t need to move a muscle to float. Images from Instagram make it look
like you are floating on air. So far we have only visited places that have
a tropical or warm climate, but what about the North? Welcome to Ittoqqortoormiit in
Greenland. This place is so isolated, that its guest house in Ittoqqortoormiit has been
dubbed the most remote hotel on Earth. There are no cars and no phone signals. It's about
as remote as the average tourist can get. Greenland is a country with the lowest population
per square kilometer anywhere in the world. Its average population is literally 0.0 people
per square kilometer, and the majority of the 57,000 citizens live in its capital, Nuuk. In Ittoqqortoormiit, residents have access
to heating and electricity, and Wifi is available in the local recreation area. You can order
something on Amazon, and it will eventually arrive on a charter plane which travels once
every two months. But if you want to get even further north,
you can go to Alert in Canada. It is the northernmost continuously inhabited place in the world. But to travel here is easier said than done.
It is not a village or town, but a military base for the Canadian military. According
to data from 2018, 80 people live there and they are 800 km away from the nearest community.
So even by plane, it will take you at least 1 hour to get to the closest city. But isolation isn't the only thing making
life difficult in Alert. There are 24 hours of sunlight in the summer, but 24 hours of
darkness in the winter. Therefore, you will be medically screened before your arrival
and anyone suffering from depression or alcoholism is advised not to go. You are limited to two
drinks of alcohol per day when staying there. During the winter, the temperature drops below
-50 degrees celsius. If you stay out too long in this cold you can lose consciousness, develop
hypothermia and even die. Relatively close to the remote city of Alert
lies the Summit Station, one of the world s most remote research stations. Funnily enough,
the nearest town is Ittoqqortoormiit, which we've already covered and which has the most
isolated hotel in the world. The Summit Station studies the Arctic climate
system and its impact on the overall global climate. But what makes this place so special
are the super rare and unusual atmospheric optics. Under the right conditions, halos,
sun dogs, and upper tangent arcs can be observed. The station lies on a mountain about 3.2 kilometers
above sea level, which means that it is usually safe from polar bears. However in 2018, a
polar bear did visit the station and everyone fled into the main house, while others lured
it away by operating loud machinery and giving it food. It was the first polar bear to visit
since 1988. And speaking of being high up, have you ever
wondered what is the highest human settlement in the world? La Rinconada is a remote village
in the Peruvian Andes. 5 kilometers up the mountains is something known as the town that
loves playing the lottery . It received this name because its residents
unfortunately often work themselves to death in hopes of finding gold. The life expectancy
in La Rinconada is just 30-35 years old. The workers operate according to a system in which
they work for the mining company for 30 days without any pay. But on the 31st day, they
can take as much rock out of the mine as they can carry on their shoulders. If the workers
are lucky, the rocks will contain a small amount of gold. But if they're unlucky, they've
worked the whole month for nothing. The village has become a world of its own.
When the Peruvian police traveled up to control the area, the miners used dynamite from the
mines to scare them away. Despite the gold surrounding the area, living conditions are
tough. There is a lack of running water, electricity, and plumbing. The gold is both a blessing
and a curse for the village. Only a few have managed to become rich, but many died trying. Another remote location in Latin America is
Brazil s Snake Island and it could be the most hostile place on earth. Not a single
person lives here and you can probably gather why from its name. This island has between
2000-4000 lancehead pit vipers and has the highest concentration of venomous snakes in
the world. It takes just one bite from one of these snakes and you will die a painful
death within one hour. But lancehead pit vipers are not the only snakes on the island. In
fact, you can expect about one snake for every square meter of island. There are local legends about the island.
One involved a local fisherman who went onto the island to get bananas and was soon found
dead on his boat in a pool of blood. There s also the story of the lighthouse keeper
on the island, who left the window open one night and he and his entire family were killed
by a group of snakes. It s a place you wouldn't wish your worst enemy accidentally visited. The island became a snake island naturally.
Sea levels rose after the end of the last ice age and the island was isolated from the
rest of the land. The snakes on this island then had less ground-level animals to prey
upon and started preying upon birds. Over time, the snakes evolved and became more venomous.
Their venom needs to work fast, or else the birds can just fly away. Today, they are three
to five-time more venomous than snakes found in mainland Brazil. If you re crazy enough to visit this island,
you need special clearance. The only people who visit the island are scientists, who extract
venom from the snakes. The venom can be used then to develop medicine to potentially cure
diseases. If you venture further across the Atlantic
Ocean, you ll find Tristan da Cunha. It s been dubbed the world s most remote inhabited
island group in the world. And unlike most of the remote islands we ve mentioned earlier,
there is no airport. To get to Tristan da Cunha, you need to get
on a ship from Cape Town. Not only that, you need the island s permission to travel too.
This is a 2810 km trip and will take about 6 days. Life has been very peaceful on this island,
except in 1961 when the entire island had to be evacuated due to a volcano eruption.
The island is a British territory so the islanders were brought over to England. After a few
years, the islanders got homesick and simply moved back when it was safe to do so. But besides its volcano, this beautiful island
does have another downside. If you want to order something from Amazon, it will take
four months to arrive. If that is not far away from humanity for
you, you should try to get to Bouvet Island. It s s the most remote uninhabited island
in the world as it is furthest from any other land on Earth. Getting there is extremely difficult. There
are no airports nearby. There s not even a harbor on the island. It s technically a nature
reserve so you re not allowed to visit, but it s unlikely there will be anyone there to
forbid you from entering. The seas are rough and most of the island is covered in ice,
so it s incredibly difficult to arrive by boat too. What has been done in the past is
to sail near the island and launch a helicopter from the boat onto the island. Only scientists
and researchers ever visit the island. In the 1970s, the Norwegian government declared
Bouvet island a nature reserve. Not a single human lives there, and the place receives
rarely any visitors, so this is probably the most isolated piece of land you could find
on Earth. But if the most isolated piece of land is
still not far away from humanity for you, you could go one final step further. The most
remote place on Earth is Point Nemo. This isn t actually an island or a piece of land,
but a specific point in the Pacific ocean. It is the furthest point in the ocean from
land. You are as far from humanity as you can possibly get on Earth. Point Nemo is 2,688
kilometers from the nearest land in every different direction. The nearest islands are
Ducie Island, Maher Island in Antarctica, and Moto Nui in the Easter Islands. But these
are not really big islands either. In fact, Moto Nui is the only island of these with
inhabitants and has a small population of 5700. So the people closest to Point Nemo might
even be the astronauts orbiting 400 km above it on the International Space Station. Because
this area is so remote, it is also used as a spacecraft dumping ground. Over the past
50 years, over 260 pieces of space junk have crashed into Point Nemo. This is because it's
safer to crash old satellites and spacecraft in the ocean rather than letting them float
around randomly in space. But apart from some rocket parts and satellites that crash once
every few months, there isn't much going on in this place. Which of these places would you like to visit?
Let us know in the comments below! If you want to watch another of our videos, you can
watch our video about The Most Useless Megaprojects in the World . Thank you for watching, and
we will see you in the next video!
