Ordinary mortals aren’t allowed in. There are no soldiers or guards in front of the entrance, but to cross the threshold you have to be sent by the organization that gathers products here. Sometimes journalists are allowed in too, but you have to wait a long time for approval. The doors are closed 350 days a year.

The Global Seed Vault was created in 2008 on Spitsbergen Island, 1300 kilometers from the North Pole, thanks to the efforts of the Norwegian government and two international organizations, the Crop Trust and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center. The main purpose of the seed bank is to collect duplicates or backup copies of the seeds that are collected in banks throughout the world. At the moment there are more than 1,700 such institutions. All of this is done in case there’s a catastrophe, a war, or natural disaster in some global region. You could ask: “And what if such a catastrophe happens on Spitsbergen?” It’s unlikely. By treaty, the island is a demilitarized zone. It’s the northernmost human settlement, far from the majority of conflicts, but not so far that contact is particularly difficult—charter flights arrive here regularly. Plus the cold climate, moderated by a warm westerly current, means the Svalbard archipelago is the ideal place to create an “ark” of seeds that can rescue all of humanity if a mass tragedy occurs.