The Village where Residents have to Dig their way out of their Homes

It sounds like a nightmare; being buried alive  while you sleep, but for a small forgotten village in Northern Russia,  this is reality the residents can wake up to on any given morning.  Located on the edge of the arctic circle, Shoyna (Шо́йна) is considered  the world’s northernmost “desert” town because it’s surrounded by sand  dunes that stretch for 10 kilometers along the coast of the White Sea.  Villagers are at the mercy of the dunes that advance on their homes with  the relentless coastal winds and can swallow houses “in a single  night”, leaving only the roofs visible above the sand.

Alexei Golubtzov/ Focus Pictures

Where there are today just over 300 residents left, this half-buried  ghost town was originally intended to become a major fishing port and at  one time, Shoyna really was a thriving coastal settlement. Fishing  vessels lined the shores and families benefited from the abundance of  fish and sea life in the White Sea. But it didn’t take long before the  waters were over fished and the trade went into steep decline.

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