Inside Alert, Canada: The World's Northernmost Settlement

Located 500 miles from the North Pole, Alert is a Canadian military and scientific base in the Nunavut territory that hosts a rotating population of roughly 55 people.

Just a couple of hundred miles south of the North Pole is one very cold town, covered in sea ice for most of the year. Tucked on the northern edge of Ellesmere Island in Canada’s Nunavut territory, it’s called Alert — and it’s the northernmost inhabited settlement on the entire planet.

Alert is a unique place surrounded by icy mountains and valleys. Rather than a traditional town of streets and neighborhoods, Alert, a Canadian Forces Station (CFS) consists of a series of buildings and structures that huddle together in the frigid wintery tundra.

It’s home to a couple of dozen people — largely military and civilian personn