Russia's Road Of Bones Is Even More Horrifying Than The Name Implies

As its name implies, permafrost is a permanent state of ice that is just below or above the Earth's surface layer (via National Geographic). According to Mega Projects, over 18 million people were moved through the Kolyma area between 1932 and 1952, experiencing the extreme swings in the area's temperatures. In summer, the area can get up to 77°F and is filled with swarming insects. While little is known about the overall method of construction of the highway, it is known that the laborers only utilized hand tools to build it (via World Atlas). Over 1.6 million of the laborers, many of them political prisoners, died of starvation, diseases, and even murder. So how did permafrost impact those lost?

Overseers could not bury bodies in the ground as it was in a permanently frozen state. As the Kolyma Highway was being built, it was easier to inter the bodies where road progress had taken place. To add insult to injury, the flesh was thought to make good solid mortar for the roads (via DarkTourists.com). The bones are plentiful and intact underneath the highway today, which lies between the port city of Magadan and the Nizhny Bestyakh urban settlement.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qL7Up56eZpOkunCFmHFscWhfp8K0v8iaqmaqn5axbrvFZpmoppWoeqq%2FjJ6tnqZdoryzsYyhpquqmZvGqrrGZquhmZ5iwamxjKeYpp1dnrqxuMieqmg%3D