Places That Are Famous for the Strangest Reasons

Deep inside a mountain on a remote Norwegian island lies a vault that could be humanity’s last hope. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, opened in 2008, is a fail-safe storage facility for the world’s crops. Nicknamed the “Doomsday Vault,” it holds duplicate samples of seeds from gene banks all over the globe, safeguarding them from war or disaster. It’s not a tourist attraction, but a stark, concrete door sticking out of a frozen mountain. Its fame comes from its crucial, if somber, mission: to be a backup hard drive for our food supply.