When humanity’s not trying to destroy itself, its steadily redefining its boundaries. Every passing year, we create further-flung outposts in places nature never intended to us to inhabit. Here are the loneliest places mankind has made its bed in search of the unknown, the overwhelming and the great.
The Salomon August Andrée’s Station at Danskøya, Svalbard, Norway, c1900
Photo: Library Of Congress
A Buddhist shrine at the Chang La pass, with an altitude of 5360m near Leh in Ladakh, India
Photo: Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images
The Tektite I habitat, an underwater laboratory, located in Great Lameshur Bay, Saint John, US Virgin Islands in 1969
Photo: OAR/National Undersea Research Program
The Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, 1979
Photo: Commander John Bortniak/NOAA Corps
The Hydrolab research station of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration at the Bahamas and the Virgin Islands (1970-1985)
Photo: OAR/National Undersea Research Program
Princess Elisabeth Antarctica, Belgium’s zero-emission polar research station anchored on the granite ridge of Utsteinen Nunatak, Dronning Maud Land, East-Antarctica
Photo: René Robert/International Polar Foundation
The Monte Rosa Hut, at an altitude of 2795m, owned by the Swiss Alpine Club
Photo: twiga269
The French-Italian Concordia research station in Antarctica, built on an ice plateau 3200m high in one of the most remote places on Earth
Photo: A. Kumar/ESA/IPEV/PNRA
The NASA Radome at the McMurdo Station, Antarctica
Photo: Alan Light
India’s brand new Antarctic Station called ‘Bharati’
Photo: Bof Architekten
Summit Station, a small US National Science Foundation research centre situated 3200m above sea level, on Greenland
Photo: Brennan Linsley/AP
The Northeast Science Station near Chersky, Northern Siberia, Russia
Photo: Arthur Max/AP
The Mauna Loa Observatory sits on the north flank of Mauna Loa volcano at an elevation of 3396 meters above sea level in Hawaii
Photo: Chris Stewart/AP
The Schneefernerhaus, a former hotel in the Alps, now an environmental research station. It lies immediately below the summit of the Zugspitze at a height of 2650m
Photo: Sir James/Wikimedia Commons
The NOAA Aquarius Reef Base located in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, adjacent to Conch Reef
Photo: NASA/NEEMO
Porer is one of 11 lighthouses available for rent on the eastern Adriatic
Photo: Darko Bandic/AP
The IceCube laboratory at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station
Photo: Sven Lidstrom/National Science Foundation
The late Mir Space Station (as viewed from the Space Shuttle Discovery during STS-63)
Photo: NASA
The recently opened Halley VI Modular Research Station on the Brunt Ice Shelf, in northwest Antarctica
Photo: British Antarctic Survey
The International Space Station (ISS) (taken from STS-119 Space Shuttle Discovery)
Photo: NASA
Know of any that we missed? Post it in the comments!