Remote islands, mountain villages, research outposts surrounded by permafrost — the world is full of incredibly hard-to-reach but scenic places where people somehow manage to live despite all the hardships they endure.
Northern Lights at Gásadalur. In order to enter or leave this village, located on Vágar, Faroe Islands, people had to brave an arduous trek over the about 400-meters high mountains that surround the settlement.
La Rinconada is a mining community located in the Peruvian Andes. It lies atop the Sleeping Beauty glacier at the height of about 16,700ft and is the highest place where humans live in the world.
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© Flickr / Alan Light
Located on the southern tip of Ross Island, McMurdo Station is a US Antarctic research facility capable of supporting up to 1,200 residents.
Elliðaey Island, Westman Islands, Iceland. For about 300 years only five families lived on this island, and now the only structure still standing there is a hunting lodge.
Ittoqqortoormiit is one of the most remote towns of Greenland, located in the Sermersooq municipality in the eastern part of the island, with a population of 452 as of 2013.
Kerguelen archipelago, also known as the Desolation Islands, forms one of the five districts of the territory of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (TAAF) and is located in the southern Indian Ocean. No indigenous inhabitants live there, though France maintains a permanent presence of about 100 researchers and engineers.
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© AP Photo
Pitcairn Island, is located in the southern Pacific Ocean. Inhabited by the descendants of the Bounty mutineers, about 56 families in total, it is the least populous national jurisdiction in the world.
Alert is a community in Canada and is the northernmost permanently inhabited place in the world, located only about 500 miles away from the North Pole.
Motuo county is located in the southeast of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. A place well known for its scenic sights and lush flora, it is surrounded by steep and inhospitable mountains.
Tristan da Cuhna is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world. As of September 2015 the island has a population of 301, and is located about 1,200 miles away from the nearest inhabited land, Saint Helena.
