The human geography of far eastern Russia.

Magadan is a city in far eastern Russia with a population of 100,000, a seaport, and a major airport. It is also in the middle of nowhere — the closest city is Yakutsk, 1,240 miles away, which also happens to be the coldest city on Earth (the average January temperature is -45°F). There’s only one road leading to Magadan, the thousand-mile Road of Bones, built by gulag inmates. Two million people died building the road; all of their bodies were incorporated into the road, with an average of 1,000 bodies per kilometer. The lack of bridges makes the road impassable to anything other than highly specialized, all-terrain, military-style semis. Ewan McGregor and Charlie Bohrman travelled the length of the road in their 2004 trip around the world, though it proved impassable on their motorcycles.