It sounds like a nightmare; being buried alive while you sleep, but for a small forgotten village in Northern Russia, this is reality the residents can wake up to on any given morning. Located on the edge of the arctic circle, Shoyna (Шо́йна) is considered the world’s northernmost “desert” town because it’s surrounded by sand dunes that stretch for 10 kilometers along the coast of the White Sea. Villagers are at the mercy of the dunes that advance on their homes with the relentless coastal winds and can swallow houses “in a single night”, leaving only the roofs visible above the sand.

Alexei Golubtzov/ Focus Pictures

Where there are today just over 300 residents left, this half-buried ghost town was originally intended to become a major fishing port and at one time, Shoyna really was a thriving coastal settlement. Fishing vessels lined the shores and families benefited from the abundance of fish and sea life in the White Sea. But it didn’t take long before the waters were over fished and the trade went into steep decline.

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