March 26, 2017 Comments (2) Views: 2614 Urban Trekker

It’s hard to tell which is the world’s most remote city, but they are a plethora of them to consider anyway. According to the Guardian, “if remoteness can be measured with a single number, related to distance, Honolulu looks like the winner.” However, there are hundreds of daily flights to the Hawaiian capital which makes this city well connectible and anything but remote. Then, there is that one city in the Amazon jungle that has more than 400,000 residents but is not reachable by car, or Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in Russia that is surrounded by volcanoes and it costs fortunes to reach it by airfare. Most likely, the world’s most remote cities are neither capital cities nor top touristic destinations, but that does not make them less beautiful than places such is Honolulu.

#1 Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia

It is deemed that the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky was founded by a Danish navigator known as Vitus Bering in the service of the Russian Navy. Most likely, Bering reached Avacha Bay in late 1740’s and as the honors go, he named the new settlement “Petropavlovsk” after his two ships, the St. Peter and the St. Paul. During the Soviet Union times, Petropavlovsk was a great source of fish, particularly salmon and crab meat. Rather than these notable facts, this city is located some 6,766 kilometers from the Russian capital Moscow, and about 2,220 kilometers from Vladivostok.

Petropavlovsk is scattered on high hills and surrounded by few seemingly active volcanoes too. The surrounding terrain is so mountainous that the horizon cannot be seen clearly from any point in city. Across the Pacific ocean bay of Avacha from the city lies also Russia’s largest submarine base. Known as the Rybachiy Nuclear Submarine Base, it was established during the Soviet times but it is still used by the Russian Navy.

According to census data, the population is dropping in this Kamchatka-based remote city. In 1989, there were more than 260,000 inhabitants in Petropavlovsk, and in 2010, the number has dropped to little less than 180,000.

No roads connect the Kamchatka Peninsula to the rest of the world, therefore the most convenient way to reach the city is via the local airport. Despite the remoteness of Petropavlovsk, tourism is slightly growing in the region due to its gripping, unique scenery. Bear hunting and paragliding are just a few of the services offered by at least twenty large tourism companies. Nevertheless, it costs fortunes to reach this destination.

#2 Iquitos, Peru

Nestled in the Amazon, Iquitos is also called as the “capital of the Peruvian Amazon”. This remote city is situated in the Great Plains of the Amazon Basin, nurtured by three rivers: Amazon, Nanay, and Itaya. Home of over 450,000 residents, Iquitos counts for the largest city in the world that cannot be reached by road and is accessible only by river or air.

“It’s a prosperous, vibrant jungle metropolis teeming with the usual, inexplicably addictive Amazonian anomalies. Unadulterated jungle encroaches beyond town in full view of the air-conditioned, elegant bars and restaurants that flank the riverside; motorized tricycles whiz manically through the streets yet locals mill around the central plazas eating ice cream like there is all the time in the world,” reports also the Lonely Planet.

For thousands of years, the area was inhabited by the Amerindians. Then, at the time of the European encounter, it was the Napeano and Iquito peoples that occupied the area by building small seasonal settlements but obtaining their nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle. The city name of Iquitos was derived from a group of native people called Iquitos by the Spaniards.

There is an overwhelming history behind this city, but its boom commenced beginning the 1900’s when Iquitos became wealthy through its flourishing rubber industry. The Amazon rubber boom that saw its heyday in between 1879 and 1912, attracted thousands of immigrants around the world. These were mostly young single men with high hopes to make fortunes in rubber, in times when automobile and similar industries dramatically increased due to the worldwide demand for rubber. Many of these men became merchants and bankers, making fortunes. Others married indigenous women and stayed in Peru for the rest of their lives, founding ethnically mixed families. This migration has, of course, influenced the local culture – the architecture, music, and clothing among other things.

By the end of the 20-th century, the face of the city was virtually changed. As far as time-travelling is considered, accounts suggest that in 1808, the village of Iquitos had 171 inhabitants and that as of June 1842, it did not surpass more than 250 locals.

#3 Perth, Australia

Perth is not the capital city of Australia, but it is the capital and the largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. By many, it is also considered as one of the world’s most remote cities.

A metropolitan area of more than two million people, and counting for the fourth most populated city in Australia, astonishing, Perth is more than 2,000 miles away from Sydney or the capital of Canberra. “Geographically it’s actually closer to East Timor (1,731 miles) and Jakarta, Indonesia (1,865 miles). There’s no city of comparable size anywhere in the world that’s so remote,” reports also The Guardian.

Based on archaeological remains in the surrounding area of Perth, aboriginal people have inhabited the Perth area for 38,000 years. The first people were the Noongar who generally occupied the southwest corner of Western Australia and lived as hunter-gatherers. They also recognize the area where Perth is situated today as Boorloo.

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Perth was also the first full-scale settlement by Europeans, despite the first one was the convicts’ colony of New South Wales (today, that would be Sydney); this was so due to the rumors that the South Wales was to be annexed by France. For many years, Perth was designed as the Swan River Colony after the greatest river dissecting the realm.

Today, the nearest bigger city near Perth is Adelaide, which is distanced more than 1,300 miles and has more than 100,000 residents. Perth is so isolated anyway, that for many Australians it is better off to Bali than to Perth, in terms of finances and practicability. As per driving from Sidney to Perth let’s say, it’s one of a hell “long, straight and desolate drive.”

We would love to hear from you in the comments below!! If you could choose from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Iquitos and Perth, which city would you nominate as the World’s Most Remote City and why?

Tags: Australia, Iquitos, Perth, Peru, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, remote cities, Russia