The historic Soviet research station at the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility in Antarctica, established in December 1958 and topped with a bust of Vladimir Lenin. Over the decades, the station was largely buried by snow, leaving the statue exposed.... The Southern Pole of Inaccessibility is the point in Antarctica farthest from any ocean. It sits more than 12,000 feet above sea level, about 545 miles from the actual South Pole. An 18-man Soviet expedition reached it in December 1958, during a push to explore and claim scientific ground across the continent. They set up a small hut, raised the Soviet flag and mounted the bust of Lenin on the roof, deliberately turned to face Moscow. After they left, very few people ever came back. Soviet teams returned in 1964 and 1967, and an American traverse arrived in 1965. Then the site went almost untouched for 40 years. In 2007, a British team finally made it back, using giant kites to pull them across the ice. By then, decades of drifting snow had swallowed the building entirely. Today the site is protected as a historic monument under the Antarctic Treaty, and the handful of explorers who reach it still stop to take a photo with Lenin. The Pole of Inaccessibility has the coldest average yearly temperature on Earth, about −72.8°F (−58.2°C). #archaeohistories