Guardian of Oymyakon
"The Kolyma Highway." The old man sighed. "It is also known as the Road of Bones. It was built during the gold rush under Stalin." He paused to take a long sip of tea before continuing. "The lives of many prisoners were sacrificed to build the road atop the permafrost. It is said that a man died for every meter of road built, and the entire road stretches 2,500 kilometers. Their bodies were left behind, not even buried, and thus they became part of the road. All of the villages originally built along the road were prison labor camps. If the prisoners weren't building the road then they were digging for gold." He shook his head. "It is now treated as a memorial for those that died to create it, but it was also a long time ago. Most of the villages have since disappeared, but we still remain."