Residents of the Norwegian town of Rjukan spend half the year in total darkness because the surrounding mountains are so steep that they completely block out the sun from September to March.

A closer look

Residents of the Norwegian town of Rjukan spend half the year in total darkness because the surrounding mountains are so steep that they completely block out the sun from September to March. The town eventually installed a massive array of giant mirrors on the mountain peaks specifically to reflect a tiny beam of sunlight down into the town square so people could remember what vitamin D feels like. Citizens literally gather in a small, illuminated circle in the center of town like confused moths just to soak up a few manufactured rays of light during the brutal winter. It is a testament to extreme human stubbornness that instead of simply moving their houses slightly down the valley to where the sun actually shines, they decided to build a multi-million dollar laser reflection system just to spite the natural topography of the earth