5 Supposedly Forbidden Places You Are Not Allowed To Visit

3 Svalbard Global Seed Vault

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a secure seed bank on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen.

The seed bank’s mission is to provide a safety net in the event of accidental loss of diversity in traditional genebanks due to mismanagement, accident, equipment failures, funding cuts, natural disasters, regional or global catastrophe.

The seed vault functions like a safe deposit box in a bank. The bank owns the building and the depositor owns the contents of his or her box. The 11,000-square-foot facility is protected by highly advanced security systems and access is strictly limited to a handful of employees.