Smeerenburg, Amsterdam Island - Svalbard - 5

At its height Smeerenburg was thought to have consisted of 15 buildings with a small fort as whalers from other countries would try to take over the settlement and steal or destroy the equipment. Despite this being proven by archeological excavations around 1980, fanciful exaggerations of hundreds of ships and up to 18,000 men living and visiting there still survive. At it's peak in the 1630's only 15 ships a season and 400 men would have visited.