Template:POTD/2023-12-28
Bell Island is a small island in the south-west of the Franz Josef Land archipelago in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. Located in the Arctic Ocean, the island was named by the English explorer Benjamin Leigh Smith for its bell-shaped mountain which rises steeply from the island's southern coast. The island was the first among the Franz Josef archipelago to be visited by Leigh Smith in an expedition he undertook in 1880. In a second expedition to the islands in 1881, Leigh Smith built the wooden Eira lodge on the north side of the island which he used to winter. The lodge stands to this day. The island was later visited by the Svyataya Anna of the ill-fated Brusilov expedition in 1914. This view shows Bell Island in 2017 with Eira lodge in the foreground.Photograph credit: Timinilya