As it turns out, this abandoned "secret city" was the site of a secret Cold War project known as Project Iceworm which called for the construction of 2,500 miles (4,023 km) of tunnels that could be used to nuclear intermediate range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) at the Soviet Union.

NASA scientists accidentally uncovered Camp Century, a hidden Cold War base under Greenland's ice, using advanced radar technology in April 2024. This discovery not only brings historical artifacts to light but also assists in ice sheet studies critical for understanding future sea level changes.

Scientists and engineers took the radar image in April 2024 as they flew over northern Greenland aboard Nasa’s Gulfstream III jet. The abandoned city is a military base called Camp Century, built in 1959 by cutting a web of tunnels under a near-surface layer of the Greenland ice sheet.