Explore Greenland – Kalaallit Nunaat
Take a 5 minute tour of the Island
Introducing Greenland
Greenland's Place in the World
Greenland's Extraordinary Wildlife
Touring the Far North
Where in the world is Greenland? The autonomous country that is also referred to by the indigenous people, the Inuit, as Kalaallit Nunaat is positioned at the top of the Atlantic Ocean, just east of Canada, northwest of Iceland and southwest of Svalbard.
The northern tip is just 600 miles from the North Pole, and yet its southern end is green much of the year and far milder than the country’s ice sheet. But it is a land of superlatives and while most of those are related to its very cold climate, they speak to its tremendous appeal to adventurers and those who long for the wild side of life. Among its superlatives are the following:
- Greenland is the largest island in the world
- It has the largest ice sheet in the Northern Hemisphere
- Kalaallit Nunaat has the lowest population density of any country
- Scoresby Sund is the largest and longest fjord system in the world
- Greenland has two of the fastest moving glaciers in the world
- The fastest moving is – Jakobshavn Isbrae at Ilulissat
- The largest National Park in the world – Northeast Greenland National Park
- The lowest temperature ever recorded in the Northern Hemisphere -93.3°
But for all of the extraordinary superlatives of the country, the city of Nuuk, the capital on the West coast, and the several towns along the central west coast, there is an energy and determination that has to be experienced to be appreciated.
Nuuk is a city of some 20,000 souls, but is growing at a respectable pace and new apartment towers and other infrastructure developments are on display all over the natural harbors of its location close to the open sea at the top of the Labrador Sea and the south end of Baffin Bay. It has developed piers for container ships, its lifeline for supplies from the world, for cruise ships that appear with more frequency, and even ocean worthy private yachts.
There are world class museums and cultural venues there, and while they tend to be fairly small they are very well developed to tell the stories of this land. They are typically along the western shore of the city and are in the older section of this outpost from colonial times.
Working east through the city, the housing and urban development is newer and more modern in design with cast in place concrete foundations set in blasted bedrock, the formula for all construction. The proliferation of very modern grocery stores that carry excellent goods from Europe of every description grow with the new housing blocks. And the taxi fleet is everywhere in the city, though sometimes a bit overwhelmed on rainy days. One other surprise is the number of cars and commercial vehicles that are on the streets. It is never congested, but there is a lot of traffic in the capital, and in and out of the modern shopping hub and mall.
The city now has a brand new international airport opened in 2025 and is beautifully designed as well as efficient. Flights are now able to fly directly into Nuuk from Iceland, Denmark, Canada and the US, and this will certainly increase tourism in the near future as well.
For those who seek to find great dining, it is amazing even being so far from Europe and other venues that are known for great food, how exceptional the food and even drinks are in the city. Far above just good service and standard fare, the preparation of so many imported items and many others from Greenland including a whole range of excellent fish varieties, muskox and caribou. If something more exotic is required then whale skin and seal meat are available as well.
Traveling further afield to Ilulissat, the tourism capital for the world famous Jakobshavn Glacier and its outflow into Disko Bay, this smaller town of some 5,000 people is very manageable and offers a whole range of tour boats, scenic flights and in the winter dog sled adventures and snowmobiling. With the Ilulissat Fjord Center and the boardwalks down to the shore to witness the everchanging seascape of the enormous icebergs that float by it is a unique and beautiful location to photograph.
These are just two of the sites on the West coast, and there are several other interesting towns and villages that offer adventure hiking and cultural experiences, including Aasiaat, Sisimiut, and Uummannaq. Take the ferry up the coast and visit all of them!
On the southern end of the island, the historic “Greenland” of Erik the Red, there are scattered farms, deep fjords and grand mountain peaks as well. The towns there include Paamiut, Narsaq, Qaqortoq and Nanortalik. There is even a small arboretum that represents an initial attempt at introducing trees on to this treeless, mostly ice covered island. The early settlements of the Europeans and many of the earlier Inuit people are to be found here as well.
The East Coast is very sparsely settled, but offers some of the most spectacular landscapes to be seen anywhere in Kalaallit Nunaat. The wild and extraordinary landscapes are accessed out of Ittoqqortoormiit, but there is also the prospect of flying into Tasillaq and using local guides to visit the hinterland here. The more common way for the tourist trade to visit the East Coast is by cruise ship, as they offer brief excursions to the shore to acquaint the passengers with the virgin nature of the locations.
The centerpiece though remains the very beautiful and massive system of fjords in the Scoresby Sund. Whether sailing, on a cruise ship, flying over in a helicopter or taking a small tour boat into this region the experience is simply unique in the
world. There are places in some of the remote fjords where the mountains rise up for a mile above the sea and the seas plunge nearly a mile deep beneath the cliffs. This fjord system is the last outpost before the Northeast Greenland National Park, and that requires a permit and a lot of survival equipment to explore as it is almost entirely covered by the massive Greenland ice sheet.
This Ice Sheet is immense and covers some 80% of the island nation. It varies from just hundreds of feet at the edges, to nearly two miles of ice at the thickest points, averaging about a mile thick over an area of some 660,000 sq miles. This area would cover all of Alaska and about 25% more! Care for a hike? It is almost entirely void of life other than microscopic sorts, and is fascinating in its complexity and what lies beneath it.
Greenlandic people are looking forward to the future with interest and determination, and the land that they call home will continue to be an inspiration and a treasure for each of them. Explore the Island by looking deeper into our site, by accessing the dozens of website connections in our Glossary, or be bold and visit this incredibly beautiful and challenging place up there against the Polar regions; experience it yourself.
However you enjoy and celebrate Greenland, be an advocate for their independence and their economic future. They represent a new and wonderful part of the world’s community of nations.