Here at Life in Norway HQ, we love nothing more than writing about Norway. But from time to time, we like to spread our wings and take a look around the Nordic region.
This time, we've chosen Greenland, a largely self-governed constituent country of Denmark. From enormous glaciers and iceberg-filled fjords to its hot springs, Greenland’s natural appeal has no limits.
The island also holds important Inuit cultural history and evidence of human settlement stretching back thousands of years.
Donald Trump's apparent interest put the island on the radar of some international tourists, yet Greenland still remains a mystery to many. To help fix that, here are 12 fascinating facts about Greenland.
1. Greenland’s land mass is huge—and mostly ice
Greenland is a vast island. The world’s biggest non-continental island, in fact. If Greenland were a fully independent country, its area of more than 2 million square kilometres would make it the 12th largest country by area on the planet.
Greenland from an aeroplane window.
Almost 80% of the land mass is covered by an ice cap and glaciers. The latest scientific research suggests the ice cap could be more than 400,000 years old.
2. Greenland’s population is small
Despite the available ice-free land being roughly the size of Sweden, Greenland’s population is just 56,000.
Almost 90% of those are Inuit, whose ancestors are believed to have originated from eastern Siberia and traveled to Greenland via Canada in the 13th century.
Norsemen from Iceland settled on the southern coastline in the 10th century, but they disappeared a few centuries later. They weren’t the only ones. There is evidence of human settlement on Greenland stretching back more than 4,000 years.
3. All the settlements are isolated
There are no roads between any of the towns and settlements on Greenland. Air Greenland’s fleet of helicopters and Dash-8 propellor planes provide a critical transport service for locals, and useful shuttle for tourists not traveling by cruise ship.
An Air Greenland plane at Sisimiut airport in Greenland. Photo: Lasse Jesper Pedersen / Shutterstock.com.
4. The Arctic Umiaq Line is Greenland's equivalent to Hurtigruten
Norway's Hurtigruten provides freight and passenger service to many remote communities along the Norwegian coast. The Arctic Umiaq Line does a similar job but is even more of a lifeline for the entire west coast of Greenland.
However, while much of Hurtigruten's operation is geared towards tourism these days, the Arctic Umiaq Line is first and foremost a transport line for cargo and local passengers between the 12 ports.
Just one vessel operates on the route. The M/S Sarfaq Ittuk has room for 249 passengers.
5. Greenland is North American, but politically European
Since the 10th century, Greenland has been economically and politically associated with Europe through various unions with Norway and Denmark.
Considered Danish territory since 1814 when the Denmark-Norway union was dissolved, Greenland was fully absorbed into the Danish state in 1953, but granted home rule just 26 years later. Greenland has fully self-governed since 2009 but remains economically reliant on Denmark and continues to use the Danish krone.
Nuuk, Greenland.
However, the land of Greenland is actually part of North America. The island sits on the eastern edge of the North American tectonic plate. Despite this, Greenland is considered a Nordic nation.
6. Greenlandic is closely related to Inuit languages in Canada
Greenlandic is a fascinating language that is a mystery to most visitors. It is the most widely spoken Eskimo–Aleut language, but still has just 56,000 speakers. However, Greenlanders also speak Danish and most speak at least some English.
7. Some Greenlandic words have been adopted into English
Despite the uniqueness of the language, some Greenlandic words have made it into English. The most notable are “kayak” and “igloo”.
There are also main loan words from both English and Danish
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