Arsuk is a village in the

Sermersooq Sermersooq (, da, sted med meget is, lit=place of much ice) is a municipality in Greenland, formed on 1 January 2009 from five earlier, smaller municipalities. Its administrative seat is the city of Nuuk (formerly called Godthåb), the capital ...

municipality in southwestern

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

. It had 73 inhabitants in 2020. The name of the settlement means ''the beloved place'' in the

Greenlandic language Greenlandic ( kl, kalaallisut, link=no ; da, grønlandsk ) is an Eskimo–Aleut language with about 56,000 speakers, mostly Greenlandic Inuit in Greenland. It is closely related to the Inuit languages in Canada such as Inuktitut. It is the mos ...

.arsukfjorden.gl
− ''frames required'' The village is served by the communal all-purpose

Pilersuisoq Pilersuisoq is a chain of all-purpose general stores in Greenland, a major division of the Parliament of Greenland, state-owned KNI (Greenland Trade), KNI conglomerate. Like its parent company, it is based in Sisimiut (Holsteinsborg), the list of ...

store.

Geography

Arsuk is located at the southern end of the Sermersooq municipality, on the coast of

Labrador Sea The Labrador Sea (French: ''mer du Labrador'', Danish: ''Labradorhavet'') is an arm of the North Atlantic Ocean between the Labrador Peninsula and Greenland. The sea is flanked by continental shelf, continental shelves to the southwest, northwest, ...

near the mouth of the

Arsuk Fjord Arsuk is a village in the Sermersooq municipality in southwestern Greenland. It had 73 inhabitants in 2020. The name of the settlement means ''the beloved place'' in the Greenlandic language.

in the southeast. It is north of

Cape Desolation Cape Desolation ( da, Kap Desolation), also known as 'Cape Brill', is a headland in southwest Greenland in the Kujalleq municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-gove ...

, where the coastline of southwestern Greenland turns to the east approximately to the south of the settlement at the wide mouth of

Alanngorsuaq Fjord Alanngorsuaq Fjord, also known as Coppermine Bay ( da, Kobberminebugt), is a fjord in the Kujalleq municipality in southern Greenland. At the mouth of the fjord the coastline of southwestern Greenland turns to the east towards Qaqortoq. Geograp ...

. The Kuunnaat mountain rises on the mainland directly to the north of the village.

History

The region was first settled by people of the

Saqqaq culture The Saqqaq culture (named after the Saqqaq settlement, the site of many archaeological finds) was a Paleo-Eskimo culture in southern Greenland. Up to this day, no other people seem to have lived in Greenland continually for as long as the Saqqaq. ...

arriving from the north. The area was resettled by the Norse between the 10th century and the 14th century.

Thule people The Thule (, , ) or proto-Inuit were the ancestors of all modern Inuit. They developed in coastal Alaska by the year 1000 and expanded eastward across northern Canada, reaching Greenland by the 13th century. In the process, they replaced people ...

were the second southbound

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...

migration, to arrive in the region in the 15th century, with the area permanently settled since then. The discovery of

cryolite Cryolite ( Na3 Al F6, sodium hexafluoroaluminate) is an uncommon mineral identified with the once-large deposit at Ivittuut on the west coast of Greenland, mined commercially until 1987. History Cryolite was first described in 1798 by Danish vete ...

Ivittuut Ivittuut (formerly, Ivigtût) (Kalaallisut: "Grassy Place") is an abandoned mining town near Cape Desolation in southwestern Greenland, in the modern Sermersooq municipality on the ruins of the former Norse Middle Settlement. Ivittuut is one of ...

in the inner parts of Arsuk Fjord attracted the interest of the

Danes Danes ( da, danskere, ) are a North Germanic ethnic group and nationality native to Denmark and a modern nation identified with the country of Denmark. This connection may be ancestral, legal, historical, or cultural. Danes generally regard t ...

during the colonial era, leading to the formal foundation of the settlement in 1805. The timber

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

church was built in 1830. The mines closed in 1987, with the Ivittuut settlement abandoned soon thereafter, leaving Arsuk on the economic periphery despite its tourism potential.

Transport

Arsuk is a port of call for the

Arctic Umiaq Line Arctic Umiaq Line A/S (AUL) or Arctic Umiaq is a passenger and freight shipping line in Greenland. Its name derives from the Kalaallisut word for the traditional Inuit passenger boat, the umiak, distinguished from the kayak, used for hunting. The ...

coastal ship, linking the village with

Paamiut Paamiut, formerly Frederikshåb, is a town in southwestern Greenland in the Sermersooq municipality. Geography Paamiut is located on the coast of Labrador Sea in the southern end of a small estuary called Kuannersooq ("Inlet"). History Pe ...

in the north (6.5 hours), and

Qaqortoq Qaqortoq, formerly Julianehåb, is a city in the Kujalleq municipalities of Greenland, municipality in southern Greenland, located near Cape Thorvaldsen. With a population of 3,050 in 2020, it is the most populous town and the municipal capital in ...

in the southeast (9.5 hours), both towns serviced by

Air Greenland Air Greenland A/S (formerly named Grønlandsfly), also known as Greenlandair, is the flag carrier airline of Greenland, owned by the Greenlandic Government. It operates a fleet of 32 aircraft, including 1 airliner used for transatlantic and cha ...

.Air Greenland booking

Population

Most towns and settlements in southern Greenland exhibit negative growth patterns over the last two decades, with many settlements rapidly depopulating. Arsuk has been losing population for almost every year in the last two decades. It lost more than half of its population relative to the 1990 levels, over 10% relative to the 2000 levels.Statistics Greenland
The sharp decline in the 1990s was due to the mine closure and loss of employment. The weak growth in the late 2000s and stabilization of the population level prevented Arsuk from sharing the fate of

Qassimiut Qassimiut (old spellings: ''Qagssimiut'' and ''Kagsimiut'') is a settlement in the Kujalleq municipality in southern Greenland. The settlement was founded in 1835 as a trading station. With a population of 20 in 2020, it is the smallest organized ...

, which lost more than two thirds of the population and is headed for abandonment − and that of

Kangerluarsoruseq Kangerluarsoruseq (old spelling: ''Kangerdluarssoruseq'') is a former settlement in the Sermersooq municipality in southwestern Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is ...

in the same municipality, which has already been abandoned in 2009.

References

{{Settlements in Greenland Populated places in Greenland Populated places established in 1805 1805 establishments in Greenland