Igaliku is a settlement in the
Kujalleq municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
in southern
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 ...
. The town was founded as Igaliko in 1783 by the trader and colonial administrator
Anders Olsen
Anders Olsen (1718-1786) was a Norwegian trader, explorer and colonial administrator, who founded several important towns in Greenland including Qaqortoq (Julianehåb) and Maniitsoq (Sukkertoppen) as well as the village of Igaliku.
Anders Olsen ...
and Greenlandic wife Tuperna. In 2020, Igaliku had 21 inhabitants.
The nearby
Norse ruins of
Garðar and the farms surrounding the town were inscribed on the
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
World Heritage List
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNES ...
in 2017 as part of the
Kujataa Greenland: Norse and Inuit Farming at the Edge of the Ice Cap site.
Geography
Igaliku is located southeast of
Narsarsuaq, on a peninsula jutting off the mainland of Greenland near the eastern shore of upper
Tunulliarfik Fjord.
[Ivittuut/Narsarsuaq/Qaqortoq, Saga Map, Tage Schjøtt, 1992] Access to Igaliku from Narsarsauq is cheaper and easier by landing at the small harbor of Itilleq and then crossing the isthmus 4 km (2.5 mi).
Landmarks and sights
Igaliku is best known for the ruins of
Garðar, once the religious heart of 12th-century
Norse Greenland.
The area was at the very heart of the
Eastern Settlement and has been extensively archaeologically excavated since the 1830s. There are several historical graves in the area, although most have not presently been identified. The nearby area was documented by New York fine art photographer,
Steve Giovinco
Steve Giovinco is an American photographer. He created a hand-held large-format (8x8") camera in 1992.
Life and career
In the 1980s, Giovinco attended Yale University. In 1991 he had his first one-man exhibition, at the Kansas City Art Institu ...
, as part of a grant from the
Scandinavian-American
Nordic and Scandinavian Americans are Americans of Scandinavian and/or Nordic ancestry, including Danish Americans (estimate: 1,453,897), Faroese Americans, Finnish Americans (estimate: 653,222), Greenlandic Americans, Icelandic Americans (esti ...
Foundation.
Infrastructure
The settlement has a general store, a church including the congregation building, and a school, ''Atuarfik Igaliku'' (Greenlandic for "the school of Igaliku"). There is only one road into the village (called King's Road), which connects Igaliku to a small dock at the farming settlement, Itilleq.
Population
The population of Igaliku has been stable in the last two decades.
Climate
Igaliku has a
tundra climate
The tundra climate is a polar climate sub-type located in high latitudes and high mountains. undra climate https://www.britannica.com/science/tundra-climateThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2019 It is classified as ET according to Köppen ...
(
ET) with cool summers and cold winters.
References
{{Authority control
Populated places in Greenland
Populated places established in 1783
Kujalleq