King Christian X Land ( da, Kong Christian X Land) is an area of northeastern

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 ...

History

This area was named after

King Christian X Christian X ( da, Christian Carl Frederik Albert Alexander Vilhelm; 26 September 1870 – 20 April 1947) was King of Denmark from 1912 to his death in 1947, and the only King of Iceland as Kristján X, in the form of a personal union rath ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

and

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

(1870 – 1947), who rose to the throne in 1912. At the time of the

Three-year Expedition to East Greenland The Three-year Expedition ( da, Treårsekspeditionen) was an exploratory expedition to East Greenland that lasted from 1931 to 1934 financed by the Carlsberg Foundation and the Danish state. The expedition included aerial surveys. Many geograph ...

it is reported that when

Lauge Koch Lauge Koch (5 July 1892 – 5 June 1964) was a Danish geologist and Arctic explorer. Biography Lauge Koch was born in 1892 to Karl and Elisabeth Koch. His development as a scientist was greatly influenced by his father's second cousin Johan Pet ...

was planning to fly over the region in 1932 he said: The name 'King Christian X Land' was first used on the 1932 1:1 million scale

Danish Geodesic Institute Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

map. At that time the area was occupied by

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

and was renamed '

Erik the Red's Land Erik the Red's Land ( no, Eirik Raudes Land) was the name given by Norwegians to an area on the coast of eastern Greenland occupied by Norway in the early 1930s. It was named after Erik the Red, the founder of the first Norse or Viking settlemen ...

' ''(Eirik Raudes Land)'' but the

Permanent Court of International Justice The Permanent Court of International Justice, often called the World Court, existed from 1922 to 1946. It was an international court attached to the League of Nations. Created in 1920 (although the idea of an international court was several cen ...

ruled against Norway in 1933 and the country subsequently abandoned its claims.

Myggbukta Myggbukta, meaning "Mosquito Bay" in Norwegian, was a Norwegian whaling, meteorological and radio station (Myggbukta Radio/LMG) located on the coast of Eastern Greenland in present-day King Christian X Land. The site is located at the head of Ma ...

was a Norwegian radio and weather station that operated in the coast intermittently during the 20th century.

Geography

King Christian X Land stretches above the

Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the most northerly of the five major circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth. Its southern equivalent is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circle marks the southernmost latitude at w ...

between the

Scoresby Sound Scoresby Sound (Danish: ''Scoresby Sund'', Greenlandic: ''Kangertittivaq'') is a large fjord system of the Greenland Sea on the eastern coast of Greenland. It has a tree-like structure, with a main body approximately Bessel Fjord Bessel Fjord is a fjord in northeastern Greenland. Administratively it belongs to the NE Greenland National Park area. History The area around the mouth of this fjord was referred to as "Bessel Bay" at the time of the 1869–70 Second German Nor ...

at 76°N. It is bordered by

King Christian IX Land King Christian IX Land ( da, Kong Christian IX Land) is a coastal area of Southeastern Greenland in Sermersooq Municipality fronting the Denmark Strait and extending through the Arctic Circle from 65°N to 70°N. History This area was named i ...

on the south,

King Frederick VIII Land King Frederick VIII Land ( da, Kong Frederik VIII Land) is a major geographic division of northeastern Greenland. It extends above the Arctic Circle from 76°N to 81°N in a N/S direction along the coast of the Greenland Sea. History This vast ...

to the north, and the

Greenland Ice Sheet The Greenland ice sheet ( da, Grønlands indlandsis, kl, Sermersuaq) is a vast body of ice covering , roughly near 80% of the surface of Greenland. It is sometimes referred to as an ice cap, or under the term ''inland ice'', or its Danish equiva ...

to the west. All its territory is included in the large

Northeast Greenland National Park Northeast Greenland National Park ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaanni nuna eqqissisimatitaq, da, Grønlands Nationalpark) is the world's largest national park and the 10th List of largest protected areas in the world, largest protected area (the only large ...

zone. It includes the

Stauning Alps The Stauning Alps ( da, Stauning Alper) are a large system of mountain ranges in Scoresby Land, King Christian X Land, northeastern Greenland. Administratively the Stauning Alps are part of the Northeast Greenland National Park zone. This mounta ...

Scoresby Land Scoresby Land is an area of Eastern Greenland, which lies partly in Sermersooq and partly in the Northeast Greenland National Park zone. The area is uninhabited, except for Mestersvig, a military outpost. Muskoxen are found in Scoresby Land, and ...

, as well as the vast

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

and

fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Ice ...

expanses of northeastern Greenland between the

ice sheet In glaciology, an ice sheet, also known as a continental glacier, is a mass of glacial ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than . The only current ice sheets are in Antarctica and Greenland; during the Last Glacial Period at Las ...

area west of the

Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord ( da, Kejser Franz Josef Fjord; kl, Kangerluk Kejser Franz Joseph) is a major fjord system in the NE Greenland National Park area, East Greenland. Geography The Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord has its mouth in the Foster Ba ...

and the eastern end of

Wollaston Foreland Wollaston Foreland ( da, Wollaston Forland) is a peninsula in King Christian X Land, East Greenland. Administratively it belongs to the NE Greenland National Park area. History This peninsula was named by William Scoresby in 1822 as a testimony ...

in the shore of the

Greenland Sea The Greenland Sea is a body of water that borders Greenland to the west, the Svalbard archipelago to the east, Fram Strait and the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Norwegian Sea and Iceland to the south. The Greenland Sea is often defined as p ...

. The area is uninhabited except for

Daneborg station Daneborg (or Daneborg Station) is a station on the south coast of Wollaston Foreland peninsula of northeast Greenland, at the mouth of Young Sund emptying into Greenland Sea. Daneborg serves as the headquarters for the SIRIUS Patrol, the dog s ...

, Zackenberg research facility located near the

Zackenberg Zackenberg or Zackenburg is a mountain in Wollaston Foreland, NE 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 Ar ...

mountain.Zackenberg Research Station
/ref> and the

Mestersvig Mestersvig, also called Mesters Vig, is a military outpost located in Scoresby Land, on the southwestern shore of Davy Sound in King Christian X Land, NE Greenland. It has a 1,800 m gravel airstrip . This airport is located near the Stauning Alps ...

military outpost.

Image gallery

References

{{reflist Geography of Greenland Geography of the Arctic