Cape Moltke (; ) is a headland in the

North Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

, southeast

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

Kujalleq Kujalleq (Greenlandic language, Greenlandic: , ) is a municipality on the southern tip of Greenland, operational from 1 January 2009. The administrative center of the municipality is in Qaqortoq (formerly called Julianehåb). Creation The munic ...

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

History

There are numerous ancient

Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...

ruins in the shores of the coves and islands near the cape, remains of the former inhabitants of the area, the now extinct Southeast-Greenland Inuit. Cape Moltke was named by Lieutenant

Wilhelm August Graah Wilhelm August Graah (1793–1863) was a Danish naval officer and Arctic explorer. Graah had mapped areas of West Greenland when he, in 1828–30, was sent by King Frederick VI of Denmark on an expedition to the unmapped eastern coast with ...

in 1829 during his East Coast expedition. Graah noticed that north of the cape the land was more covered with snow than to the south. He named the headland after Danish Minister of State Count

Adam Wilhelm Moltke Adam Wilhelm Moltke, 3rd Count of Bregentved (25 August 178515 February 1864) was a Danish nobleman, landowner, civil servant and politician, who in 1848–1852 was the first Prime Minister of Denmark under the new constitutional monarchy outl ...

Bregentved Bregentved is a manor house located 3 km east of Haslev on the Danish island of Zealand. It has been owned by the Moltke family since the middle of the 18th century. History Early history The first known reference to Bregentved is from 1 ...

Geography

Cape Moltke is located at the eastern end of

Thorland Thorland () is a peninsula in the King Frederick VI Coast, southeastern Greenland. It is a part of the Sermersooq municipality. History One of the coastal islands, Igdluluarssuk (Sattiaatteq) at the entrance of the fjord on its southern side, h ...

, NNE of Cape Niels Juel. It is a reddish-brown promontory with steep cliffs located about south of the mouth of

Bernstorff Fjord Bernstorff Fjord (; ) is a fjord in King Frederick VI Coast, eastern Greenland. Administratively it is part of the Sermersooq municipality. The fjord was named after Danish statesman Andreas Peter Bernstorff. This fjord is almost always blocked ...

.''Prostar Sailing Directions 2005 Greenland and Iceland Enroute'', p. 102 North and south of Cape Moltke the coast is indented with small fjords and a number of offshore islands. Qimiitaa, Qeertartivaq and Kivinak are located northeast of the cape, on the southern side of the mouth of Bernstorff Fjord, and Kiasigssaq, among others, southwest of it.

References

{{Reflist, 2

External links

Seabirds and seals in Southeast Greenland

Moltke The Moltke family is an old German noble family. The family was originally from Mecklenburg, but apart from Germany, some of the family branches also resided throughout Scandinavia. Members of the family have been noted as statesmen, high-ranking ...