Ammassivik (old spelling: ''Angmagssivik'') is a settlement in the

Kujalleq Kujalleq ( Greenlandic: , da, Den Syden, lit=The South) 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

. The modern name is the

Kalaallisut Kalaallisut may refer to: * Greenlandic language * West Greenlandic West Greenlandic ( da, vestgrønlandsk), also known as Kalaallisut, is the primary language of Greenland and constitutes the Greenlandic language, spoken by the vast majority of ...

for "where you catch ammassaat (capelin)". Its population was 74 in 2010 and 32 in 2020. The settlement was founded in 1889 as Sletten. In 1899, a school the ''Isak Lundip atuarfia'' was built in the settlement by Danish missionaries. The school had 6 students in 2005. In 1922, the settlement became a trading centre. Until December 31, 2008, the settlement belonged to the Nanortalik municipality. Since January 1, 2009, the settlement has been part of the Kujalleq municipality, when the former municipalities of

Qaqortoq Qaqortoq, formerly Julianehåb, is a city in the Kujalleq 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 southern Greenland and the ...

Narsaq Narsaq is a town in the Kujalleq municipality in southern Greenland. The name ''Narsaq'' is Kalaallisut for "Plain", referring to the shore of Tunulliarfik Fjord where the town is located. History People have lived in the area for thousands o ...

, and Nanortalik ceased to exist as administrative entities.

Transport and communications

The settlement has a heliport, connecting it to the nearby Nanortalik and Aappilattoq, and with the rest of the world. The main transportation is by sea. During winter,

dog sled A dog sled or dog sleigh is a sled pulled by one or more sled dogs used to travel over ice and through snow. Numerous types of sleds are used, depending on their function. They can be used for dog sled racing. Traditionally in Greenland and th ...

routes are important transport links to the surrounding area. The settlement is served by a

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such ...

supported

ADSL Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. ...

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...

link. Ammassivik is also the postal centre of the surrounding area, being regularly visited by a post ship.

Geography

The settlement is located at approximately , on the shore of the Alluitsoq Fjord ( da, Lichtenaufjorden). The sheep farms of Qallimiut and Qorlortorsuaq are nearby, with 15 and 13 inhabitants, respectively. On the opposite side of the fjord are the ruins of the Moravian mission Lichtenau, once Greenland's most populous settlement.

Population

Most towns and settlements in southern Greenland exhibit negative growth patterns over the last two decades, with many settlements rapidly depopulating. The population of Ammassivik more than halved relative to the 1990 levels, and decreased over a quarter relative to the 2000 levels.

References

{{Authority control Populated places in Greenland