Igaliku is a settlement in the

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' ...

in southern

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 ...

. The town was founded as Igaliko in 1783 by the trader and colonial administrator 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 (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage List World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...

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 Narsarsuaq (lit. ''Great Plain'';''Facts and History of Narsarsuaq'', Narsarsuad Tourist Information old spelling: ''Narssarssuaq'') is a settlement in the Kujalleq municipality in southern Greenland. It had 123 inhabitants in 2020. There is a thr ...

, 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 Norse is a demonym for Norsemen, a Medieval North Germanic ethnolinguistic group ancestral to modern Scandinavians, defined as speakers of Old Norse from about the 9th to the 13th centuries. Norse may also refer to: Culture and religion * Nors ...

. The area was at the very heart of the

Eastern Settlement The Eastern Settlement ( ) was the first and by far the larger of the two main areas of Norse Greenland, settled by Norsemen from Iceland. At its peak, it contained approximately 4,000 inhabitants. The last written record from the Eastern Settl ...

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, as part of a grant from the Scandinavian-American 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. It is classified as ET according to the Köppen climate classification. It is a climate which at least one month has an average temperature high enough ...

( ET) with cool summers and cold winters.

References

{{Authority control Populated places in Greenland Populated places established in 1783 Kujalleq