King Christian IX Land () is a coastal area of Southeastern

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 ...

Sermersooq Sermersooq () is a municipality in Greenland, formed on 1 January 2009 from five previous, smaller municipalities. Its administrative seat is the city of Nuuk (formerly called Godthåb), the capital of Greenland, and it is the most populous ...

Municipality fronting the Denmark Strait and extending through the

Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the northernmost of the five major circle of latitude, circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth at about 66° 34' N. Its southern counterpart is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circl ...

from 65°N to 70°N.

History

This area was named in September 1884 by

Gustav Frederik Holm Gustav Frederik Holm (6 August 1849 – 13 March 1940) was a Danish naval officer and Arctic explorer born in Copenhagen. Career He was made commander in the Royal Danish Navy, navy in 1899, was chief of the hydrographic bureau from 1899 to ...

who claimed it for Denmark, naming it after the then-reigning Danish King

Christian IX Christian IX (8 April 181829 January 1906) was King of Denmark from 15 November 1863 until his death in 1906. From 1863 to 1864, he was concurrently List of dukes of Schleswig, Duke of Schleswig, List of dukes of Holstein, Holstein and Saxe-Laue ...

Geography

King Christian IX Land is bordered by

King Frederick VI Coast King Frederick VI Coast () is a major geographic division of Greenland. It comprises the coastal area of Southeastern Greenland in Sermersooq and Kujalleq municipalities fronting the Irminger Sea of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered by King ...

on the south, King Christian X Land and the

Scoresby Sound Scoresby Sound (Danish: ''Scoresby Sund'', Greenlandic language, 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

to the north, and the

Greenland Ice Sheet The Greenland ice sheet is an ice sheet which forms the second largest body of ice in the world. It is an average of thick and over thick at its maximum. It is almost long in a north–south direction, with a maximum width of at a latitude ...

to the west. Greenland's highest mountain range, the Watkins Range, as well as the nearly as high Schweizerland are located in this region.Kong Christian IX Land
/ref> The shore area of King Christian IX Land includes the Blosseville Coast to the east. There are many

fjords In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the no ...

, the largest of which are Sermilik,

Kangerlussuaq Kangerlussuaq (; ; ) is a settlement in western Greenland in the Qeqqata municipalities of Greenland, municipality located at the head of the Kangerlussuaq Fjord, fjord of the same name. It was Greenland's main air transport hub and the site of G ...

and Kangertittivatsiaq, as well as numerous coastal islands, including Ammassalik which is the site of the most populous town in Eastern Greenland,

Tasiilaq Tasiilaq, formerly Ammassalik or Angmagssalik ( Danish names: Kong Oscars Havn or simply Oscarshavn), is a town on Ammassalik Island in southeastern Greenland, within the municipality of Sermersooq. With 1,985 inhabitants as of 2020, it is th ...

. On the coast itself there are some small settlements, such as Sermiligaaq, but areas far from the coast are uninhabited.

History

Geography

Image gallery

References

External links