ANCIENT HISTORY, HISTORY AND MODERN TIMES

The first people to set foot in Greenland arrived around 4-5000 years ago from the North American continent via Canada when the sea froze in the narrow strait at Thule in northern Greenland.
No less than six different Inuit cultures have immigrated in several waves. Greenland’s population today is descended from the last immigration, the Thule culture, which arrived here in around the 9th century AD.

THE NORSE SETTLERS AND THE VIKING PERIOD IN GREENLAND

This final Inuit immigration took place at around the same time as the arrival in Greenland of the Norse settlers and Erik the Red, which was in 982 AD. This is described in detail in the Icelandic sagas.

The Norse population disappeared from Greenland in around 1500 AD for reasons that have never been fully explained – although countless well-founded theories about their disappearance still flourish today. Many of the Norse settlers’ ruins are still visible on plains and mountainsides in South Greenland and at Nuuk.

They are therefore popular destinations that attract tourists wishing to gain an insight into an exciting culture from the Viking period.