Ilulissat Icefjord is the channel through which ice that calves off of Ilulissat Glacier (Sermeq Kujalleq in Greenlandic) reaches the sea. Ilulissat Glacier is one of the most active and fastest moving glaciers in the world, and has been studied for over 250 years by scientists, helping to develop our understanding of climate change. As well as being an invaluable research site for scientists, the icefjord is a place where the everyday person can be humbled by the very real sight of climate change in action.

Aasivissuit – Nipisat was inscribed as a UNESCO site in summer 2018, making it Greenland’s newest UNESCO site. Like the Kujataa site in South Greenland, it is recognised as a cultural landscape, as humans have helped to shape the area for at least 4,200 years.

The site is vast and stretches all the way from the ice cap to the sea. This area is actually the largest ice-free landscape in Greenland, meaning that throughout history it has acted as a valuable hunting ground for many different groups of settlers, and still does for Greenlanders today.

Since Aasivissuit – Nipisat is so new and covers such a large area, it is still in the early stages of being developed for tourism. The site is essentially a vast area of backcountry so there is a lot of work to be done to guide tourism experiences within it. Authorities are hard at work, though, and plans are being developed for each of the 7 sub-sites which make up the site as a whole. If you download this detailed map from UNESCO, you can see each of the 7 sub-sites marked in yellow. There are plans for permanent exhibitions at all 7 sub-sites, but it is the hope that the site will offer a ‘living experience’, and that tourists will be allowed the freedom to enjoy this vast cultural wilderness each in their own way.

South Greenland is the lushest and most fertile part of the country, meaning that it has been home to farming culture in Greenland for over 1000 years. In the 10th century, Vikings settled in Greenland and established several farms in South Greenland. Today, the farms not only act as fascinating cultural ruins but have actually been revived by modern Greenlanders to work as fully functioning farms. This meeting of different cultures and their connection with the land is why Kujataa is known as a cultural landscape.