Igaliku

History

In the time of the Nordic settlement in Greenland in the Middle Ages was the bishop 's seat; the place was then called Gardar ( Gardar ). The cathedral was for the former Greenland unusually large and well developed: it was 27 feet long and up to 16 meters wide and probably equipped with glass windows. However, of you get is little; the best-preserved ruins are those of the Bishop house and his barn.

Today's Igaliku was founded in 1782 by a native of Norway businessman Anders Olsen and his Greenlandic wife Tuperna.

On 6 August 2004, the then U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell visited the site and signed a contract for the expansion of the Thule Air Base as part of the National Missile Defense with the Foreign Ministers of Greenland and Denmark, Josef Motzfeldt and Per Stig Møller at the ruins.

Igaliku today

The settlement now has 30 residents who live mainly on sheep farming. In Igaliku there is a youth hostel and a small supermarket. The town is the starting point for ascents of Mount Illerfissalik. A popular trekking route in five to seven days after Qaqortoq ( Julianehåb ).