Inglefield-Land

The Inglefield Land (Danish Inglefield Land) is no longer permanently inhabited region in northwestern Greenland. The region forms the southern coast of the Kane Basin (part of the Nares Strait ) and the north of the Hayes Peninsula (and therefore extends along the coast to Cape Alexander in the south) and measures in east-west direction about 200, in the north - south about 80 kilometers. To the northeast the Inglefield Land bounded by the Humboldt Glacier, south of the Greenland ice sheet.

Despite its northern location, the Inglefield Land is not glaciated due to low rainfall. The region is named after the British admiral and Arctic explorer Edward Inglefield. The geomagnetic north pole, which was formerly in the western Inglefield Land (1951: 77 ° 29 'N, 68 ° 54' W77.483333333333 - 68.9 ), is now migrated to the west on the Canadian Ellesmere Island (2010: 80 ° 1 ' N, 72 ° 13 ' W80.02 - 72.21 ).

History and early settlement

The Inglefield Land was discovered from a European perspective until 1818. It has good hunting grounds and was therefore used to constantly inhabited by Inuit. Today, the region is visited only in summer by some families from Qaanaaq and the surrounding settlements or months colonized. The earlier settlements Annoatok, Inuarfissuaq, Qeqertaaraq, Qaqaitsut and Etah (as last abandoned in 1953 ) were the most northerly in the world. In the years 2004 to 2009 was the Inglefield Land target of extensive archaeological investigations, which have given many clues to the earlier settlement ( " Inglefield land Archeology Project").

The excavations at Qaqaitsut happened account of the observations of Inuit families who inhabited these extremely high latitude location in the summer. Quote from the report below: . ' Live on the land ' " Qaqaitsut on Paris fjord in Eastern Inglefield land was most recently inhabited, by at least four families in the mid - 1980s as part of a larger initiative by the community of Qaanaaq to Inughuit hunters reported the presence of archaeological remains to the Greenland National Museum at did time. "

These archaeological remains include the so-called winter houses, Qaqaitsut ( in other case Qaqqaatsut ) was thus once inhabited all year round, making it the northernmost natural settlement in the world. It is located on 79 ° 07 ' 17.14 north latitude and 66 ° 50' 52 W.