MÃ½rasÃ½sla

The old district Mýrasýsla (also Mýrar ) is located in Iceland. It is located in the west of the country near the town of Borgarnes and has a size of about 3270 km ². This is an Icelandic administrative unit.

Boundaries

The area Mýrarsýsla enough in an elongated strip with the main east-west orientation of the Faxaflói Bay ( western boundary ) to the area of the lava field Hallmundarhraun.

It includes the beach from Borgarfjorður over the marshes Mýrar to the farm Bruarfoss, ranging from thence to the north-east to Lake Hítarvatn where it makes a bend and from there to the east extends over the pass Brattabrekka to the mountain Tröllakirkja on the Holtavörðuheiði over the Arnarvatnsheiði where the border north of the Úlfsvatn proceeds to the Fljótsdrög on the north west side of the glacier shield Langjökull.

In the south first, therefore, forms the Borgarfjorður the border ( first course to the north - east, but then the boundary follows the Hvitá River to the east and south of the pass reaches Flosaskarð and the glacier Eiríksjökull the Langjökull, which is also the eastern border of Mýrasýsla.

Historical conditions

Here, we follow an ancient settlement pattern: In the time of land acquisition, could the clan chiefs, as they were used to from Norway ago, always secure a strip of land that extended into the hinterland of a piece of coast. Here is more or less around the area, the secured according Conquest Book of clan chief Skalla - GrimR Kveldúlfsson in the 9th century, the populated the area with his people.

The actual area Mýrar (Eng. " bottoms" ) extends only from the sea to just northeast of Borgarnes. The fact that sometimes the administrative unit but also designated as, although it is much larger, on the one hand has historical reasons: The courtyard of the area chiefs was Borg í Mýrum at today Borgarnes. On the other hand, it is also when most of the area to low-lying wetlands.

Detailed Description

The beaches of this coastal stretch including the Borgarfjorður always were already regarded as dangerous for the navigation, they are due to the glacial volcanism in the area ( see Hafnarfjall, Skarðsheiði ), full of reefs and islets. A famous shipwreck is told in a saga: Böðvar, the son of Egill Skallagrímsson comes on the fjord to.

Some islands are offshore and were inhabited in ancient times.

Near the sea you will find mainly flat moorland, lakes and ponds, as well as many from the Ice Age glaciers zugeschliffenen and other forms of erosion basalt rocks. This Moorland was in former times as difficult to cross.

To the east moderate Bergland closes with smoothed by glaciers gently rounded valleys at ( Þverádalur, Hvítárdalur etc.). Finally, this goes into the uninhabited highlands above with parts of Tvídægra, the Arnarvatnsheiði and the Hallmundarhraun where then are the great glaciers shields Eiríksjökull and Langjökull.

Some of the larger rivers like the Norðurá and Hvítá are in the area. They are known as the Þverá a very good salmon rivers. In the lakes and ponds where you can fish for trout.

Geology

The geology of the Borgarfjorður is versatile.

This was before about 12 million years ago, the then rift zone with active volcanism. The area is therefore continue to be affected by earthquakes and crisscrossed by many columns. This also cause the rising of geothermal energy and are therefore reason that is the largest low-temperature region of the country here. Well-known hot springs are found mainly in Reykholtsdalur ( Deildartunguhver etc.).

A 4- million year old central volcano is found on Hallarmúli.

Of modern volcanism ranges in the vicinity of the leatherback volcano from Snæfellsnes in the area inside. Here are the northern foothills of the system of Ljósufjöll in the form of Grábrókkrater Bifrost.

Places

The main town of the area is Borgarnes. Smaller towns in the area such as Hvanneyri and Reykholt have now been combined with Borgarnes in the larger management community Borgarbyggð.

Sýsla ( Iceland )

Landnámabók Baula

589500