Greenland

Greenland is the world's largest non-continental island, and yet it has the sparsest population.  Greenland is all about ice: approximately 79% of its surface is under an ice cap up to 3 metres thick.  

Greenland also has many fjords - deep, steep-walled valleys along coastlines that have flooded with seawater.  Many of these fjords contain a glacier at their head, which calves icebergs.  

Western Greenland has both one of the fastest moving glaciers in the world (Eqip Serm glacier) and the most productive glacier outside of Antarctica (Sermeq Kujalleq glacier). The enormous Sermeq Kujalleq glacier is 10 kilometres wide and 1,000 metres thick. The icebergs produced by this glacier represent more than 10% of all icebergs in Greenland, corresponding to 20 million tonnes of ice per day.

Eastern Greenland is home to the world's largest fjord complex, Scorsbysund, which contains 'iceberg alley', with majestic icebergs, some of which are over 100 metres high.

The southern tip of Greenland was one of the first regions to be inhabited by European settlers, and there are many photogenic villages with colourfully painted wooden cottages scattered along the south west coast.

The eastern coast of Greenland is the most isolated and the communities found here are the most traditional, demonstrating ways of life which are now long past in other areas of Greenland. This region also contains the remains of Thule winter houses, the ancestors of the indigenous people of Greenland.  

The western coast of Greenland is the most densely populated region on the island.  Evidence of human habitation in the area near Sisimiut spans nearly 5,000 years; the Saqqaq, Dorset and Thule predate the 17th century European whalers who established a community here.  The Northwest coast of Greenland is one of the least developed and least westernised areas of the island, and many of the communities in this region still live in fairly traditional ways.  Qaanaaq, on the northwestern coast of Greenland, is the northernmost municipality in the world.