Kingittorsuaq Island is a small, uninhabited island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

 in the Qaasuitsup

Qaasuitsup

Qaasuitsup is a new municipality in Greenland, operational from 1 January 2009. As of January 2010 its population is 17,749. The administrative center of the municipality is in Ilulissat...

 municipality in northwestern Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...

. It is a small island in the southern part of the Upernavik Archipelago

Upernavik Archipelago

Upernavik Archipelago is a vast archipelago of small islands in the Qaasuitsup municipality in northwestern Greenland, on the coast of northeastern Baffin Bay...

, located on the southwestern shores of Upernavik Icefjord

Upernavik Icefjord

Upernavik Icefjord is a fjord in the Qaasuitsup municipality in northwestern Greenland.- Geography :The long fjord flows to the northwest between two chains of islands, emptying into Baffin Bay...

, near the mouth of the latter where it opens into Baffin Bay

Baffin Bay

Baffin Bay , located between Baffin Island and the southwest coast of Greenland, is a marginal sea of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is connected to the Atlantic via Davis Strait and the Labrador Sea...

. The name of the island means "a large protruding rock" in the Greenlandic language.

History

The Kingittorsuaq runestone (old spelling: Kingigtorssuaq runestone) dating from the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 was found in 1824 on the highest pooint of the island, in a group of three cairn

Cairn

Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...

s forming an equilateral triangle. The stone is now located at the National Museum of Denmark

National Museum of Denmark

The National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen is Denmark’s largest museum of cultural history, comprising the histories of Danish and foreign cultures, alike. The museum's main domicile is located a short distance from Strøget at the center of Copenhagen. It contains exhibits from around the world,...

 in Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

.