Narsarsuaq is a settlement in the Kujalleq

Kujalleq

Kujalleq is a new municipality in the southern tip of Greenland, operational from 1 January 2009. With 7,589 inhabitants as of January 2010, it is the least-populated municipality in Greenland. The administrative center of the municipality is in Qaqortoq...

 municipality in southern 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 had 158 inhabitants in 2010. There is a thriving tourism

Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

 industry in and around Narsarsuaq, whose attractions include a great diversity of wildlife, gemstones, tours to glacier

Glacier

A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...

s, and an airfield museum. The name of the settlement means great plain in Greenlandic.

History

Narsarsuaq was the principal city of Greenland in the times of Erik the Red

Erik the Red

Erik Thorvaldsson , known as Erik the Red , is remembered in medieval and Icelandic saga sources as having founded the first Nordic settlement in Greenland. The Icelandic tradition indicates that he was born in the Jæren district of Rogaland, Norway, as the son of Thorvald Asvaldsson, he therefore...

, whose Brattahlíð

Brattahlíð

Brattahlíð was Erik the Red's estate in the Eastern Settlement Viking colony he established in south-western Greenland toward the end of the 10th century. The present settlement of Qassiarsuk, approximately southwest from the Narsarsuaq settlement, is now located in its place...

 farm is believed to have been located west of the settlement, in Qassiarsuk

Qassiarsuk

Qassiarsuk is a settlement in the Kujalleq municipality, in southern Greenland. Its population was 89 in 2010.- History :Brattahlíð was the site of the Erik the Red's estate in the times of the Norse Eastern Settlement...

 across the Tunulliarfik Fjord

Tunulliarfik Fjord

Tunulliarfik Fjord is a fjord in the Kujalleq municipality in southern Greenland. In times of the Norse settlement in southern Greenland, it was known as Eiriksfjord.- Geography :...

. There are the traces of the early Norse

Norsemen

Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language belonging to the North Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, especially Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Swedish and Danish in their earlier forms.The meaning of Norseman was "people...

 settlement and a replica of the first Christian

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

 church on the American continent.

In 1941, the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 built an air base at Narsarsuaq called Bluie West One

Bluie West One

Bluie West One airfield was built on a glacial moraine at what is now the village of Narsarsuaq, near the southern tip of Greenland. Construction by the U.S. Army began in June 1941, and the first plane landed there in January 1942...

, an important link in the North Atlantic Ferry Route. Thousands of planes used BW1 as a stepping stone on their way from the aircraft factories in North America to the battlegrounds of Europe. After the end of the war, BW1 continued to be developed, but it was rendered surplus by the advent of mid-air refueling and the construction of the larger Thule Air Base

Thule Air Base

Thule Air Base or Thule Air Base/Pituffik Airport , is the United States Air Force's northernmost base, located north of the Arctic Circle and from the North Pole on the northwest side of the island of Greenland. It is approximately east of the North Magnetic Pole.-Overview:Thule Air Base is the...

 in northern Greenland. In 1951, it was agreed that Denmark and the U.S. would jointly oversee the airbase; in 1958, the U.S. abandoned it, but it was reopened the following year by the Danish government after the loss of the vessel Hans Hedtoft

Hans Hedtoft (ship)

MS Hans Hedtoft was a Danish liner that struck an iceberg and sank on 30 January 1959 on her maiden voyage.-History:Hans Hedtoft was built by Frederikshavns Værft at Frederikshavn in northern Denmark. She was yard number 226, launched on 13 August 1958 and completed on 17 December. She had a...

with all souls south off Cape Farewell

Cape Farewell, Greenland

Cape Farewell , is a headland on the southern shore of Egger Island, Greenland. Located at it is the southernmost extent of Greenland, projecting out into the North Atlantic Ocean and the Labrador Sea on the same latitude as Stockholm and the Scottish Shetland Islands. Egger and the associated...

. The ruins of a former military hospital can still be found in the vicinity of the settlement.

Transport

Narsarsuaq Airport serves as the principal airfield in southwestern Greenland, with seasonal international flights from Iceland

Iceland

Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

 operated by Air Iceland

Air Iceland

Air Iceland is a regional airline with its head office on the property of Reykjavík Airport in Reykjavík, Iceland. It operates scheduled services to domestic destinations and to Greenland. Its main bases are Reykjavík Airport and Akureyri Airport...

 and Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 operated by Air Finland

Air Finland

Oy Air Finland Ltd. is an airline with its head office and base at Helsinki Airport in Vantaa, Finland, operating chartered and scheduled flights to holiday destinations, as well as aircraft lease services. - History :...

 for Air Greenland

Air Greenland

Air Greenland A/S is the flag carrier airline of Greenland, jointly owned by the government of Greenland, the SAS Group, and the government of Denmark...

, feeding the commuter flights from communities of southern Greenland operated by Air Greenland. Small planes crossing the Atlantic sometimes replicate the North Atlantic Ferry Route, stopping at Narsarsuaq Airport and other WWII airfields, including Goose Bay, Newfoundland

CFB Goose Bay

Canadian Forces Base Goose Bay , is a Canadian Forces Base located in the town of Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador....

 in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 and Reykjavík

Reykjavík

Reykjavík is the capital and largest city in Iceland.Its latitude at 64°08' N makes it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói Bay...

 in Iceland.

Population

The population growth of the settlement is strictly tied to the traffic growth dynamics at the local airport.

Climate

Narsarsuaq experiences boundary subarctic climate (Köppen

Köppen climate classification

The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by Crimea German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself, notably in 1918 and 1936...

: Dfc), which barely escapes being classified as polar climate

Polar climate

Regions with a polar climate are characterized by a lack of warm summers . Regions with polar climate cover over 20% of the Earth. The sun shines 24 hours in the summer, and barely ever shines at all in the winter...

, which is typical for the rest of Greenland. The summers in Narsarsuaq are the warmest of all cities in Greenland. Narsarsuaq is extremely wet, with Atlantic

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

 storms pounding the town all year.

Arboretum Groenlandicum

On the lower slopes of the Mellemlandet ridge bounding Qooroq Fjord from the northwest, in close proximity to Narsarsuaq Airport there is a unique 'botanical garden of the Arctic', called Arboretum Groenlandicum. The goal is to establish a live collection of trees and bushes heralding from both the arctic and the alpine tree-lines of the entire Northern Hemisphere.

Founded in 1988, it encompasses 15 hectares and sheltering 110 plant species, mostly varieties of boreal taiga

Taiga

Taiga , also known as the boreal forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests.Taiga is the world's largest terrestrial biome. In North America it covers most of inland Canada and Alaska as well as parts of the extreme northern continental United States and is known as the Northwoods...

 trees, such as Siberian larch, Lodgepole Pine

Lodgepole Pine

Lodgepole Pine, Pinus contorta, also known as Shore Pine, is a common tree in western North America. Like all pines, it is evergreen.-Subspecies:...

, White Spruce, or Sitka Spruce, and various bushes. Many individual trees are tagged or otherwise marked. The plantation currently has more than 50,000 trees of various provenances.