One of Greenland´s three UNESCO Sites stretches some 250 km along the lower southwest coast from the Nunap Isua (Cape Farewell) islands in the south to Nunarsuit Island, a 2½ -hour flight from Nuuk. It´s comprised of five spots with the remains of Viking history – the oldest remaining evidence of Old Norse culture spreading outside mainland Europe. They include the 40-person hamlet of Qassiarsuk, at the head of a fjord called Tunulliarfik, which is the site of Brattahlíd, the first successful (at least for several hundred years) European settlement in Greenland, founded around 982 by Eric the Red (who by the way also gave Greenland its deceptive name); you can see the remains of Tjodhilde Church, stables, assembly hall, and other buildings, along with reconstructions of both a Norse longhouse and the church (above, considered the oldest in North America - of which, remember, Greenland is geographically a part). Then, too, there are the early-12th-century Norse ruins of Garthar in the village of Igaliku near Narsausuaq and Kiattuut Sermiat glacier; a manor-house complex of some 40 buildings in Sissarluttoq; and Hvalsey (Qaqortukulooq in Geenlandic), a onetime farmstead where you´ll find Greenland´s largest and best preserved Norse ruins, including those of an early-14th-century church.
Read more in my post Greenland Rising: What´s all the Fuss about the World´s Largest Island?
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