Greenland: landmarks, animals & facts for kids

Greenland is the largest island in the world, lying in the far north of North America between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic, northeast of Canada. It is not an independent country: it is a self-governing part of the Kingdom of Denmark, with its own government in the capital, Nuuk. About four-fifths of the island is buried under a giant ice sheet, so its small population lives in towns and villages along the coast.

On My Earth Toy you can visit Nuuk, with its colourful houses and the pointed Sermitsiaq mountain across the fjord, and the Ilulissat Icefjord, where a fast-moving glacier pushes huge icebergs into Disko Bay. Look out for muskoxen and the gyrfalcon, the largest falcon in the world.

Geography and nature

The Greenland ice sheet is the second largest body of ice on Earth after Antarctica's, and in places it is about 3 kilometres thick. Only the rocky edges are free of ice, cut by deep fjords. The highest point is Gunnbjørn Fjeld, 3,694 metres tall. In the north, the Sun stays up all night in summer and does not rise at all in mid-winter. There are no roads between towns, so people travel by boat, plane, helicopter, snowmobile or dog sled.

People, languages and culture

Most Greenlanders are Inuit, and the official language is Greenlandic (Kalaallisut); Danish is also widely used. In Greenlandic the island is called Kalaallit Nunaat, meaning land of the Greenlanders. Fishing, especially for shrimp and halibut, is the most important industry, and hunting for seals and whales is still part of life in some places. The kayak was invented by Arctic peoples, and Greenland still holds kayak championships. Most people are Lutheran Christians.

History in a nutshell

Inuit and earlier Arctic peoples came from North America in several waves, starting more than 4,000 years ago. Norse settlers led by Erik the Red arrived from Iceland in the late 10th century, but their farms had disappeared by the 1400s. Danish-Norwegian colonisation began in 1721. Greenland became part of Denmark in 1953, gained home rule in 1979, and won wider self-government in 2009, while Denmark still handles areas such as defence and foreign affairs.