Nuuk

Greenland's capital, where colourful houses and the towering Sermitsiaq peak ring the fjord.

The city sits at the mouth of a long fjord, called Nuup Kangerlua, about 10 km from the Labrador Sea, with colourful houses below the tall peak of Sermitsiaq, which stands 1,210 metres high and can be seen from almost everywhere in town. Nuuk is Greenland's centre of government, culture and business.

A very old place

People have lived near Nuuk for a very long time: the ancient Saqqaq culture from about 2200 BCE, then the Dorset culture, and Norse settlers from around the year 1000 until their settlements vanished in the 15th century for reasons that are not certain.

In 1728 the missionary Hans Egede and the governor Claus Paarss founded the town at a place where Inuit already lived. It was named Godthåb, "good hope". "Nuuk" is the Greenlandic word for "cape".

A city of firsts

In 1733 Moravian missionaries began a mission, and in 1747 the New Herrnhut mission house was built; it became the nucleus of present-day Nuuk. In 1861 the first Greenlandic newspaper, Atuagagdliutit, started here with a Greenlander as editor, and it became a symbol of Greenlandic identity.

After Greenland gained home rule in 1979, the city was renamed Nuuk and Greenlandic names were preferred. Godthåb mostly went out of use over the next two decades. A newspaper from 2016 said Nuuk may be the most indigenous city in the world, with almost 90 percent of Greenland's people being Inuit.

Sun and weather

Nuuk has a tundra climate with long, cold, snowy winters and short, cold summers. It is about 240 km south of the Arctic Circle.

On 21 December the sun rises at 11:22 in the morning and sets at 3:28 in the afternoon. In June the sun sets after 1 a.m. and rises before 4 a.m., so the sky stays bright all night.

On the globe

The model shows colourful houses beside the fjord, with a tall mountain behind. Look for the pointed peak.