Greenland is a constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark and an overseas territory associated with the European Union, located east of the Arctic archipelago in northeastern North America, between the Baffin Sea and the Davis Strait to the west and the Greenland Sea and the Atlantic Ocean to the east.
Although physiographically part of the North American continent, Greenland was politically and culturally associated with Europe—particularly Norway and Denmark, the colonial powers, as well as the neighboring island of Iceland—for more than a millennium. Greenland is the largest island in the world. More than three-quarters of its territory is covered by the only contemporary ice sheet outside Antarctica. With a population of 56,609 inhabitants as of January 1st, 2023, it is among the least densely populated territories in the world.
Greenland has been inhabited for at least the last 4,500 years by Arctic peoples whose ancestors have since migrated to what is now Canada. The Vikings settled in the southern part, then uninhabited, of Greenland from the 10th century, founding medieval colonies there which would not have exceeded 2,000 inhabitants, then these settlements would have disappeared around 1500 AD. The current Inuit peoples arrived in the 13th century. At the beginning of the 18th century, Scandinavia and Greenland regained contact with each other, and the Kingdom of Denmark and Norway established sovereignty over the island by founding colonial companies.
Denmark and Norway have claimed Greenland for centuries. It was from Greenland and Iceland that the Norwegians set sail to discover America – almost 500 years before Christopher Columbus – and attempted to colonize the land. Greenland became a Danish colony and then part of the Kingdom of Denmark in 1953 under the Constitution of Denmark.
The island is 80% covered by an ice sheet with an area of 1,710,000 sqkm and a thickness reaching almost three kilometers of ice in the center, corresponding to the highest altitude. This ice sheet is bordered by moderate mountainous reliefs between which the ice flows by glaciers. From some of them icebergs break off which are carried offshore by the currents. Beneath this ice sheet is a large canyon. Discovered in 2013 thanks to satellite observations, this canyon, which crosses the entire northwest part of the island, is at least 750 kilometers long and 800 meters deep in places, making it the largest in the world.
Capital city: Nuuk
Flight time from Europe: 10 hours (one stop) to Nuuk.
Time difference: GMT – 1 hour.
Best time to go: June to September.
Visas: A visa is not required for this destination for a stay of up to 90 days., but visitors must hold a passport valid for at least six months beyond their date of country exit and with one blank visa page.
Health requirements: No vaccination is required.
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