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"The edge of known territory" - Extreme NW Greenland. In 1910 Knud Rasmussen established a mission and trading post in this remote corner of Greenland and called it Thule after the Latin Ultima Thule.
* Nares Strait:
Nares Strait links the Arctic Ocean with Baffin Bay and provided an ice bridge for the migration route from North America to Greenland. The first known Europeans to visit the strait were Bylot and Baffin in 1616, but during the following centuries many perished here searching for the mythical ice-free polar sea, the north west passage, or Franklin’s expedition. Etah was the base for several of Knud Rasmussen’s expeditions, as well as Peary’s failed attempt to reach the North Pole. Today both the Ellesmere Island and Greenland sides are totally uninhabited.
* Etah, Foulke Fjord
Once the most northerly populated settlement in the world, it is now a seasonal hunting camp. Waves of ancient migrants have passed through the area from Arctic Canada, most recently the Thule culture migrants within the last thousand years and migrants from Baffin Island in the 19th century. The land north of Etah is the last ice-free area in Greenland. South of Etah great glaciers come down from the Greenland’s inland ice. They calve icebergs, originally made from snow that fell on the ice cap thousands of years ago.
* Qaannaaq
The area has been inhabited by nomadic groups for centuries, but the village itself was set up in 1953 when Greenlanders from Pituffik were forcibly moved to make way for the nearby (97km) American Thule air base, needed during the Cold War and for the Berlin airlift. As with most north west Greenland villages, the mainstay of the economy is fishing and hunting. At this latitude it has four months light in summer and four months darkness in winter.
* Uummannaaq
Named after its towering heart-shaped mountain, Uummaannaaq is in a stunning location on a small island 600km north of the Arctic Circle. The town was founded by Danes in the 1760s during the whaling era. Whales are still landed on rocks nearby for flensing, and sealing and fishing are still major occupations.