Ilulissat

Ilulissat (population 4,533) is the third largest settlement in Greenland and also the seat of the municipality of Ilulissat (Ilulissat Kommuniat) which covers an area of 47,000 km². The town is located at 69°13′N, 51°06′W, about halfway up the country's west coast, and about 200 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle.

Illulisat is also widely known by its Danish name of Jakobshavn ("Jacob's Harbour"). In direct translation Ilulissat is the Greenlandic word for "The Icebergs". Ilulissat is Greenland's most popular tourist destination on account of its proximity to the picturesque Ilulissat Icefjord - tourism is now the town's principal industry. Ilulissat was the birthplace of celebrated polar explorer Knud Rasmussen and his childhood home in the centre of the settlement is now a museum dedicated to him.

History

Ilulissat

Inuit settlements have existed in the area of the icefjord for at least three thousand years. The abandoned settlement of Sermermiut two kilometres south of the modern town of Ilulissat was once amongst the largest settlements in Greenland with around 250 inhabitants. The modern town was founded in 1741 by missionary Danish Poul Egede for trader Jakob Severin who had an established a trading lodge in the area. In 2006, ITV News' science editor Lawrence McGinty visited Ilulissat for a series about climate change called 3 degrees from disaster.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilulissat