GREENLAND

National Dress



Steam bath-house

Artic Hare

Artic Fox

Geese

Moth

Greenland is the largest island in the world and the vast majority

of it lies above the Artic Circle. It's southern tip shares the

same latitude as Oslo and the British Shetland Isles.

By contrast, the East Coast of Greenland is very remote and wild,

and its ruggedness and isolation have a direct bearing on how one

finds it today. To the west, the Inland Ice bars any overland connection to the

populous and developed west coast.

To the east and out to the sea the East Greenland Current flows

along the entire coast, dragging vast quantities of icebergs and dense Polar ice

with it, effectively blocking access to all but the most determined or

lucky seafarers, rendering it an unattractive prospect to Western colonisers and

delaying their arrival until very recently. For these reasons East Greenland

remains undeveloped and populated by only 3,000 within a handful

of settlements; an ancient Inuit hunting society with intact customs

and traditions has persisted here. Its Isolation is such that other

Greenlanders put it to the back of their minds and name it "Tunu" -

The land at the back.

Ethnic groups:....Greenlanders 87% (Eskimos & Greenland born whites)

Danish and others 13%

Religions: Evangelical Lutheran

Languages: Eskimo Dialects, Greenlandic (an Inuit dialect)

Population: 59,309 (1998)

Population growth rate = 0.9%

Birth rate: 15.83 births per 1000 population