Kangeq

Nuukfjorden · Grönland · Abandoned site

Greenlandic folk belief says qivittut seek out places just like this — abandoned settlements where the dead were left behind alone.

Greenlandic folk belief warns that spirits linger where the dead have been left behind by the living, and that qivittut — the restless mountain-walkers of the outcast — are drawn to precisely such abandoned places. Kangeq is exactly that: an island where the graves are thousands of years old and the houses were emptied in a single stroke. Visitors describe how the silence between the empty houses and the ancient graves tips over into something distinctly eerie.

The island at the mouth of the Nuuk fjord was abandoned in 1973, when its villagers were moved into town. The ground carries traces of several thousand years of settlement, and it was just alongside that the missionary Hans Egede landed in 1721, founding Greenland's first European colony on Håbets Ø — the Island of Hope.

FAQ

Where is Kangeq located?

Kangeq is in Nuukfjorden, Grönland.