Qaanaaq

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Image:Greenland 18.PNG Qaanaaq (pronounced (IPA) Template:IPA) is a town and municipality in northwestern Greenland. It is the only town and the only municipality in the county of North Greenland (Avannaa). It was founded after the town of Thule became an US-American Air Base; Thule's Greenlandic population was then resettled to Qaanaaq. Image:GL Qaanaaq.gif The town of Qaanaaq has a population of 640, and the whole municipality 850 (as of 1 January 2005). In addition to the town, there are five villages (with population):

Savissivik, pop. 78, in the northern part of Melville Bay, in the south of the municipality
Moriusaq 21, about 30 km of Thule Air Base
Qeqertat 22 (on the main island of the Harward Øer)
Qeqertarsuaq 2 (on an island, Herbert Ø)
Siorapaluk 87 (northernmost naturally inhabited settlement of the world at 77°47'N)

All villages are losing population, since people are moving to the town. Historically, the number of villages has been higher, but some have been abandoned. Qeqertarsuaq is virtually abandoned by now. This process of population concentration in the towns is observed through all of Greenland

78 km northwest of Siorapaluk is Etah, an abandoned village which once was the northernmost village of the world, at 78°19'N).

The municipality has an area of 225 500 km², a large portion of which is ice cap area. It borders on Upernavik municipality on the south, on the unincorporated area of the Northeast Greenland National Park on the east, on the Arctic Ocean on the north, and on the Nares Strait, which separates North Greenland from Ellesmere Island of Nunavut, Canada on the west.Image:Greenland big.png

The Thule Air Base (Pituffik), which is not part of Qaanaaq or any other municipality (it is, like the Greenland National Park, unincorporated territory), is a part of the U.S. network of early warning radars, and is an important facility in the recent discussion of the National Missile Defense (NMD). The proposed update of the facility (X-band Radar) to meet the demands of the NMD is controversial within Greenland and Denmark (Greenland is a part of the Kingdom of Denmark). On January 22 1968, a B-52 crashed seven miles south of the Thule Air Force Base. Nuclear bombs were lost and debris scattered over the area in the accident.

Near Qaanaaq there is one of the tallest constructions in the world, the 410 meter Radio Mast Thule.

Air Greenland operates air services to Qaanaaq.

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