North Cape
Coordinates: 71 ° 10 ′ 21 ″ N , 25 ° 47 ′ 4 ″ E
The North Cape ( Norwegian Nordkapp ) is a cape that protrudes into the Arctic Ocean on the north side of the Norwegian island of Magerøya . It is located in the municipality of Nordkapp, named after him, at 71 ° 10 ′ 21 ″ north latitude , 514 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle and around 2100 kilometers south of the North Pole .
Since 1999, the North Cape has been the northernmost point in Europe that can be reached by road from the mainland and, with its landmark, the globe , is an important tourist destination.
Geographical location
The North Cape is located in Finnmark in the province of Troms og Finnmark , the northernmost province of Norway, and consists of a rocky plateau rising up to 307 meters above sea level. The Nordkaphorn rock formation is located on the eastern flank of the plateau .
Although the North Cape is often considered the northernmost land point in Europe, it is in no way:
- Knivskjellodden , the neighboring headland of the island Magerøya to the west, extends around 1400 meters further north (up to 71 ° 11 ′ 08 ″ north latitude).
- If one only looks at the European mainland, the headland Kinnarodden (71 ° 08 ′ 01 ″ north latitude) on the North Chin Peninsula is about 67 km east of the North Cape, its northernmost point. The North Cape is to the north, but on an island.
- Some of the European islands are further north than the North Cape. Farthest to the north are the islands of the Spitzbergen archipelago and those of the Franz Josef Land with Cape Fligely .
Polar night and midnight sun
On average, the sun does not rise at all on the North Cape from November 20 to January 22, while it always stays above the horizon from May 14 to July 29. The fact that the light phase lasts longer than the dark phase is due to the significant height of the North Cape above the sea.
geology
The North Cape lies, like the entire island of Magerøya, in the northern foothills of the Skanden . The rock from which the North Cape plateau is built belongs to a meta grauwacken - phyllite sequence that spreads over a large area on the island , the turbiditic parent rocks of which were deposited in the Silurian and their metamorphosis at the transition from the late Silurian to the early Devonian , during the Scandic phase of the Caledonian Mountain formation took place. In the late Pleistocene , about 21,000 years ago, the Fennoscan Ice Sheet last covered the North Cape.
traffic
The Nordkapp is connected to the European road network via the Europastraße 69 , since the opening of the Nordkappunnel on June 15, 1999 via a continuous road.
The nearest airport is Honningsvåg Valan regional airport, 31 km to the southeast , accessible via European route 69.
Since June 2013, the 7,000-kilometer European long-distance hiking trail E1 has started at a stone waymark on the North Cape .
Tourism and infrastructure
Tourism to the North Cape has a long tradition. Due to its peripheral location, the North Cape was mostly only visited by a wealthy upper class until the middle of the 20th century. Today it is a tourist attraction with around 200,000 visitors annually.
There is an information center on the high plateau of the North Cape - the so-called " North Cape Hall ". There is a restaurant, an ecumenical chapel, historical exhibitions, souvenir shops and a post office where you can get a North Cape diploma stamped with the current date. The post delivered there is postmarked with a special North Cape postmark. As a curiosity, a so-called Thai pavilion can be found in the North Cape Hall, which commemorates the visit of King Chulalongkorn of Siam in 1907. The North Cape Hall was expanded in 1988 and then in 1997 it was enlarged by a further 750 m². The hall is partly built into the rock. A fee is charged for entry to the North Cape Hall and, at times, for parking on the North Cape Plateau.
history
When the glaciers retreated at the end of the last ice age 8,000 to 10,000 years ago, people of the Komsa culture came to the region. They lived by catching fish, seals and birds. The Sami population has been in Finnmark for almost 2000 years. It is not certain when the first Norwegians settled here. The first written documents to indicate Norwegian settlement date from the first half of the 14th century, when a man in Honningsvåg left all his property to his daughter. Norwegians, who sold fish, and Russians, who sold flour, traded with each other.
In 1553 three English ships left London to find the Northeast Passage to China . The ships were separated from each other in the storm, and one of them, the Edward Bonaventure of Captain Richard Chancellor , passed the rock called "Knyskanes" in mid-August. Assuming it was mainland Norway, Richard Chancellor gave the slate plateau the name "North Cape".
The Dutchman Jan Huygen von Linschoten immortalized the North Cape in 1594 in an engraving. At that time the Dutch had succeeded the Basques and had a whaling station in the area. Other Europeans joined them later. Finally, the Danish-Norwegian government banned all foreigners who had not bought a fishing license from whaling.
Francesco Negri , a priest from Ravenna in Italy , is said to have been the first tourist to the North Cape in 1664. He wanted to find out how people could survive this far north. He was alone on his journey and wrote down his experiences. The French Prince Ludwig Philipp I came to the North Cape in 1795 while fleeing the French Revolution . On the night of July 18-19, 1799, the travelers Giuseppe Acerbi and Anders Fredrik Skjöldebrand reached the North Cape. Both published travel descriptions. King Oskar II visited the North Cape in 1873, the Oscar column commemorates this .
The plateau was first climbed in 1828 by the Norwegian Baltazar Mathias Keilhau from Hornvika Bay. Organized tourism began on July 9, 1845 with the arrival of the first holiday trip of the steamship “Prinds Gustav” from Hammerfest to the North Cape. In 1861, Carl Vogt established the tradition of drinking champagne at the North Cape to celebrate the arrival. The first organized group tours from London were organized by the Cook travel agency in 1875. The big breakthrough for the North Cape as a tourist destination came when the Hurtigrute established fixed ship connections along the coast to the north in 1893.
After the post line established in 1879 around the North Cape to Vadsø , the first post office opened in 1898, an octagonal building with a champagne bar on the North Cape.
In 1907 King Chulalongkorn of Siam (now Thailand) visited the North Cape with his entourage. The monarch from East Asia sailed from Copenhagen on the chartered yacht "Albion". His visit was documented with the date and the signature of the king, carved into a stone that is now in the North Cape Hall.
Nordkapps Vel AS (Society for the Welfare of the North Cape) was founded in 1927 to regulate tourism and protect the environment. In 1956 the road from Honningsvåg to the North Cape was opened, and with it the modern North Cape tourism began with cars and buses up to the North Cape rock. As a result, the first North Cape Hall was built in 1958. The plastic of the globe, the globe , was erected in 1978.
With the unveiling of the Midnight Sun Route Monument on the North Cape on June 7, 1984, the opportunity was used to found a club exclusively for visitors to the North Cape: The Royal North Cape Club . Membership is reserved for those who have made the trip to the northernmost tip of Europe. In 1989 the monument to the children of the world was erected southeast of the North Cape Hall.
King Harald opened the North Cape Tunnel on June 15, 1999 . This tunnel is 6875 m long and crosses under Magerøysund with a maximum depth of 212 m. That was the end of the ferry service between Magerøya and the mainland. Honningsvåg , the small port town in the south of Magerøya, is still called by Hurtigruten ships.
photos
The " globe "
View of the North Cape plateau with Knivskjellodden in the background
Midnight sun
Cliffs at the North Cape
Web links
- Official website of the North Cape
- Europe's northernmost point
- Calculation of sunrise and sunset times
- Panoramic camera
Individual evidence
- ↑ Nordnorge.com , accessed October 20, 2019
- ↑ Nordnorge.com , accessed October 20, 2019
- ^ Donald M. Ramsey, Brian A. Sturt: The syn-metamophic emplacement of the Magerøy nappe. Norsk Geologisk Tidsskrift. Vol. 56, No. 3, 1976, pp. 291-307 ( online )
- ^ Allan G. Krill, John Rodgers, Bjørn Sundvoll: Alternative to the Finnmarkian-Scandian interpretation on Magerøya, northern norway. Norsk Geologisk Tidsskrift. Vol. 68, No. 3, 1988, pp. 171-185 ( online )
- ↑ Kjersti Skavhaug , To the North Cape, Famous Journeys from the Viking Age to 1800 , North Cape Splitteratur A / S, Honningsvåg, 2nd edition 1994, ISBN 82-7579-006-9 , page 49