Nuuk

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Categories: Articles to be expanded since September 2007 | All articles to be expanded | Cities and towns in Greenland | Capitals in North America | Settlements established in 1728

Coordinates: 64°10′N 51°45′W / 64.167, -51.75
City of Nuuk, Greenland
Image:Nuuk overhead.jpg Flying over Nuuk City.
Nickname: Godthåb
Image:Greenland 6.PNG Location of the Nuuk Municipality in Greenland
Image:Greenlandlocatormap.png Image:Red pog2.svg Location of the City of Nuuk in Greenland
Province	Greenland
Municipality	Nuuk Municipality
First Settled	2000 B.C.
Incorporated	1728
Government
- Mayor	Nikolai Heinrich (Siumut)
Population (January, 2007)
- City	15,047
- Metro	15,047
	City and Metropolitan population is co-extensive, The entire Metro area belongs to Nuuk City.
Time zone	UTC−3 (UTC-3)
Website: Nuuk Municipal Website

Nuuk (or Godthåb) is the capital and largest city of Greenland. It is located at the mouth of the Nuup Kangerlua (or in Danish "Godthåbsfjorden") inlet on the west coast of Greenland, about 240 km (150 mi) south of the Arctic Circle, at approximately 64°10′N, 51°45′W.^[1] It has a population of 15,047 (as of January 2007), of whom 11,862 were born in Greenland.^[2]

The city is commonly known as Godthåb in Danish, although since home rule was enacted in 1979, the official name of the city is its Greenlandic name of Nuuk. It is also the seat of government for the municipality of Nuuk, which encompasses about 100,000 km² (39,000 square miles) of Greenland.

Nuuk is home to the University of Greenland (Ilisimatusarfik). Air services to the city are operated by Air Greenland.

1 History
2 Universities
3 Climate
4 Notable people from Nuuk
5 See also
6 Gallery
7 Twin Towns
8 Notes and references
9 External links

History

The site has a long history of different inhabitation: first by the ancient Inuit people known as the Saqqaq culture around 2000 B.C., later by Viking explorers in the 10th century, and shortly thereafter by Inuit peoples. Inuit and Vikings lived together in this area from around 1000 A.D. until around 1500 A.D., when human habitation suddenly stopped, most likely due to change in climate and vegetation.

The city was founded in 1728 by the Norwegian missionary Hans Egede, and given the name Godthåb (Good Hope). However, Hans Egede had arrived at a place he called Colony of Hope close to the already existing Inuit population living in Kangeq. At this time, Greenland was a Norwegian colony under the Dano-Norwegian Crown, but the colony had not had any contact with Norway proper for more than two centuries.

Today, Nuuk, like the rest of Greenland, is populated by Inuit and Danes.

Universities

Climate

Nuuk has a moderate polar climate with a yearly average temperature of −1 °C (30 °F). 18 °C (64 °F) is exceeded on average only once per year, with 24.2 °C (76 °F) being the highest recorded temperature and −29.5 °C (−21 °F) being the lowest^[3].

Climatic Table (°C, mm) [1]
Location	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Nuuk	-4.4	-4.5	-4.8	-0.8	3.5	7.7	10.6	9.9	6.3	1.7	-1.0	-3.3	1.74	Mean Daily High
	-10.1	-10.6	-10.6	-6.1	-1.5	1.3	3.8	3.8	1.6	-2.5	-5.8	-8.7	-3.89	Mean Daily Low
	39	47	50	46	55	62	82	89	88	70	74	54	756	Precipitation

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (September 2007)

Notable people from Nuuk

Jesper Grønkjær, professional football winger, was born in Nuuk. He has played for the FC Copenhagen, VfB Stuttgart, Ajax, Chelsea, and Danish International teams.

Gallery

Image:Nuuk Panorama image.jpg

A panoramic photo of Nuuk taken in October 2006

Sermitsiaq.jpg

Sermitsiaq

Hjortetakken - Lars Møller 1863.jpg

Kingittorsuaq

A portion of Nuuk.

Godthaabsfjord.jpg

Godthaab's fjord

Twin Towns

Cuxhaven, Germany
Aalborg, Denmark
Vantaa, Finland
Tiverton, Rhode Island, United States

Notes and references

^ Municipality information. De grønlandske kommuners Landsforening, KANUKOKA
^ Grønlands Statistik; see especially this pdf.
^ http://www.meteorologyclimate.com/extreme-temperature-records.htm

External links

Official website of the city of Nuuk

Coordinates: 64°10′N, 51°45′W

v • d • e Administrative divisions of Greenland
Counties	East Greenland · North Greenland · West Greenland
Municipalities	Aasiaat · Ammassalik · Ilulissat · Ittoqqortoormiit · Ivittuut · Kangaatsiaq · Maniitsoq · Nanortalik · Narsaq · Nuuk · Paamiut · Qaanaaq · Qaqortoq · Qasigiannguit · Qeqertarsuaq · Sisimiut · Upernavik · Uummannaq