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NORWAY | North of Nordland, Norway Travel Guide
Thursday, December 26, 2024
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Svalbard
Svalbard
Svalbard, the group of islands 700 km (420 miles) north of mainland Norway, has become increasingly popular as a tourist destination. Today, Svalbard welcomes more than 50,000 people every year to its islands. Quite an amazing number, considering that before the 1990s there were no accommodations for visitors and the few people who came here had to bring their own tents.
If you look up the biggest island of Norway, most books will mention the island of Hinnøya, near Narvik in Nordland. However, Spitsbergen, the biggest island of Svalbard, is 17 times bigger than Hinnøya and, since Svalbard has belonged to Norway since 1925, Spitsbergen is technically the biggest in the country.
A Brief History of Svalbard
Svalbard was officially discovered by the Dutch explorer Willem Barents, but the Vikings were probably here long before. The first people came to hunt seals, whales and walruses, but it wasn’t until coal mining started here in the first decade of the 20th century that Svalbard gained international attention. The Arctic Coal Company set up a branch at a settlement on Svalbard, which became known as Longyearbyen (the Longyear city), named after the owner of the company. Most of the island’s inhabitants today live in Longyearbyen, which is the administrative center of Svalbard. In the last few decades, tourism and scientific research have been the main industries on the islands.
Last updated November 18, 2010
Posted in Norway | North of Nordland
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