Names of historic administrative regions in Greenland translate to: Much Ice, South, Center and Darkness

Uppernavik, Greenland

Administrative division of Greenland has simple name origins, but they definitely captivate Greenlandic spirit. Until 2017 the island was divided to following territories:

After a reform in 2017, the biggest municipality of Qaasuitsup was divided into Avannaata (“Northern”) and Qeqertalik (“The One with Islands”). Maybe it’s for the better, because Darkness sounded really gloomy. And in a country with the highest suicide rate in the world one probably should avoid unnecessary gloom. Before the division, Qaasuitsup was the largest municipality in the world, with area of 660,000 km2 (bigger than France, a little smaller than Texas).

Top image: North-West Greenland (Photo credit: Slaunger / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0)

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