222. Thingvellir National Park in Iceland

https://youtu.be/AhTpPqx3M1E

Iceland’s settlement by the Norse started with the arrival of Ingólfur Arnarson in 874, and for the next 56 years, the era was called ‘The Settlement Period’. Driven away from a newly united Norway under King Harald Fairhair, many communities from many different clans started to spring up all around the island’s shores.

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This, however, was quite an unsustainable situation. The arrivals largely shared an ancestral home, religion and language, but otherwise had their own leaders and customs. Violence between groups, therefore, was commonplace, as people fought for their beliefs and for the limited resources their new island had to offer.

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District assemblies began to form, but the majority of the power in the island was concentrated in the south-west, around Reykjavík, in the hands of the descendants of Ingólfur. The settlers spread around the rest of the country resented this, thus pushed for a general assembly to establish how they could all live together harmoniously.

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Þingvellir’s cultural and historical heritage are what draw many over to it, but it’s geological traits are quite as fascinating.

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Iceland is divided by the Mid-Atlantic Rift; some parts of it, such as the Westfjords and Reyjavík, are on the North American tectonic plate, while others, such as Vatnajökull glacier and the East Fjords, are on the Eurasian plate. Iceland is the only place in the world where this rift is above sea-level, and nowhere can you see the edges of both plates as clearly as in Þingvellir.

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As you enter the park from Reykjavík, you descend a steep cliff into a valley. Looking upon the face of this cliff is to literally look at the edge of North America. If you drive through the park, you will ascend on the other side adjacent to another wall; this is Eurasia. The valley in between, in which Þingvellir is contained, is the rift valley.

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