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Sisimiut
Holsteinsborg | |
|---|---|
  .JPG)  .JPG)  .JPG)  .JPG) .jpg) Town centre, Kangerluarsunnguaq Bay, and the massif of Palasip Qaqqaa | |
  Sisimiut Location within Greenland | |
| Coordinates: 66°56′20″N 53°40′20″W / 66.93889°N 53.67222°W | |
| Sovereign state |  Kingdom of Denmark |
| Constituent country |  Greenland |
| Municipality | Qeqqata |
| First settled | 2500 BCE |
| Founded | 1764 |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Hermann Berthelsen (Siumut) |
| Population (2020)[3] | |
| • Total | 5,582 |
| • Rank | 2nd in Greenland |
| Time zone | UTC−03:00 (West Greenland Time) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−02:00 (DST) |
| Postal code | |
| Website | sisimiut.gl |
Sisimiut (Greenlandic: [sisimiut]), formerly known as Holsteinsborg, is the capital and largest city of the Qeqqata municipality, the second-largest city in Greenland, and the largest Arctic city in North America.[Note 1] It is located in central-western Greenland, on the coast of Davis Strait, approximately 320 km (200 mi) north of Nuuk.
Sisimiut literally means "the residents at the foxholes" (Danish: Beboerne ved rævehulerne).[4] The site has been inhabited for the last 4,500 years, first by peoples of the Saqqaq culture, then Dorset culture, and then the Thule people, whose Inuit descendants form the majority of the current population. Artifacts from the early settlement era can be found throughout the region, favored in the past for its plentiful fauna, particularly the marine mammals providing subsistence for the early hunting societies. The population of modern Greenlanders in Sisimiut is a mix of the Inuit and Danish peoples, who first settled in the area in the 1720s, under the leadership of the Danish missionary, Hans Egede.
Today, Sisimiut is the largest business centre north of the national capital of Nuuk and is one of the fastest growing cities in Greenland. Fishing is the principal industry in Sisimiut, although the town has a growing industrial base. KNI and its subsidiary Pilersuisoq, a state-owned chain of all-purpose general stores in Greenland, have their base in Sisimiut. Architecturally, Sisimiut is a mix of traditional, single-family houses, and communal housing, with apartment blocks raised in the 1960s during a period of town expansion in Greenland. Sisimiut is still expanding, with the area north of the port, on the shore of the small Kangerluarsunnguaq Bay reserved for a modern suburb-style housing slated for construction in the 2010s. Several professional and general schools are based in Sisimiut, providing education to the inhabitants of the city and to those from smaller settlements in the region. The new Taseralik Culture Centre is the second cultural centre to be established in Greenland, after Katuaq in Nuuk.
The city has its own bus line, and is the northernmost year-round ice-free port in the country, a shipping base for western and northwestern Greenland. Supply ships head from the commercial port towards smaller settlements in more remote regions of Uummannaq Fjord, Upernavik Archipelago, and as far as Qaanaaq in northern Greenland. Sisimiut Airport, the town airport is served by Air Greenland, providing connections to other towns on the western coast of Greenland, and through Kangerlussuaq Airport, to Europe.
- ^ "Nye direktører i Qeqqata Kommunea". Sermitsiaq (in Danish). 3 January 2009. Retrieved 3 July 2010.
- ^ "Sisimiut" (in Danish). KANUKOKA. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 12 July 2010.
- ^ "Population by Localities". Statistical Greenland. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
- ^ Bering, Peter (2004). Grønland (in Danish). Gyldendal Uddannelse. p. 8. ISBN 87-02-02629-5.
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