Qaarsut Airport East - Greenland

Green curtains of aurora rise behind the dark mountains at Qaarsut Airport, while the lights of a few small houses glow along the edge of the gravel runway. Set on the Nuussuaq Peninsula in North Greenland, the airport sits in one of the quietest, darkest corners of the country.

Qaarsut is a tiny settlement of fewer than 200 people, but its airstrip is a busy link for the whole region. Passengers flying to the island town of Uummannaq land here and finish the trip by helicopter across the fjord, because Uummannaq is too steep and rocky for a runway.

Behind the runway, the bare slopes of the peninsula climb toward glaciers and high plateaus. In winter the sun stays below the horizon for weeks, and the long, clear nights make this a great place to watch the northern lights.

Did You Know? Fossil leaves of figs, magnolias and breadfruit found on the Nuussuaq Peninsula show that this frozen land was once covered in warm forests, around 90 million years ago.

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