Aasiaat is located on an island in the outermost southern part of Disko Bay in a very beautiful archipelago area and it is often referred to as "the land of a thousand islands". Many of the islands in the area are protected and provide wonderful opportunities to study the unique birdlife or the whales, which were originally the reason why Aasiaat was founded in the mid 1700s.
Aasiaat's history
Aasiaat - or Egedesminde - was first built in 1759 by Niels Egede, son of the famous Christian missionary Hans Egede. It was done to be able to better manage the extensive trade that went on between European whalers and Greenlanders. In 1763, the settlement was moved 125 km north to its present location. Today, Aasiaat's old town is home to a museum, a local museum with focus on Inuit history and the town's past and a community hall that is decorated with 24 paintings by world-renowned Danish painter Per Kirkeby.
Industry
Although fishing is the dominant industry, Aasiaat is North Greenland's centre of education with, among others, an upper secondary school and a business school. There are just over 3000 inhabitants in the Aasiaat area, of which about 200 live in the settlements at Akunaaq and Kitsissuarsuit.