Map of Iceland
Sweet Iceland
At first glance two things can astonished you on this web page. First it is really sober yet because it is under construction and that I've changed my strategy to build my site : I'll start putting informations before making it look nice (this can always be done after). Second it is the title : Sweet Iceland! Maybe you've been used to title trying to contrast with the cold of a nordic country and the warm of the volcano and magma living under this small island. But for me, what I feel about this country, now that I left it is a sweet dream of this incredible world. And that's what I'm going to show you.
Have a look on some nice pictures of Iceland. Or you can start with a short summary of where and what is Iceland:
Maybe you don't know where is Iceland and you're waiting for a short introduction to this country before going into more details. Pitily I do not have yet a picture of the world map to show you the position of Iceland, so I'll describe it. Iceland is place in the northern hemisphere in the Atlantic Ocean. It is placed almost at the crossroad of the Atlantic Rift (this submarin volcanoes line) and the Polar Circle (66°N). So Iceland is near by Greenland. Now we can have a look at a map of the country with it's major cities.
Map of Iceland
Geography of Iceland
The capital of Iceland is Reykjavík and a big part of the population is settle there and in the neighbourhood (like Kópavogur or Hafnarfjörður) The geographical and economical data I have are a bit old and I'm going to find up-to-date one soon but for the moment here is some main information about this country. Iceland population reach 243000 inhabitants for a total superficy of 103000 km square. It is ruled by a Parlementary Republic and it was the first country in the worl electing a woman as president Vigdis Finnbogadóttir (I have still to check carefully how to write this name...) The icelandic people live in a high life level country and are well educated. They were and are still known for their writers and also love of reading.
Small History
Iceland has probably been discoverd by irish monk
in the nineth century. Some writings are speaking about a land of ice in this region. But the first known settlers were vikings coming from Norway by ship around 870 AD. One of them is the famous Eric the red whom son, leifur Eriksson, probably discovered the America. The norvegian were not the only settlers, they came with irish slaves taken while plundering Ireland in this old time. But they set free the slave quite early in their history (I have to find back this date...) They build up a Republic with a parliament, the Alþing (Althing) were deputy were meeting in an open air area called þingvellir. Then Iceland lost it's freedom in 1262 when Norway took the direction of the country. They lost it in 1380 when Danemark overruled Norway and so Iceland also. We have then to wait for 1874 to gain independance from Danemark, but it took really effect in 1944 when the parliament of Iceland was sovereign of it's country again.
After this brief introduction you can have a look at some picture. It is a small view of all you might get to see on this site. And don't worry for the people who are eager to know more about the history, geography and way of life, I'm going to make a real information part for Iceland and write it better, add more informations, put more links to source, etc. So keep in touch!