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General Information
Area: 2,166,086 sq km (836,330 sq miles).
Population: 56,307 (2001).
Population Density: 0.026 per sq km.
Capital: Nuuk (Godthåb). Population: 14,058 (2000).
GEOGRAPHY: Greenland is the world’s biggest island. The surrounding seas are either permanently frozen or chilled by the mainly cold currents caused by the meeting of the Arctic and the North Atlantic oceans. The inland area is covered with ice, stretching 2500km (1500 miles) north–south and 1000km (600 miles) east–west. In the centre, the ice can be up to 3km (2 miles) thick. The ice-free coastal region, which is sometimes as wide as 200km (120 miles), covers a total of 410,449 sq km (158,475 sq miles), and is where all of the population is to be found. This region is intersected by deep fjords which connect the inland ice area with the sea. The Midnight Sun can be seen north of the Arctic Circle; the further north one is, the longer the period of the Midnight Sun. The arctic night in the winter results in a continuous twilight and, in the far north of the country, complete darkness. The Northern Lights can be seen during the autumn, winter and early spring.
Government: Part of the Kingdom of Denmark. Head of State: HM Queen Margarethe II since 1972. Head of Government: Prime Minister Hans Endeson since 2002.
Language: The official languages are Greenlandic, an Inuit (Eskimo) language and Danish. Greenlanders connected with tourism will normally speak English.
Religion: Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark majority, with small groups of Roman Catholics and other Protestant denominations.
Scoresby Sound
GMT - 1 (GMT from last Sunday in March to Saturday before last Sunday in September).
Ammassalik and west coast
GMT - 3 (summer and winter).
Thule area
GMT - 4 (GMT - 3 from April to October).
Electricity: 220 volts AC, 50Hz.
Communications:
Telephone
IDD is available. Country code: 299. There are no area codes. Outgoing international code: 009. There are no telephone boxes in Greenland, but calls can be made from hotels.
Mobile telephone
GSM 900 network covers all 18 cities. Network operator is Tele Greenland (website: www.tele.gl). Handsets can be hired at Tele Greenland shops (in all cities). A deposit of DKr10,000 is required. There is also an analogue NMT network.
Fax
Services are available in telegraph stations.
Internet
The only ISP is Tele Greenland (website: www.greennet.gl). At present, there are Internet cafes in Nuuk, Sismut, Aasiaat and Itilleq. Access is available in some public libraries.
Telegram
All towns have a telegraph station.
Post
Greenland produces its own stamps which are popular among collectors. Post from Greenland takes about four to five days to reach Europe. Post office hours: Mon-Fri 0900-1500.
Press
There are no daily newspapers in Greenland, but Sermitsiaq is the main weekly publication and Niviarsiaq is published monthly. There are no English language newspapers.
BBC World Service and Voice of America frequencies: From time to time these change.
BBC (website: www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice):
Voice of America (website: www.voa.gov):
Copyright © 2003 Columbus Publishing Ltd.
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