Prince Christian Sound

Prince Christian Sound is a River in Greenland

Prince Christian Sound is one of the great scenic waterways of the Arctic. Known in Danish as Prins Christian Sund and in Greenlandic as Ikerasassuaq, it is a long, narrow strait near the southern tip of Greenland, in the Kommune Kujalleq region. For around 100 kilometres it threads between the mainland and the islands of the Cape Farewell archipelago, a sheltered passage that spares ships the rough open water around Cape Farewell itself. Sheer rock walls rise thousands of feet on either side. Hanging glaciers spill toward the channel, and icebergs and brash ice drift through it. A tiny weather and radio station at Ikerasassuaq is the only sign of human life along its length. It is also about as far from artificial light as anywhere on Earth. Though it lies well south of Greenland’s main aurora belt at around 60°N, passing ships regularly catch the northern lights here in the darker months, a ribbon of colour hemmed between the cliffs and doubled in the black, mirror-calm water below.