Kangeq

Kangeq Håbets Ø
Kangeq, ca. 1890 Kangeq, ca. 1890
Kangeq Location within Greenland
Coordinates:
State	Kingdom of Denmark
Constituent country	Greenland
Municipality	Sermersooq
First settled	before 1000 CE
Abandoned	1973
Time zone	UTC-03

Kangeq or Kangek (Kalaallisut: "Promontory") is a former settlement in the Sermersooq municipality in southwestern Greenland. It is located on the same island that formed the first Danish colony on Greenland between 1721 and 1728.

The more recent settlement was a traditional fishing village, before its abandonment in 1973.

History

A map of Haabet Oe and Baal's River by Hans Egede.

As a coastal settlement, Kangeq was positioned on the migration route of the ancient Inuit peoples. Archeological finds from the Dorset culture era have been found near Kangeq. The Dorset people had vanished from the Nuuk region prior to 1000 CE.

Since the arrival of the Thule people who settled here permanently, Kangeq was a traditional Inuit coastal village, not dissimilar to Atammik and Napasoq in the north, just beyond the border with the Qeqqata municipality.

The island of Kangeq, dubbed Haabets Oe ("Island of Hope"), formed the site of Hans Egede's first settlement in Greenland after his landing on July 3, 1721. The settlement was relocated to the mainland by Major Claus Paarss in 1728.

File:Aron von Kangeq Tupilak.jpg

Tupilak, woman and man by Aron of Kangeq.

In the mid-19th century, it was also home to the artist Aron of Kangeq (1822-1869), a Greenland Inuit hunter, painter, and oral historian.

Today the ruins of Kangeq are sometimes visited by historically oriented tourists. In 2009, the old houses of Kangeq were used as a backdrop for the Eksperimentet film, with the settlement emulating the look of Nuuk in 1952, before the city center was peppered with communal apartment blocks in the 1960s, forever changing the character of the town.

Geography

Kangeq was located in an island at the mouth of the Nuup Kangerlua fjord, on the coast of Labrador Sea, approximately 18 km (11 mi) west-south-west of Nuuk, the capital of Greenland.

Former notable residents

• Aron of Kangeq, painter and oral historian