Visit Aasivissuit – Nipisat
Respectful Visitor
When visiting the area within Aasivissuit – Nipisat, we please ask you to be mindful of the nature and monuments scattered throughout the landscape. Always take your trash with you and dispose of it in a designated trash container so the nature is not polluted and the animals don’t consume harmful materials.
Photo by Dorthea Reimer-Johansen
Monuments
Monuments can look different but most common ones are cairns, graves, tent rings, turf constructions, shootings blinds, and caches. When coming across a monument please keep a distance of 2 meters (6,5 Feet) and refrain from camping or start a fire within the distance of 20 meters (65,6 Feet). By only observing the monuments you are helping to maintain the traces of the past for generations to come, and we are truly thankful for your considerations.
- Do not disturb or make new cairns in the landscape. They are wayfinders for locals and are remains of previous inhabitants’ routes – making them very precious and a preventative from getting lost.
Cairn: A pile of rocks, usually placed at higher ground, to guide you onto the path.
Grave: An elongated construction made by rocks to cover the dead. Will usually have been placed
at a location with a beautiful view which the deceased can enjoy.
Tent ring: Head-sized rocks placed in a circle, indicating where the tent flaps
used to be held down. (Seen in the back in the photo).
Tent house: Low turf wall shaped like a half-circle room with an added square to function
like an entrance. (Seen in the front in the photo by the placement of the rocks).
By Laust Løgstrup at Aasivissuit.
Turf construction: Turfhouses are constructed by building walls made of flat rocks and turf in layers.
Houses can be square or circular depending on which culture people that made them, and, if you’re lucky,
you might see a patch of Starwort Mouse-ear plants beside it to indicate a midden.
As time passes the walls will shrink as the turf is compacted by the weight of the rocks.
Shooting blind: A half circle of a few layers of rocks stacked on top of each other. You would lay down and hide from the hunted prey.
Cache: A spacious pile of rocks with a compartment within to coolly store food. Can also be made as a turf construction.
Usually placed up against a form of pre-existing wall.