Narsarsuaq

Narsarsuaq is a settlement in the Kujalleq municipality in southern Greenland. It had 158 inhabitants in 2010. There is a thriving tourism industry in and around Narsarsuaq, whose attractions include a great diversity of wildlife, gemstones, tours to glaciers, and an airfield museum. The name of the settlement means "great plain" in Greenlandic.

Narsarsuaq was the principal city of Greenland in the times of Erik the Red, whose Brattahlid farm is believed to have been located west of the settlement, in Qassiarsuk across the Tunulliarfik Fjord. There are the traces of the early Norse settlement and a replica of the first Christian church on the American continent.

In 1941, the United States built an air base at Narsarsuaq called Bluie West One (BW1), an important link in the North Atlantic Ferry Route. Thousands of planes used BW1 as a stepping stone on their way from the aircraft factories in North America to the battlegrounds of Europe. After the end of the war, BW1 continued to be developed, but it was rendered surplus by the advent of mid-air refueling and the construction of the larger Thule Air Base in northern Greenland. In 1951, it was agreed that Denmark and the U.S. would jointly oversee the airbase; in 1958, the U.S. abandoned it, but it was reopened the following year by the Danish government after the loss of the vessel Hans Hedtoft with all souls south off Cape Farewell. The ruins of a former military hospital can still be found in the vicinity of the settlement.

Information based on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narsarsuaq