You are in: Europe -> Iceland -> Þingvellir National Park, and traditional search or Image Gallery will yield results of this site only
Þingvellir National Park
| Site number: | 1152 |
|
| Type of site: | Cultural | |
| Date: | 930-1798 | |
| Date of Inscription: | 2004 | |
| Location: | Europe, Iceland, Bláskógabyggð municipality, district of Arnessysla | |
Up to 75 images are shown here. Click on each for more details or on Image Gallery for more images.
Six official UN languages:
Arabic,
Chinese,
English,
French,
Russian,
Spanish
Other languages: Danish, Dutch, Farsi, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Swedish, Low German
Other languages: Danish, Dutch, Farsi, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Swedish, Low German
| Description: | Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park holds an Althing - an open-air assembly, representing the whole of Iceland – which was instituted in 930 and perpetually met until 1798. During a year the assembly met for over two weeks to establish laws (seen as treaties among free men) and settle disputes. For the people of Iceland the Althing holds profound historical and symbolic associations. The inscribed site encompasses the Þingvellir National Park and the remains of the Althing itself: remains of roughly 50 booths constructed of turf and stone. 10th century remains are believed to still be buried underground. The site also bears witness to agricultural use from 18th and 19th centuries, and presents evidence of the way the landscape was husbanded over 1,000 years. --WHMNet paraphrase from the description at WHC Site, where additional information is available. | |
| Þingvellir (Icelandic: Þing: 'parliament', vellir: 'plains') is a place in the southwest of Iceland near the peninsula of Reykjanes and the Hengill volcanic area. The valley is one of the most important places in Icelandic history. In the year 930, the Alþingi, one of the oldest parliamentary institutions of the world, was founded here. --Wikipedia. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. | ||
| Source: | http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1152 | |
| Reference: | 1. UNESCO World Heritage Center, Site Page. | |