Ilulissat is about 200 km from the Arctic Circle and is the third largest settlement in Greenland with about 5000 people. Only Nuuk (the Capital) and Sisimiut are larger.Knud Rasmussen (1879-1933) the noted polar explorer, was born in Ilulissat. He was the first man to cross the Northwest Passage using a dog sled. The incredible journey is told in Across Arctic America (1927) - a classic in polar literature. A Canadian film entitled The Journals of Knud Rasmussen also dramatizes this incredible feat of polar exploration.
There is always lots of ice that the MS Fram has to push its way through in order to reach the harbour at Ilulissat. The reason for all of the ice is simple. The 56 km long Icefjord is just behind the town and North America's most productive glaciar, Sermeq Kujalleq lies at the head of the fjord churning out 20 billion tons of ice a year. That's a lot of ice.All of that ice makes for stupendous ship cruising!
