Tourist attractions in Iceland near Reykjavik

Most tourists will think of nature and the Icelandic landscape as the main attractions for visiting tourists in Iceland. And it is true that the wild landscape with glaciers, geysers, vulcans, mountains, lakes, the ruff coastline and islands etc. are really attractive to experience, not to mention the birdlife and life in the ocean around [...]

Most tourists will think of nature and the Icelandic landscape as the main attractions for visiting tourists in Iceland. And it is true that the wild landscape with glaciers, geysers, vulcans, mountains, lakes, the ruff coastline and islands etc. are really attractive to experience, not to mention the birdlife and life in the ocean around Iceland.

But the history of Iceland and Icelanders is as fascinating and unique as anything else. Did you know that Iceland hosted the first parliament of the world, Althing, that was established in year 930 in a beautiful area not far from the modern capital of Iceland Reykjavik with the name Þingvellir and now saved for the future as Þingvellir National Park – a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Remark the special Icelandic letter Þ, expressed ‘th’. Icelandic language is a very original version of the Nordic language family that has been preserved on Iceland as a rather isolated island far out in the Atlantic Ocean. The Althing was an annual functioning judiciary and legislative parliament, founded as the political hub of the Icelandic Commonwealth.

During our short travel to Iceland in April my wife and I visited the Þingvellir National Park in a hired car.  The Þingvellir National Parkthat has many interesting attractions for the tourist. Besides the historical sites nature is showing some impressive signs of the moving geology as Iceland is situated on the moveable zone between the two huge continental tectonic plates of the North Atlantic Ocean. See the location of the Þingvellir National Park at the map below: