Canada
Iqaluit
Nunavut's young capital rides tundra ridges above a bay that empties twice a day.
Bright civic buildings stand on bedrock where the town simply stops and the land begins. On the flats, the tide walks out far enough to strand the light.
Iqaluit compresses Nunavut's contradictions: legislature and country food, art studios and ATVs, a food-sovereignty kitchen serving hundreds of meals daily beside a harbour with no deep-water history until now. Arctic char eaten fresh from the river remains the territory's plainest luxury. Day trips reach the territorial park at the bay's head.
Solo
Flights, galleries and town trails make the capital the Arctic's easiest solo entry.
- Nunavut's capital compresses legislature, art and country food onto tundra ridges.
- A community kitchen serving hundreds daily works toward food sovereignty.
- Fresh-from-the-river char stays the territory's plainest luxury.
Arctic char eaten raw and fresh from the river is, in Nunavut's own telling, the territory's simplest delicacy.
Qajuqturvik's community kitchen serves hundreds of meals daily in the food-sovereignty cause.
Tayma
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An oasis inhabited for six thousand years whose ancient stele now stands in the Louvre.
Lipcani
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A town four-fifths Jewish before 1941; its record survives in 3,527 recorded graves by the Prut.
Tuna el-Gebel
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Catacombs stuffed with mummified ibises and baboons, sacred animals of a forgotten god.
Nahanni Butte
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A small Dene community keeps the gate where the Nahanni meets the lowlands.
Baker Lake
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Nunavut's only inland community makes bold art near the exact centre of Canada.
Herschel Island
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An Arctic island of whalers' relics and Inuvialuit continuity rides the Beaufort Sea.
Alert Bay
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Living Kwakwaka'wakw culture and a harbour boardwalk meet on small Cormorant Island.