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Blue-painted wooden house on stilts, reached by wooden steps across rough rock and moss

Tiniteqilaaq

Tiilerilaaq (Tiniteqilaaq): Settlement Life on Sermilik Fjord

August 2015

Tiilerilaaq, formerly commonly written as Tiniteqilaaq and often shortened to Tinit, is a small settlement in Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq in East Greenland. It stands roughly 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Tasiilaq, facing Sermilik Fjord with the Greenland Ice Sheet visible across the water. Although sometimes described as being on the Arctic Circle, its location at approximately 65°53′ north places it about 47 miles (75 kilometers) south of the circle.

The photographs from 2015 document wooden houses and outbuildings distributed across exposed rocky terrain around the harbor. Hunting and fishing remain important livelihoods; fishing takes place from small boats during the open-water season and through the sea ice in winter. Residents generally travel on foot within the settlement. Boats are used for regional transportation in summer, while dog sleds and snowmobiles are used when winter ice conditions permit. A harbor and heliport connect the community with the wider region.

Statistics Greenland recorded 83 residents on January 1, 2026, compared with 134 in 2010.

Brightly painted wooden houses scattered across bare rock above the fjord, small iceberg drifting offshore
Harbour buildings, fuel tanks and shipping containers above a quay with small open boats moored below
Red, blue and white houses packed onto ice-scoured granite behind a foreground of bare rock
Plywood-clad house raised on timber posts, with older weathered dwellings stepping up the slope behind
Blue-painted wooden house on stilts, reached by wooden steps across rough rock and moss
Black-and-white detail of a weathered plank wall and door with the house number "1140"
Small red ride-on garden tractor parked on gravel below a corrugated shed and red house
Weathered plank hut with its door standing open, perched on rock above fog-covered water
Two boys playing badminton across a gravel track between the houses
Grey timber houses on posts along a rocky ridge, with a drying rack and orange fishing float
Weathered plank structure wrapped in green netting and plastic sheeting, pole framework rigged above
Peeling dark red house wall, curtained window and the number "836", supplies stacked on the deck below
Pale blue house with a brick chimney set on a concrete base cut into the rock
Tethered dog curled up on a bare rock outcrop above an ice-strewn fjord
Disused timber house with a broken window and gaping doorway, ice visible on the water beyond
Gravel path through cottongrass towards houses with washing strung out in the fog
Long weathered house on a rocky rise, laundry on the line and gas canisters in the grass
House topped by an open timber frame above the shore, a dinghy on ice-dotted water beyond
House with flaking blue paint facing the fjord, a small boat and drifting ice behind it
Boats at the shoreline below the settlement, an upturned dinghy on the gravel bank

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