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Red, blue and yellow timber houses spread below jagged snow-streaked peaks

Tasiilaq

Village of Color: Tasiilaq, Greenland

August 2015

Tasiilaq stands on Ammassalik Island beside King Oscar Harbour, a sheltered inlet whose narrow entrance gives it the appearance of a lake. The name Tasiilaq means “the place that looks like a lake.” With 1,811 residents on January 1, 2026, it is the largest town in East Greenland.

The town was established in 1894 as a Danish trading station and mission under the name Angmagssalik, later spelled Ammassalik. The name derives from ammassat, capelin, and means “the place where capelin are found.” Ammassalik remains the name of the island and district, while Tasiilaq is the town’s official name.

Brightly painted timber houses extend across steep, rocky slopes between the harbor, heliport, and surrounding mountains. Tasiilaq is reached from Kulusuk by helicopter throughout the year and by boat during the summer; supply ships serve the harbor seasonally. On the outskirts of town, Flower Valley supports dense displays of Arctic wildflowers during the short summer, including common harebell and broad-leaved willowherb.

Red supply ship and small boats in Tasiilaq's harbour below hillsides of painted houses
Ground worker in orange overalls beside a red Air Greenland helicopter marked OY-HDM
Graffiti scrawled on the white door of a red timber house, tools and bags on the porch
Children clambering over a blue timber house, one hanging from a window ledge
People walking a wet gravel road down toward a fjord dotted with icebergs
White ladder leaning against an orange clapboard house numbered 1040
Adult carrying a child on their shoulders past a wooden playground
Yellow timber building with a painted mountain sign reading "Aamarngaar"
Fishing net hung out to dry beside a pale blue house, a bicycle on the flat roof
Fish drying under the eaves of a yellow house, outboard motor and snowblower in the yard
Person standing on the rocky shore of the sheltered harbour inlet
Small boats moored off the container quay, icebergs drifting under snow-streaked peaks
Woman carrying two green school backpacks as she walks up the road with two boys
Red, pink and blue houses scattered across a bare rocky hillside
Purple wildflowers covering slopes beside a stream and a red timber building
Hillside carpeted in pink and blue Arctic wildflowers above a red and a yellow shed
Weathered red timber house numbered 331, with wooden steps and shuttered windows
Smiling older couple arm in arm, painted houses on the slope behind them
Painted houses and a steepled red building stepping down rocky slopes to the container harbor
Children's bikes, toys and tires scattered across the dirt yard of a blue house
Town lights reflecting in the harbor at night, mountains silhouetted behind
Red, blue and yellow timber houses spread below jagged snow-streaked peaks
Dense stand of pink Arctic wildflowers in bloom close to the ground
Gravel track curving through autumn tundra toward the town, a stream pooling alongside
Rusted shipping containers used as sheds behind a bank of purple flowers
Laundry drying on the porch of a red house wedged into the rocky slope
Lone figure in a red jacket walking the road below brightly painted houses
Moored motorboats and a red cargo ship, a blue iceberg drifting beyond
Low tide flats in the harbor, boats at anchor and an iceberg below snowy peaks
Two red ships at the quay, hulls lettered "Adolf Jensen" and "Johanna Kristina, Nuuk"

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