Þingvellir National Park
Þingvellir (pronounced Thingvellir) National Park is one of the most visited Icelandic tourist spots and is located about 2 hours away from Reykjavik. It’s an important place for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, this is the site of the rift-valley that marks the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It’s basically where Europe ends (tectonically speaking) and North America starts, where the Eurasian plate meets the North American plate. Besides the Great Rift Valley of Eastern Africa, Þingvellir is the only place in the world where one can actually see two major tectonic plates drifting apart.
The second reason why this place is on the tourist trail is because it was the site of the first parliament in the world, created in 930 and still active until 1789.
In terms of the actual photograph, I’m always wondering if I should post panoramas or not as they always loose a lot of the impact because they are so small on the blog. I did like this one though and if you would like to see a larger version of it just click here to open it in a separate window.