If you meet someone who has been to Iceland, they have almost certainly been to the Golden Circle.
Only about two hours away from Reykjavík, this extremely popular tourist route features three main incredible sites: Gullfoss, Geysir Geothermal Field, and Þingvellir National Park.
Here, you can see powerful Gullfoss (‘Golden Falls’). In the summer, approximately 140 cubic metres (459 cubic feet) of water surges down the waterfall every second. In winter, that number drops to around 109 cubic metres (358 cubic feet).
In the early 1900s, Gullfoss was at the centre of controversy regarding foreign investors wanting to profit off of Iceland’s natural resources. An English businessman wanted to use this waterfall’s energy to fuel a hydroelectric plant. The daughter of the farmer who owned the land that Gullfoss was located on – Sigríður Tómasdóttir – helped put a stop to these plans. She is now known as Iceland’s first environmentalist and she is one of the most famous figures in Iceland’s history.
Interestingly, her lawyer, Sveinn Björnsson, also became pretty famous – he became the first president of Iceland in 1944!
Geysir is a famous hot spring in the geothermal area of Haukadalur Valley, found in south-west Iceland.
While huge and impressive, it rarely erupts itself (every few years) — but neighbouring hot spring, Strokkur, shoots vast jets of boiling water from 20 metres (65 feet) up to 40 metres (130 feet) high every 4-5 minutes.
Nearby, you can find fumaroles emanating steam and gas into the cool Icelandic air. These are openings near volcanoes through which hot sulfurous gases emerge.
Strange bubbling mud pots can also be spotted in the area. They are fumaroles that boil up through loose ground and will most likely transform into a hardened fumaroles once the ground dries.
Þingvellir is where you can see Iceland’s geological processes happening right in front of your eyes and it is where the history of the nation began.
Iceland is divided by the Mid-Atlantic Rift — where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are moving away from each other (approximately 2.5cm a year). Iceland is the only place in the world where this rift is above sea-level, and nowhere can you see the edges of both plates as clearly as in Þingvellir National Park. You can also clearly see the effects of the movement of the plates: lava fields fill the valley, from magma that welled up as the continents spread, and the whole area is littered with ravines, ripped open by millenia of earthquakes.
Þingvellir translates as ‘the fields of parliament’. When Norse settlers first came to Iceland, they chose this spot to set up their common parliament, Alþingi. Being established in 930, it is the world’s oldest parliament! It was a central and relatively easy place for settlers to get to, so farmers and chieftains would travel here every summer to settle legal disputes, take part in legislative work and probably attend to some networking and business too.
Eventually, this parliament diminished when Norway and then Denmark took over Iceland, starting in 1262. It wasn’t restored until 1844, but it moved to Reykjavík.
One of the most popular paths follows the North-American tectonic plate, in what is known as the Almannagjá gorge. The path of the gorge ends at a lovely waterfall, known as Öxarárfoss (“the waterfall of Ax River”). Although relatively small, only about 20 meters high, it is pretty famous!
Why? Geologists and historians have discovered that Öxarárfoss is actually a human-made waterfall. The river Öxará was moved hundreds of years ago, to channel the water into Almannagjá in the 9th century. The purpose was to provide water for the members and visitors of the Icelandic parliament, Alþingi (explained in previous post).
According to folklore, the river got its name from an ax that killed a female troll famous for killing and terrorizing visitors, inhabitants and travelers in the Hengill area not far from Þingvellir. Long after the blade was put into her back, between her shoulder blades, it surfaced near the place where Öxarárfoss is now.
Aside:
In 1281, Icelanders accepted a law code from the king of Norway, called Jónsbók. It legalized the death penalty, and was rarely used. However, by the 17th century, capital punishments became more frequent when the Great Edict (Stóridómur) came into force. This was a series of laws demanding harsh physical punishments for immoral acts, such as incest and adultery. The executions were usually carried out at Þingvellir — and the path that tourists walk down, along the Almannagjá gorge, was the path leading to the different execution sites, where people were either drowned, burned alive, hanged or decapitated.
The photo with the flag is Lögberg, a rock said to be where the Alþingi assembled, and where people were sentenced to death.
On the eastern bank of the Öxará river is Höggstokkseyri. This name literally translates into “the Bank of the execution block”. This is the spot where decapitations were carried out.
Of all the locations, only one had been marked with a memorial plaque. Drekkingarhylur, or “drowning pool”, was used during the annual parliamentary sessions to drown 18 “morally loose” women between the years 1618 – 1749. According to the information on the plaque, executioners would place a sack over the offending woman’s head and tie a rope about her waist. Then she would be dragged across the water at this pool and held under by a long pole, until she drowned in the icy water.