On or In the Arctic Circle Trivia Quiz

Answer: Murmansk

The largest city in the Arctic Circle, Murmansk is in the far northwest of the planet's largest country, and while it's a two thousand kilometre drive to the nation's capital in Moscow, it's only about three hours from the Norwegian border. It's surprisingly newer than a lot of Russian destinations, having been purposefully established in the 1910s to fuel shipping through the northern sea in the first World War. Today it's one of the most firmly-established destinations this far north anywhere in the world, home to hundreds of thousands of citizens; no city comes close in size at this latitude.

Answer: Tromso

The island of Romssasuolu, known today as Tromsoya Island, is home to the Northern Norway city of Tromso, at one time nicknamed 'The Paris of the North'. Occupied at times by the Norse and the Sámi people, Tromso has a long history and a celebrated aesthetic that leans heavily into old Norwegian culture and architecture. Known for wooden buildings and being the home of the Arctic Council, it's also long been Norway's largest fishing port.

Answer: Kiruna

Of the options, only Kiruna stretches far north into the Arctic Circle, acting as the northernmost place to visit in the Scandinavian nation of Sweden. Though originally occupied for its iron deposits at the turn of the 20th century, Kiruna later became a hub for space research due to its remoteness and clear weather.

It's clear enough, as many Northern Swedish tourists would know, to stay a night at the world-famous Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi and watch the Northern Lights.

Answer: Greenland

While the city of Nuuk is the largest on Greenland and on the southern coast, Sisimiut is much further north, a few hours by plane up the island's western coast. It's certainly not the furthest north in Greenland-- Inuit towns and villages line the coast all the way up the island-- but it is one of the most significant. Surrounded by bays and mountains formed by eras of glaciation, Sisimiut is within the Arctic Circle by seventy-five kilometres.

Answer: Inuvik

Found two hundred kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, the town of Inuvik is well-kept as the first stop inland along the Mackenzie Delta. Visitors to this far-north destination would find a nearly untouched wilderness beyond the town limits, and generally the only way to get there would be to fly or to take the highway from Dawson City, Yukon, a 750 kilometre drive only accessible at certain times of year. Though Inuvik is one of the most populated places in the territory, only NWT's capital, Yellowknife, is considered a city.

Answer: Rovaniemi

The capital of Lapland, the city of Rovaniemi is one of the most populated destinations in Northern Finland. While most of this city is actually just barely outside of the Arctic Circle, it's determined that the end of the airport runway in Rovaniemi is the actual marker for this latitudinal line. Like other far north destinations, Rovaniemi is known for its Northern Lights excursions, but visitors can also enjoy the Christmas wonders year-round at the city's Santa Claus Village. If you visit said village, there's actually a line there marking the Arctic Circle...though it's not completely correct (since that line's actually at the airport).

Answer: Great Bear Lake

Strikingly remote save for a handful of small Indigenous towns on its shores, Great Bear Lake is a massive northern body of water and one of the largest, by surface area, in the entire world. Surrounded by mountains and boreal forest, it's found entirely in the Northwest Territories and the Arctic Circle cuts right through it.

While it was known, at one time, for its local mining camps, Great Bear Lake has since been highly-protected. It helps that it's so far from almost anywhere.

Answer: Baffin Island

Formerly known as Baffin Island National Park, Auyuittuq National Park is in a part of the Canadian territory of Nunavut where the Arctic Circle passes right through. Quite remote, it's a protected expanse in the Arctic Cordillera that spans more than twenty thousand square kilometres of ice-capped and snow-covered mountains, canyons, and rivers. Mount Thor, found in the park, has a sheer rock face and vertical drop of one and a quarter kilometres straight down, the longest in the world.

Answer: Iceland

Found forty kilometres north off the coast of Iceland, Grimsey is a unique destination that's likely to lose its claim to fame. While Iceland itself is technically outside the Arctic Circle, Grimsey's northern tip always fell within it. However, due to the nature of the Earth's axis, the Arctic Circle moves a tiny bit every year, and with this, it would only be inevitable that the line would fall off Grimsey.

In 2014, artists installed an eight tonne orb on the island to mark the Arctic Circle's movement.

Called Orbis & Globus, it was anticipated that it would fall into the ocean sometime around 2050, moving nearly fifteen metres per year.

Answer: Barrow

Though this U.S. northern extremity is nine miles away at Point Barrow, Barrow itself (now known by the name Utqiagvik) can be considered the end of the line. Used by local Inuit people for more than a thousand years, the land found here was taken up by the army after Alaska was purchased by the U.S.

It became a weather station and then a whaling port, but it remained fairly inhospitable for all but seasoned locals. Not only is it dark for a portion of the year (due to the tilt of the Earth in different seasons), but it's bitterly cold, surrounded on most sides by the Arctic Ocean.