L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site (1978)
Canada

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At the tip of the Great Northern Peninsula of the island of Newfoundland, the remains of an 11th-century Viking settlement are evidence of the first European presence in North America. The excavated remains of wood-framed peat-turf buildings are similar to those found in Norse Greenland and Iceland.  

Canada 2000. L'Anse aux Meadows.

The strange name L'Anse Aux Meadows derives from French L'Anse-aux-Méduses [Jellyfish Cove], where the remains of a a Viking village were discovered in 1960 by the Norwegian explorer Dr. Helge Ingstad and his archeologist wife, Anne Stine Ingstad. 

The only authenticated Viking settlement in North America (outside of Greenland), it was the site of a multi-year archaeological dig that found dwellings, tools and implements that verified its time frame. The settlement, dating more than 500 years before Christopher Columbus, contains the earliest European structures in North America. 

  • Canada 2000. The Millennium Collection, Canada's Cultural Fabric. The oldest known European settlement in the New World, l'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, was established by Norse colonists a thousand years ago. 

Sources and links: 

Other World Heritage Sites in Canada (on this site). Inactive links are not described on stamps. Please refer to the UNESCO-listing, section Canada for further information about such sites. 

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Revised 03 aug 2006  
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