Saltfjellet-Svartisen

Saltfjellet-Svartisen National Park was established in 1989 in Nordland county, in northern Norway, and protects some 2,100 km² crossed by the Arctic Circle. It brings together two settings of very different character that give the park its name.

Svartisen, the "black ice", is Norway's second largest glacier, divided into two main ice caps separated by a valley. One of its tongues descends to about twenty metres above sea level, the lowest altitude reached by a glacier in continental Europe, and comes close to touching the fjord. Saltfjellet, for its part, is an area of middle mountain with plateaux and broad valleys.

Its most notable geological feature is the karst: beneath the park lies one of the most important cave systems in northern Europe, dissolved out of marble and limestone by meltwater, with galleries several kilometres long, underground rivers and formations of great beauty. On the surface, the landscape preserves considerable Sami heritage, with offering sites, camps and reindeer-handling structures; reindeer herding is still a living activity within the park and forms part of its management.