Thingvellir (Þingvellir)

Þingvellir is not only a national park (declared in 1930, Iceland's first) but the birthplace of Icelandic parliamentary democracy: it was here that the Althing, the oldest legislative assembly in the world, met without a break from the year 930 to 1798. Geologically, the park sits quite literally astride the rift between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates, visible as fissures running across the landscape, which today can be explored by diving or snorkelling in the crystal-clear water of Silfra. It was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004 for this dual historical and geological standing.