Nuuk is the capital of Greenland, the world’s largest island that is not a continent.
Nuuk lies on Greenland’s southwest coast, at the mouth of the Nuup Kangerlua fjord. It is Greenland’s political, cultural, and economic centre, with the Inatsisartut parliament and Naalakkersuisut government based there.
The settlement was founded as Godthåb by the Danish-Norwegian missionary Hans Egede in 1728. The Greenlandic name Nuuk means “cape,” referring to its position on a prominent peninsula.
Nuuk is sometimes confused with Greenland’s largest town by area or with Denmark’s capital, because Greenland is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. Greenland’s administrative capital is Nuuk, while Copenhagen remains the capital of Denmark itself.