Iceland is home to the Althing, the world’s oldest continuously operating parliament.
The Althing was established at Þingvellir in 930, when Iceland’s chieftains created a national assembly. The annual gathering served as a law-making body and court, and the lawspeaker recited the country’s laws from memory. Þingvellir lies in a rift valley created by the movement of tectonic plates.
The assembly continued at Þingvellir until 1798, when Danish authorities suspended it. It was re-established in Reykjavík in 1845 and has operated there since. Iceland restored full independence as a republic in 1944, and the Althing remains the country’s national legislature.
The word “oldest” can be misunderstood: the Althing was not continuously meeting at its original site or with an unchanged constitutional role. The claim refers to an enduring parliamentary institution with roots reaching back to the tenth century.