In the Hjemmeluft area on the southern shore of the Altafjord in northern Norway, just west of the town of Alta, Neolithic and Bronze Age petroglyphs were found in the autumn of 1972, ranging in age from 2000 to 6500 years.
Petroglyphs (from Greek πέτρος petros "stone" and γλύφειν glýphein "to carve") are representations worked into stone, which often show hunting and religious scenes from prehistoric times. Unlike rock art, a petroglyph is engraved, scraped, or pecked, and sunk into the ground.
FL 70mm
From Karasjok you first take the E6 to Olderfjord, where you change to the European route E69, which leads directly to the North Cape. Once you have passed the North Cape tunnel, which leads under the sea to the "North Cape Island", a detour to Honningsvåg in the west of the island is worthwhile. The picturesque fishing boats are beautiful to look at and Hurtigroute ships call at the site every day. The place is about 40 km from the North Cape, so many cruise ships land here in the summer months.
Via the European Route 6 (E6) we drive along the border river between Finland and Norway, the Kárášjohka, to the main settlement areas of the Sami people in Norway. Ice floes are still drifting on the raging river and mountains of ice and snow are piling up meters high on its banks.
We stay overnight in the town of Karasjok, the seat of the Sami Parliament Sameting. Here the Kárášjohka flows leisurely through the small town before it becomes the sometimes raging border river in the narrower passages between Norway and Finland.
One of the highest concentrations of archaeological sites in the Nordic countries is at Ceavccageađge (Mortensnes in Norwegian) in Varanger. Ten thousand years as a meeting place for hunters, fishermen and traders have left traces of settlements in the landscape, some monumental but many often small and easily overlooked. A cairn is not always just a cairn.
Vadsø is located on the edge of the Arctic Ocean on the Barents Sea (Norwegian: Barentshavet), which was named after the Dutch navigator Willem Barents. Vadsø is a gateway to Varangerhalvøya National Park, whose wild expanses are unparalleled. We took accommodation right on the sea access in Annijoki at the Varangerfjord close to Vadsø and were the only guests in the house at this time of year (May). The Barents adventure began as soon as we checked into the locked house, because there was no staff and the situation was only clarified when we called the owner.
The second atomic bomb dropped by the Americans over Japan was nicknamed Fat Man and when it was dropped on August 9, 1945 in Nagasaki, it killed 36,000 people immediately and countless later, who ultimately died as a result of the radioactivity.
Nagasaki was chosen by the Americans because, in addition to its economic importance, the location of the city and its surrounding mountain slopes promised the maximum destructive effect of the dropped atomic bomb.