Iceland

Find out about the fascinating country of Iceland and print out our flag printables - notebooking pages, three sizes of flags, jigsaw, colouring page and bookmarks...

One of Iceland's geysers

Learn About Iceland

Geography of Iceland:

• Iceland is a mountainous Nordic country located between Greenland, Norway and the UK.
• Iceland was formed when the tectonic plates of North America and Eurasia moved apart to form the mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland is on a hot spot where the earth’s crust is thin, causing many of the volcanoes to remain active.
• Ten percent of the land is covered by ice. Europe’s largest glacier, called Vatnajokull, covers 8,300 sq km, which is as large as all the glaciers on the European continent. The ice is 1,000 metres thick!
• Vatnajokull forms part of the National Park that covers 12% of the country, the largest park in Europe.
• From September to March the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights are visible in the sky. The light is formed by shining electrical particles where the atmosphere is thin.
• The Great Geysir is a hot spring that spouts a jet of water 70 metres high. All the world’s geyser’s are named after it.
• Iceland is famous for it’s waterfalls including Dettifloss, which is the most powerful in Europe.

More Interesting Facts:

• Iceland was settled by a Norwegian Viking called Ingolfur Arnarson in 874 CE. He named his settlement Reykjavik, meaning ‘Cove of Smoke’, due to the geothermal steam rising from the water.
• Reykjavik, the capital, is home to half the country’s 300,000 people. Visitors can swim in the Blue Lagoon warm spa set amongst lava rocks.
• Lucky tourists who go whale watching can see hump-backed and minke whales, dolphins and porpoises.
• Icelanders do not have surnames. They have a first christian name and for their second name use their father’s first name with -son (boy)  or -dottir (girl) added on.
• Natives speak Icelandic, based on an Old Norse language spoken by the Vikings.
• Thingvellir is the site of Iceland’s 'Althing' or General Assembly which dates back to 930 CE, making it the earliest ‘parliament’.
• Many people in Iceland believe in elves, which they call ‘huldufolk’, who are said to live in rocks.

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About the Icelandic Flag

The current Icelandic flag was adopted in 1944, when Iceland became a republic. There is a red cross on a white cross, on a blue background. It is said that the red represents the fire produced by the island's volcanoes, white symbolises the ice and snow that covers Iceland, and blue is for mountains in the distance.

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Our Iceland Resources