Magerøya
| | | Nordkapptunnel entrance, and... | ...SOS post inside |
| |
Magerøya is an 440 km²
island in the extreme north of
Norway, in the community of
Nordkapp. The island features a bleak, barren landscape devoid of any trees, with steep cliff faces on the coast and dramatic mountainscapes in the interior.
Magerøya's main claim to fame is the
North Cape, a steep cliff cape on the northern coast that is a major tourist attraction. To accommodate the large amounts of tourists visiting the island, a subsea
tunnel was built from
1993 to
1999. The
North Cape Tunnel, which is 6.87 km long and reaches a depth of 212 meters below sea level, was for a time one of the longest and of the deepest subsea tunnels in the world. Fog or ice may occur inside the tunnel, even in summer.
Norway's
Hurtigruten ferry service touches Magerøya at
Honningsvåg; the waters around the island remain ice-free year round due to the warm
North Atlantic drift.
