The Geiranger fjord, a UNESCO’s world heritage site

Have you ever heard about the Geiranger fjord? If not, you really have to know how list what it is and how fascinating it is.

As the name suggests, it is a fjord located in Norway. It means it is a long and narrow inlet with steep cliffs or mountains, created in a valley carved out by the glacial activity which took places during one of the ice ages.

The longest fjord, Sognefjorden, reaches 1300 meters (4265ft) below the sea level, while the others are deeper than the adjacent sea. Above the water level mountains rise up to 2000 meters, and it´s an amazing view of nature.

Many local companies offer fjord-cruises, giving the chance to tourists to seat on a boat and go across the place, below the powerful mountains. Due to the height of these big rocks, you will definitely feel very small.

While you go around, you are able to see  “The Seven Sisters” (the original name is De Syv Søstre) waterfall. The name comes from the seven separate streams which, at distance, look like the hair of seven women. The tallest stream as a free fall of about 300 meters, and it’s lovely to admire it.

On the opposite side there is another waterfall called “the suitor” (the original name is Friaren). It has the shape of a bottle and, according to the myth, it proposed to “The Seven Sisters”, and since it had to wait too much, it became unhappy and it turned into a bottle.

Located at the end of the Geiranger fjord there is a very small town which has the same name: it only has 255 inhabitants. Every year more than 700.000 tourist visit the little town and the fjord, especially after 2005, when the Geiranger fjord became one the the UNESCO’s world heritage sites.