Ellesmere Island Attractions

Administrative Unit: Nunavut

Ellesmere Island lies in the extreme north of Canada. Measuring 800 km (500 mi.) from north to south between latitudes 76° and 83°N, it covers an area of 212,000 sq. km (81,850 sq. mi.), making it the second largest island - after Baffin Island - on the Canadian archipelago. William Baffin had reached the south-east of the island as early as 1616, and in the second half of the 19th c. attempts were made to explore even further north by way of the narrow Smith Sound, which separates Ellesmere Island from Greenland. It was from Cape Columbia that Peary set out in 1909 to walk to the North Pole.