Fjaðrárgljúfur is a canyon in southern Iceland, about eight kilometers west of Kirkjubæjarklaustur.
The Fjaðrárgljúfur is a green gorge. It is variable in width, about 100 m high and 2 km long. The canyon runs through a hyaloclastic (soft granular) rock, which contains layers of solidified magma and other intrusions. The entire formation was formed about 2 million years ago. When the ice sheet retreated at the end of the ice age, a deep lake formed in a valley carved out by the glacier at the beginning of the current rift. The water was held back by a sealing layer of rock.
The excess water spilled over the edge and began to carve out the chasm. As the retreating glacier continued to melt, more and more debris was carried into the lake, filling it with sediment. As a result, a powerful stream of water started up from the lake, further eroding the capping rock layer and the soft hyaloclastic layer in front of it. Eventually the sediment in the filled valley was also worn away and the water flow gradually decreased to the present level.
Fjadrárgljúfur is considered the most beautiful canyon in the world, You can also see several waterfalls here due to the height differences. A visit to the Fjaðrárgljúfur gorge is one of the highlights of Iceland.
Access : Coordinates: 63.77125, -18.171944 / The canyon can be reached by road no. 206 departing from the main national road no. 1.
Highlights :
- The canyon itself can be seen both from above, from the path leading along the edge, and from below, while walking along the bottom of the canyon.A small path allows you to climb to the top of the canyon and therefore to admire it from the top.
- Singer Justin Bieber shot the clip for the song “I’ll show you” there at the end of 2015. Since then, it has been the influx of tourists, whose number has increased by 50% per year from 2016 until peak at 300,000 people in 2018, visitors whose trampling threatens the fragile vegetation of the site, which was closed between March and June, the time for the grassy carpet to recover.
- Hiking in Fjaðrárgljúfur : Recently, the government of Iceland has created a hiking trail over the rocks. With several vantage points. This path is about 2 kilometers long. Parts of the canyon have also been closed off to protect nature.
- Fjadrárgljúfur in Iceland is considered the most beautiful canyon in the world.
Go next : town of Kirkjubæjarklaustur. / The Fjadrargljufur waterfall / Kirkjugólf , an interesting rock formation to the east of Kirkjubæjarklaustur.
