Bylot Island Overlooking Navy Board Inlet - Inuksuk with Baffin Island

Back to gallery  |  Back to Thumbs  |  Previous  |  Next

Bylot Island Overlooking Navy Board Inlet - Inuksuk with Baffin Island


An Inuksuk or Inukshuk - which seems to be Inuit for cairn, a pile of stones. This one is possibly over a thousand years old, or rather there's been one here for possibly a thousand years which means that it must have been erected by people of the Dorset Culture and then kept as useful by the later Thule people and then the Inuit who replaced them.

I am told that this is the back of it though I have no idea how you tell the front from the back. Apparently they aren't "just" a pile of stones, but have different meanings such as to give directions, hunting / fishing places, a food cache etc.

Air temp: +6ºC Latitude: 73º44'N Longitude: 80º13'W



Photo; © Paul Ward - These are pictures from a cruise to the High Arctic in high summer, from Resolute Bay, Canada to Kangerlussuaq, Greenland.