The airport of Narsarsuaq (Big Plain) is situated east of the headland Eirikshofdi.  It is the centre of air communications in the south of Greenland.  The US army built a base there, Blue West 1, in 1941 for the air support and protection of the ship convoys from the States to Europe.  The Americans left the base in 1958 and the Danish took over the operation.  After the sinking of the vessel Hans Hedtoft during its virgin voyage to Greenland, the former

base became the centre of ice observations on the sea routes, and in 1961 an Icelandic plane was rented for the project.

The first Nordic settlement developed on the Eirik’s Bay, where it lived its heyday in the 11^th and 12^th centuries.  It somehow collapsed and all of the inhabitants disappeared mysteriously during the discovery of the great lands in the west and east.  Arts and literature flourished in the Icelandic settlements, great poetry about Attila the Hun and the Niebelungen are a few of the preserved literary treasures.  The people of the settlements on Eirik’s Bay vanished at the end of the Middle Ages and only the ruins of their homes remain.