Þingvellir National Park

First stop on our final day road tripping Iceland- before we arrive in Reykjavik- is Þingvellir National Park, and despite all the beauty we have seen this is the only UNESCO World Heritage Site. The reason is that when Iceland was being settled during the Norse period (around 930AD), over thirty ruling chiefs met here for the first time to discuss law on the island and to create a commonwealth. The chiefs in meeting created the Althingi system of governance which was in effect a de-facto parliament. This makes Þingvellir the original site of the world’s longest running, still ongoing parliament. This was the site in the photographs with the flag pole, it is called “Law Rock” and has since been used for many different Icelandic events such as when they became independent after WW2 and other significant events.

More interesting is that the national park sits between two tectonic plates, with Iceland being the only place in the world where this rift is above sea-level. In the photographs you can see that after we parked the car we went down into a valley, it is here that you can clearly see the North American plate towering above you and the Öxaráfoss waterfall cascading over the side of it.Read more