!!!Iceland Grand Tour

by Oleg Gaponyuk,
Sergey Semenov and
Mike Reyfman,
members of the [AirPano Team|Geography/About/Consortium/AirPano,_Team] that is a member of the [global-geography Consortium|Geography/About/Consortium]. \\

16 October 2013

with kind permission of [AirPano|http://www.AirPano.com]

We offer you to see the grand tour of Iceland, which is result of our
shooting of Iceland for the last 5 years. The tour includes 82
panoramas. This is our biggest aerial virtual tour at the moment. Some
panoramas have been published already, but another part is published for
the first time.

[{Image src='00_Behind Seljalandsfoss waterfall.jpg' caption='Behind Seljalandsfoss waterfall' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='563'}]

Once upon a time, Norwegian captain Floki Vilgerdarson was going to sail
and took three ravens with him. On the tenth day he let the first bird
fly and it flew to the East, back to Norway. Next day captain let the
second raven fly but it flew back: it was too far from the shore. And on
the third day the bird flew to the West. Here it was a long-awaited new
land! But captain's joy lasted not much: the land was a desert,
unfriendly and ice covered isle. Floki called that place Iceland - a
country made of ice. This story let people know about the far and cold
land; where earlier there wasn't a human foot.

[{Image src='01_Landmannalaugar.jpg' caption='Landmannalaugar' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='557'}]

Reykjavik, capital of Iceland is a modern and picturesque metropolitan
city with low houses under bright roofs. The city features many original
structures, like outdoor swimming pools with natural thermal water, as
well as other unique Reykjavik sights. Mt. Esja, at 914 meters, is the
highest mountain to the east of the city. Reykjavik is literally bathing
in greenery, which creates an amazing contrast to suburbs that almost
devoid of any vegetation.

[{Image src='02_Aerial Iceland.jpg' caption='Aerial Iceland' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='564'}]

One of the most famous landmarks of Iceland is the Blue Lagoon. This
unique geothermal pool is located in the southwest region of the
country. It is about 200 meters wide and several kilometers long. Water
temperature averages +37°C. The pool attracts tons of tourists every
year, total number of which is almost equals the country’s population –
over 300,000 people.

[{Image src='03_Aerial Jokulsarlon lagoon.jpg' caption='Aerial Jokulsarlon lagoon' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='368'}]

Iceland is also home to Europe’s largest glacier, Vatnajokull, and the
most “boiling” river in the world – Deydartunguver. Its hot boiling
cascades are fed by the hot springs and have an average water flow of
225 liters per second.

Moreover, the European equivalent to Niagara Falls is also located in
Iceland. It is Dettifoss, the mightiest waterfall in this part of the
world. It spills over 200 tons of water per second from 45 meters
height. One can see its splashes a mile away, and rainbows play in its
waters on sunny days. One such natural wonder is the Svartifoss
waterfall, also known as the black fall.

[{Image src='04_Veidivotn lakes.jpg' caption='Veidivotn lakes' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='659'}]

Jökulsárlón is a large glacial lagoon in southeast Iceland, on the
borders of Vatnajökull National Park. This is the only place where one
can see the picturesque sight: blue and white ice slowly drifts away
from the tip of Vatnajokull glacier. Besides, Jökulsárlón is the lowest
point in Iceland, due to the fact that heavy ice presses the soil under
the glacier down, which is currently at 200 meters below the sea level.

[{Image src='05_Jokulsarlon Ice Lagoon.jpg' caption='Jokulsarlon Ice Lagoon' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='446'}]

Iceland is actually one of the most active volcanic regions in the
world. The Grimsvotn is a not ordinary volcano. It is unique because the
huge 500-meter ice layer covers it. Besides, on the top of the volcano
there is a caldera - enormous cup full of ice too. This cup's area, or
in other words - ice lake, is 35 km². The volcano was erupting and the
ice began to thaw. The eruption melted the ice layer in the caldera and
much water accumulated there. As a consequence, a new lake appeared with
a cone in its center.

[{Image src='06_Storasula mountain.jpg' caption='Storasula mountain' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='601'}]

In total, there are more than 250 geyser groups consisting of 7,000 hot
springs – the world greatest cluster of geysers.

[{Image src='07_Haifoss waterfall.jpg' caption='Haifoss waterfall' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='563'}]

However, these records are not the ones that portray the charm of the
nature of Iceland. Spacious fields, mountains, and water exists in all
possible states: from frozen ice to steaming geysers – this is what
makes this unique, majestic, harsh and deserted landscape of Iceland,
the country that looks so different from anything else in the world.

\\ \\
[87 Panoramas of Iceland|Geography/Europe/Iceland/Pictures/Gand_Tour]\\
[7 Panoramas of Highlands of Iceland|Geography/Europe/Iceland/Pictures/Panoramas_of_Highlands_of_Iceland]\\
[10 Panoramas of Iceland 1|Geography/Europe/Iceland/Pictures/Panoramas_of_Iceland_1]\\ 
[18 Panoramas of Iceland 2|Geography/Europe/Iceland/Pictures/Panoramas_of_Iceland_2]









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