Brattahlid (Qassiarsuk), Greenland

In the year A.D. 985 infamous Viking explorer Eric the Red sailed into Eriksfjord. It was here at Brattahlíð that he established his private estate. Some 5,000 Viking settlers eventually followed him to populate an area that became known as the Eastern Settlement. Under 100 people live here today, making their living by farming sheep just as the Norse did 1,150 years earlier. Renamed Qassiarsuk the pastoral village boasts the oldest church built in the Americas. Today a living history museum, the tiny sod-roofed church is complete with curators dressed in period clothing of the Viking era. Numerous Norse ruins can be found here, including a recently unearthed graveyard containing the remains of 144 Viking colonists. Proudly overlooking the village, is the remarkable bronze statue of Erik the Red.