Nuuk mainland, and was named Godthåb ("Good Hope"). The city officially adopted its current name in 1979, although the name "Godthåb" remained in use in Danish. "Nuuk" is the Kalaallisut word for "cape" (). It is so named because of its position at the end of the Nuup Kangerlua fjord on the eastern shore of the Labrador Sea. Its latitude, at 64°10' N, makes it the world's northernmost capital, only a few kilometres farther north than the Icelandic capital Reykjavík. The campus of the University of Greenland, hosting Statistics Greenland, and the main holdings of the Public and National Library of
Nuuk Qoornuup Qeqertarsua. The fjord widens into a bay dotted with skerries near its mouth, opening into Labrador Sea at approximately . Some to the northeast, reaching a height of , Sermitsiaq can be seen from almost everywhere in Nuuk. The mountain has given its name to the nationwide newspaper "Sermitsiaq". Closer to the town are the peaks of Store Malene, , and Lille Malene, . The magnetic declination at Nuuk is extreme. Nuuk has a maritime-influenced tundra climate (Köppen "ET") with cold, long, snowy winters and cool, short summers. On 22 December, the shortest day and longest night of the