Magdalenefjorden

Magdalenefjorden is a narrow fjord in the far northwest of Spitsbergen, walled by sharp peaks and glaciers that calve into its dark water, and one of the most visited sights of every Svalbard cruise. On the Gravneset spit at its mouth lie the graves of whalers from the seventeenth century, when English and Dutch ships hunted bowhead whales here. The spit is one of the few landing places on this coast, where visitors walk ashore by inflatable boat. Seals rest on the ice floes, little auks nest on the slopes, and the Waggonwaybreen glacier closes the head of the fjord. There is no settlement, and the fjord is reached only by ship.