Sermilik

Sermilik Egede og Rothes Fjord
Helheim Fjord, part of the Sermilik system.
Sermilik Location in Greenland
Location	Arctic
Coordinates	66°0′N 37°52′W / 66.000°N 37.867°W / 66.000; -37.867Coordinates: 66°0′N 37°52′W / 66.000°N 37.867°W / 66.000; -37.867
Ocean/sea sources	North Atlantic Ocean
Basin countries	Greenland
Max. length	81 km (50 mi)
Max. width	14 km (8.7 mi)

Sermilik (Danish: Egede og Rothes Fjord) is a fjord in eastern Greenland. It is part of the Sermersooq municipality.

The settlement of Tasiilaq is located about 15 km to the east of the mouth of the fjord.

This fjord, whose Greenlandic name 'Sermilik' means 'place with glaciers' is located at the southern end of King Christian IX Land, west of Ammassalik Fjord. It is one of the largest fjords in the southeastern coast of Greenland. Its waters are fed by the Helheim Glacier, Fenris Glacier and Midgard Glacier among others. The fjord stretches inland in a roughly northern direction and splits into two branches at its head —at the southern limit of Schweizerland, the western one being the Helheim Fjord and the right one the Ningerti.

Sermilik's mouth is located between Kitak Island and Cape Tycho Brahe in the Denmark Strait area of the Atlantic Ocean. Near the fjord's entrance on the western side there is the island of Qeertartivatsiaq at the mouth of Johan Petersen Fjord and its eastern branch, the Stoklund Fjord. Sermilik is surrounded by jagged mountainous landscape and its coast is mostly very irregular and steep.

Initially Fridtjof Nansen had thought that Sermilik would offer a route up to reach the ice cap for his projected westward overland crossing. On 3 June 1888 Nansen's party was picked up from the north-western Icelandic port of Ísafjörður by Norwegian sealer Jason. A week later the Greenland coast was sighted, but progress was hindered by thick pack ice. On 17 July, with the coast still 20 kilometres (12 mi) away, Nansen decided to launch the small boats; they were within sight of the Sermilik Fjord, which Nansen