Sisimiut

Sisimiut Holsteinsborg
Town centre, Kangerluarsunnguaq Bay, and the massif of Palasip Qaqqaa
Sisimiut Location within Greenland
Coordinates: 66°56′20″N 53°40′20″W / 66.93889°N 53.67222°W / 66.93889; -53.67222Coordinates: 66°56′20″N 53°40′20″W / 66.93889°N 53.67222°W / 66.93889; -53.67222
State	Kingdom of Denmark
Constituent country	Greenland
Municipality	Qeqqata
First settled	2500 BCE
Founded	1764
Government
• Mayor	Hermann Berthelsen (Siumut)
Population (2015)
• Total	5,572
• Rank	2nd in Greenland
Time zone	UTC-03
Postal code	3911
Website	sisimiut.gl

Sisimiut, formerly Holsteinsborg, is the capital and largest city of the Qeqqata municipality, and the second-largest city in Greenland. It is located in central-western Greenland, on the coast of Davis Strait, approximately 320 km (200 mi) north of Nuuk.

Although now a place-name, Sisimiut literally means "the people at the fox burrows". The site has been inhabited for the last 4,500 years, first by the Inuit peoples of the Saqqaq culture, Dorset culture, and then the Thule people, whose descendants form the majority of the current population. Artifacts from the early settlement era can be found throughout the region, favored in the past for its plentiful fauna, particularly the marine mammals providing subsistence for the early hunting societies. The population of modern Greenlanders in Sisimiut is a mix of the Inuit and Danish peoples, who first settled in the area in the 1720s, under the leadership of the Danish missionary, Hans Egede.

Today, Sisimiut is the largest business center north of the national capital of Nuuk and is one of the fastest growing cities in Greenland. Fishing is the principal industry in Sisimiut, although the town has a growing industrial base. KNI and its subsidiary Pilersuisoq, a state-owned chain of all-purpose general stores in Greenland, have their base in Sisimiut. Architecturally, Sisimiut is a mix of traditional, single-family houses, and communal housing, with apartment blocks raised in the 1960s during a period of town expansion in Greenland. Sisimiut is still expanding, with the area north of the port, on the shore of the small Kangerluarsunnguaq Bay reserved for a modern suburb-style housing slated for construction in the 2010s. Several professional and general schools are based in Sisimiut, providing education to the inhabitants of the city and to those from smaller settlements in the region. The new Taseralik Culture Center is the second cultural center to be established in Greenland, after Katuaq in Nuuk.