Uvayuq

Uvayuq, a prominent esker on Victoria Island in Nunavut’s Kitikmeot Region, rises more than 200 metres above the surrounding land and is among the area’s most recognizable landforms. Once known in English as Mount Pelly, it was climbed by John Rae during his 1850–51 search for traces of John Franklin’s lost expedition. The land around Uvayuq has a long Inuit history of hunting, and more than 120 archaeological sites on the esker include caches, campsites, and a grave. It also stands within an Inuit traditional landscape, where nearby hills and Uvayuq itself figure in a legend of a starving family of giants.

Nunavut · Canada