The area is named after Robert E. Peary, who first explored it during his expedition of 1891 to 1892. Originally, Peary Land was believed to be an island, separated from the main island by the Peary Channel, an assumed connection between Nordenskiöld Fjord and Independence Fjord. Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen, the ill-fated leader of the Denmark expedition, searched in vain for the Peary Channel in 1907 and was misled to his death by existing maps. Knud Rasmussen's First Thule Expedition confirmed in 1912 that Peary Land is a peninsula. There are more than 200 kilometers of dry land up to 1500 meters high between Nordenskiöld Fjord and Independence Fjord.
Research and mining
There are two Arctic research stations on Jørgen Brønlund Fjord, Brønlundhus and Kap Harald Moltke. Both stations were built on initiative of Eigil Knuth, and have been the basis for many scientific expeditions. Kap Harald Moltke station was built later in connection with use of the natural runway east of Jørgen Brønlund Fjord mouth. The stations located 10 km from each other on either side of the fjord, with Brønlundhus on the western side, and communication between them in summer is by boat, depending on ice conditions. Since the death of Eigil Knuth, the stations are administered by Peary Land Foundation. Today, Brønlundhus can be characterised as a museum, with a collection of artefacts from polar explorations. In 1993 zinc and lead deposits were discovered in the Citronen Fjord. They are deemed the largest yet unexploited zinc deposits in the world and the exploitation of the Citronen mine is in the preparation phase. Important zinc and barium deposits have also been found at Navarana Fjord.
Geography
Peary Land is bounded by the Lincoln Sea and Wandel Sea of the Arctic Ocean in the north. Oodaaq island, the northernmost point of land of the world, lies off the north coast. Frederick E. Hyde Fjord, which cuts into Peary Land from the east 150 km deep, divides it into Northern Peary Land and Southern Peary Land. The coastline is deeply indented by smaller fjords, such as G.B. Schley Fjord and Hellefisk Fjord in the east, and Sands Fjord, Benedict Fjord, J.P. Koch Fjord, De Long Fjord and Weyprecht Fjord in the west. Peary Land is not part of any municipality, but belongs to the Northeast Greenland National Park. The size of the region is about 375 km east–west and 200 km north–south, with an estimated area of 57 000 km2. It is only a bit more than 700 km south of the North Pole. Peary Land is not covered by an ice cap because the air is too dry to produce snow. Precipitation levels are so low that most of its surface is polar desert. Located mostly north of the 82°N parallel, it contains the most northerly ice-free region of the world, mostly in Southern Peary Land. It was not covered by glaciers during the most recent ice age. However, in its western part, there is the Hans Tausen Ice Cap with ice at least 344 m thick.
Mountains
Peary Land is mountainous; the highest elevation is Helvetia Tinde reaching up to in the heavily glaciated and little-explored Roosevelt Range, the northernmost mountain range in the world. high Wistar Bjerg, high Stjernebannertinde, highest point of the H.H. Benedict Range —a subrange of the Roosevelt Range, and high Nordkrone are other conspicuous high summits.
