Vega Archipelago
The number of Wikipedia languages with an article is our measure of how widely known a site is. Counts of visitors and wishes will appear once enough people use the app.
Seals, want-to-go and the year you stood here are recorded in the iPhone app.
How it came to be
In Norway's Vega archipelago, about 6,500 islands, islets and skerries are scattered across the sea. People have lived here since the Stone Age, and fishermen and hunters have lived on Vega and Søla for more than 10,000 years.
Tending eider ducks was reported as a livelihood as early as the 9th century. Islanders built small houses and nests for the birds and gathered their down, a tradition of more than 1,000 years, and eiderdown may have made up about a third of the islanders' income. Women did much of the work.
The archipelago was inscribed in 2004 for a way of life sustained for about 1,500 years and for the part women played in the eiderdown harvest. Up to 228 bird species can be seen, and it is considered the most important wintering area for seabirds in the Nordic region.
Data: Wikidata (CC0). Photos: Wikimedia Commons, under each photo’s license. Prototype; may contain errors. We measure usage anonymously to improve the app (PostHog, EU).