Northern Canada’s Northwest Territories with the capital Yellowknife have belonged to Canada since 1870 and are located next to the Yukon. Together with Nunavut, the Northwest Territories make up about 40 percent of Canada’s total land area. The Mackenzie river system traverses the area and has a length of approximately 4,180 kilometers. That is even longer than the Missouri or Mississippi.
Yellowknife became the capital of the Northwest Territories in 1967 and is located on Great Slave Lake. One attraction is “The Legislative Assembly”. The seat of the regional government from 1993 with an outstanding domed roof. You can also visit the inside of the building when there are no meetings.
The Wildcat Café is something special. It is only open in summer and consists of a log cabin that has been restored in the style of the 1930s. Here you can try delicious fish dishes or try stews.
Northwest Territories: Key Figures
Area: 1,346,106 sq km, rank 3 of the provinces of Canada (land Area: 1,140,835 sq km, water Area: 205,271 sq km)
Share of water surface: 15.2%
Population: 42,940 residents, ranked 11th in the provinces of Canada (2009, estimate)
Population density: 0.03 residents per square kilometer
Member of the Confederation: June 1870 (5th Territory of Canada)
Capital and Largest city: Yellowknife (19,155 residents, 2008 estimate)
Highest point: 2,773 m, Mount Nirvana
Lowest point: 0 m, Arctic Ocean
Commissioner: Anthony “Tony” WJ Whitford
Prime Minister: Floyd Roland
Local time: CET -8 h. From the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November: CET -7 h.
The time difference to Central Europe in the Northwest Territories is -8 hours in both winter and summer.
Postal abbreviation: NT
Northwest Territories of Canada – Map and Geography
The Northwest Territories are in northern Canada. The total area covers about 1.35 million square kilometers, which is inhabited by only 43,000 people. Half of them live in the capital, Yellowknife. Most of the Northwest Territories consists almost entirely of wilderness, which is about five times the size of Germany. Together with the neighboring province of Nunavut, the Northwest Territories take up a good third of the total area of Canada.
The area of the Northwest Territories extends from 60 degrees latitude to almost the North Pole and is bordered to the south by British Columbia, Alberta and the Prairie Provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The province of Nunavut is bounded to the east and the Yukon to the west. The Arctic Ocean forms the natural border in the north. The area of the Northwest Territories also includes Banks Island, Parry Peninsula, Prince Patrick Island and areas of Melville Island and Victoria Island, which geologically belong to the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.
On the border with the province Yukonruns the mountains of the Mackenzie Mountains, whose officially nameless and unofficially Mount Nirwana summit is the highest mountain in the Northwest Territories at 2,773 meters. The highest mountain range in the province is also the border with the Yukon. The Mackenzie Mountains are part of the northern Rocky mountains and are in turn divided into individual mountain ranges such as the Backbone Range and the Tawu Range. From the mountains, the Mackenzie River flows north, which was an important waterway to the Arctic in the past.
The center of the Northwest Territories is dominated by two great lakes, Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake. On both sides of the great lakes, the landscape changes into almost undeveloped terrain that extends into the neighboring province of Nunavut. Wide forested river valleys run through the east of the territory, which can also be found in the south of the Northwest Territories. In the extreme southwest corner lies at the mouth of the Yellowknife River, the capital Yellowknife on Great Slave Lake.
In the north of the Territories, the mainland coast runs from the mouth of the Mackenzie River to the Amundsen Gulf, the landscape of which is already arctic. The southwest of the province is characterized by a huge karst area, which is interspersed with countless caves, sinkholes and underground rivers.
Northwest Territories: Points of Interest
Well worth seeing in the Northwest Territories Nahanni National Park Reserve. The park has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1978.
It is located in the southwest of the Northwest Territories and includes four huge canyons with mighty Waterfalls and the South Nahami River.
You should have seen that tooWood Buffalo National Park. It was built in 1922 to protect bison herds. It is the largest national park in Canada and one of the largest parks in the world.
Another park would be the Tuktut Nogait National Park. It is located in the tundra region and is home to wolves, lemmings, foxes, grizzly bears and caribou.
