Denmark: a small country?
The total area of the territory covers 42,924 km2, roughly equivalent to the Centre-Val de Loire region in France, making it the smallest state in Scandinavia. But if you include the Faroe Islands and Greenland, it is close to 2,210,579 km2. Small country then becomes a giant, but populated by only 5.8 million people. With 68 kilometers of land border with Germany and 7,314 km of coastline, Denmark is essentially a maritime country and there is not a point that is more than 52 km from the coast! It is true that nothing seems excessive, not even the rivers that carve out its relatively flat terrain: the Gudenå, its longest river, is no more than 158 km long.
Little relief but varied landscapes, sometimes unusual, alternating agricultural areas (around Femo, island located north of Lolland) and wooded (Gribskov forest, North Seeland), sandy coasts (Skagen, North Jutland or Hvide Sande, West Jutland) and rocky (Bornholm island, Sanctuary Cliffs or Opalsøen, where the crenellated granite quarries are reflected in the waters of the lake below), fjords (Veststadil, Jutland) and sumptuous cliffs (Vendsyssel-Thy, North Sea), chalky and vertiginous cliffs (Møn island in the south of Seeland) which reach more than 100 m high. There are also sandy landscapes in the heart of Jutland, especially in the moors near Billund. Towards the southwest, there are polders, both natural and artificial, created by the tides and the subsidence of the land.
If you associate monotony with the Danish landscape, think again! You will be amazed!
A geographical specificity: flat and coastal
A patient game of mille-feuille of time has structured its geology. The soils, mainly composed of sedimentary rocks, were formed during the secondary era (with the exception of the island of Bornholm, which is composed of granites). The chalk and limestone were then covered by clays and sands during the Tertiary era. But it is the Quaternary that has most profoundly changed the Danish landscape. The melting of the continental glaciers generated powerful water currents that shaped vast valleys crossing Jutland from east to west. As a result, the rock debris carried by this melt formed a moraine cover on the sedimentary subsoil; land bulges on which peat bogs appeared, drained and cultivated by man over the centuries. In the same way, the coastline has never stopped evolving, modified by erosion and silting.
Since the Neolithic period, human activity has taken precedence over natural phenomena and has radically shaped this landscape. Deforestation, land cultivation and habitat have profoundly changed the geographical data. Today, two thirds of the country is farmed by farmers, 12% by foresters. The eastern part of Denmark is characterized by plains and morainic hills, which are very fertile and therefore mainly occupied by large cultivated fields. In the west, new irrigation techniques and the construction of windbreaks have encouraged the emergence of intensive cultivation in this previously untouched region. Softwoods are generally planted in this area, which can cope with the poor soil. The southwest, a region of marshy plains and polders (dried marshes), is even more marked by human intervention since it was necessary to build dykes to contain the frequent floods from the surrounding seas.
And if the 19th century and the growing industry have sadly caused the emergence of vast cooperatives on the Jutland moors, now the protection of the natural heritage is a real issue for which ecology and politics have succeeded in accommodating in order to open a new era, that of organic farming and sustainable development.
Who, what, where? Or how to find your way from one region to another
Jutland is the peninsula, i.e. the continental part of Denmark. It is the Jutes, a Germanic people of the North Sea, who are largely established in the south of the country, who have left their name to these lands bathed in the west by the North Sea, northwest by the Skagerrak, northeast by the Kattegat and east by the Little Belt, a strait that connects the Kattegat to the Baltic Sea. It is from the south that this 368 km long piece of land clings to Europe, with the border with Germany as its territorial limit. Its administrative capital is Aarhus, an important port city located in the eastern part.
Fiona is the third largest island in the country. Almost 3,000m2 in area and a highest point at 130 m, Frøbjerg Bavnehøj. It is located between South Jutland and the main island of Seeland, where Copenhagen has developed, from which it is separated by the Little Belt shipping channel. Two famous bridges, the Old Bridge (a truss bridge 1929-1935) and the New Bridge (a suspension bridge 1965-1970) connect it to the mainland. Its capital, Odense, is well known as the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen, who has lulled us to sleep with his fairy tales.
Seeland is the largest of the Danish islands and the most populated: 7,000 km2 and over 2 million inhabitants. Facing Sweden, it controls the Øresund strait which can be crossed by boat, by rail through the tunnel under the sea of Drogden or by road thanks to the cable-stayed bridge (built in 1995-1999) which is now part of the landscape! The island is crossed by one of the largest motorways in Scandinavia, the European road E47, which links Hamburg to Copenhagen.
The Faroe Islands or Føroyar. An archipelago of 18 islands (about 1,400 km²) in the North Atlantic Ocean. This province, autonomous since 1948, has its own government which manages its affairs except for defense. In these lands, there are no trees or vegetation. The reason: a powerful wind that blows all year round. On the other hand, the waters of the archipelago, very rich in fish, benefit from the passage of the warm marine current, the famous Gulf Stream. There are about 50,000 inhabitants... for a hundred thousand sheep!
Greenland, "the green earth", is a huge island of 2 million km2, located in the Atlantic Ocean in North America. The ice cover covers 95% of the territory and the climatic conditions are extreme. Of the 56,000 inhabitants, a third of whom are concentrated around the capital Nuuk, located in the southwest of the island, 80% are Inuit and 14.5% are Danes. Long disdained, it is now interesting for its natural heritage and for another reason, which could have heavy consequences: oil! The Americans estimate that its reserves would represent half of those of Saudi Arabia..
Nature in its raw state!
The need to preserve certain unique landscapes has led UNESCO to set up a world heritage convention involving various countries, with the aim of encouraging them to become aware of the beauty of their environment. Thus, four exceptional sites have been registered in Denmark.
A sea of sand and mud: the Wadden Sea
This absolutely unique national park is considered to be the largest system of its kind in the world: mudflats and tidal sandbanks stretching for 450 km from Helder in the Netherlands through Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein in Germany to Esbjerg in Denmark, covering an area of about 10,000 km2. In addition to being a World Natural Heritage Site, the Wadden Sea is also classified as a Biosphere Reserve. Wadden means foreshore, i.e. the sandy area between the two tide levels (high and low).
It benefits from salinity, light, oxygen and variable temperatures, resulting in a very rich ecosystem. There is a multitude of transitional habitats: tidal channels, sandbanks, salt marshes, seagrass meadows, mussel beds, sandbars, mudflats, lagoons, estuaries, beaches and dunes. Many animal and plant species have made this their territory, such as the harbor seal, the gray seal and the harbor porpoise. Natural processes continue in an almost undisturbed way, so we might as well take advantage of this rarity... but remain respectful and discreet!
A Meteorite and the End of the Dinosaurs: Stevns Klint
The geological site of the Stevns Klint cliffs is located on the island of Seeland, southwest of Store Heddinge. This 15 km long coastline is punctuated by fossiliferous cliffs of an immaculate whiteness. Its reputation is worldwide and for good reason! Here is one of the most striking testimonies of the consequences of the fall of a meteorite on our planet. "And then what?" you think!
The case that interests us happened at the end of the Cretaceous period, about 65 million years ago. To be precise, in Chicxulub, in Yucatán, Mexico. Scientists generally consider that the impact of this meteorite was responsible for a large-scale mass extinction, that of the dinosaurs and more than 50% of life on Earth. Here in Denmark, traces of the ash cloud that was thrown into space after the meteorite collided with the earth are still visible. The 180 km diameter crater (in Mexico) lets us imagine the explosive power of several thousand times greater than... that of Hiroshima! Today, the landscape seems so peaceful..
Odsherred: a global geopark
About 100 kilometers from Copenhagen is the first global geopark created by UNESCO. What is a Geopark? It is a territorial space that presents a geological heritage of international importance, with the main mission of helping to understand natural hazards, the consequences of climate change and to improve the dynamics of nature protection, while maintaining local human activity.
Odsherred covers an area of 355 km², it is mainly made up of 160 km of coastline and valleys, glacial structures formed during the last Vistulian glaciation, the equivalent of Würm, 17,000 years ago. Among the 21 sites listed on the whole territory, the most famous are the three moraines called the Odsherred Arches, a classic geomorphological example of glacial relief, rather rare in Europe. Beautiful walks in perspective!
Between nature and culture, the hunting landscape of North Zeeland
Hunting with hounds, also called "force hunting", was a royal pleasure and was the reason for the specific development of certain forests and lands in order to meet the needs of the packs and the practitioners of the so-called "courtly" hunting. Here, nature is shaped by man: bridle paths, byways, markers, fences, hunting lodges. A whole orthogonal grid, starting from a star-shaped center, which gave birth to the baroque landscape of the 17th and 18th centuries.
You are 30 kilometers north of Copenhagen in three main areas: the Dyrehave Store, Gribskov and Jaegersborg Dyrehave-Jægersborg Hegn. Its plan, which combines French and German models, optimized its function during the hunt while attesting to the power of the absolute monarchy, its role in society, its reason and its power through the control of nature. A pleasant forest walk to be completed by a visit to the Danish Hunting and Forestry Museum in Hørsholm.
