Every design for Alta

Would you guess that Alta lies further east than almost all of Sweden? Because Norway curves over its Nordic neighbours, this town just below the seventieth parallel is closer to the North Pole than to much of Central Europe. Yet the Gulf Stream keeps the climate milder than its position suggests, the lower ground is covered in boreal forest, and midnight sun and polar night frame the year.

The Rock Art of Alta, a UNESCO World Heritage site, holds the largest number of rock carvings and paintings in Northern Europe, made by people who hunted and fished along the fjord. The mountain Komsa has given its name to the earliest Stone Age culture of Finnmark, and Bossekopberget rises above the old trading place of Bossekop. The Altaelva, once fought over for the right to tax its salmon, runs through it all to the Altafjorden.

If you have stood under the northern sky here, whether you grew up by the river or came for a season, you already know why this map is worth wearing.