Alta – city of the Northern Lights

Alta is so far north it’s closer to the North Pole than central Europe. Held in the grasp of the long Altafjord, it backs onto the Finnmarksvidda, Norway’s largest plateau and home to Europe’s longest dog-sled race.

Those big skies, minimal light pollution, and its position beneath the Auroral Oval make Alta one of the best places in the world to see the aurora borealis.

Some 7,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers took primitive chisels to the rocks around Alta and made markings of reindeer, elk, bears, whales, and wolves and detailed their hunts, dances, and shamanic rituals. For thousands of years, these artworks were hidden by moss and lichen until they were discovered in 1973. Spread across four sites at the head of the Altafjord, they now make up Northern Europe’s largest and richest concentration of rock art.

From the 18th century, the indigenous Sámi started living side by side with southern Norwegians and Kvens – a tribe of Finnish fishermen who migrated to northern Norway to escape famine. The Kvens made up the majority of employees at the copper plant in nearby Kåfjord, while the Sámi continued to herd reindeer.

There were occasional clashes. Most notably, the Kautokeino Uprising in 1852 that lead to the terrible death of two Sámi leaders and, more recently, in the 1970s and early 1980s during the Alta Conflict, in which Sámi activists fiercely but unsuccessfully opposed the construction of a hydroelectric power plant that would disrupt reindeer migration paths and destroy a Sámi village. The 2023 film Let the River Flow gets to the heart of what was at stake for the Sámi people.

In 1892, a year before Hurtigruten’s maiden voyage, thanks to Alta’s reputation for clear skies, the first ever photo of the Northern Lights was taken here. Not long after, thanks for the efforts of Norwegian professor and inventor Kristian Birkeland, the world’s first permanent Northern Lights observatory was established just outside Alta. It had a lasting impact on the city’s identity.

Today, Alta is one of the most northerly cities in the world, and the biggest in Finnmark county. Known as the city of the Northern Lights, people travel here for Arctic adventures beneath the aurora, as well as for the UNESCO-listed rock art and the area’s living cultural heritage. Near the heart of the city is Alta’s most iconic building, the modern Northern Lights Cathedral.

Locals are working hard to heal the wounds of the past. Both the Kven and Sámi culture and languages are being revived with the construction of language centres, the week-long Alta Sámi Festival in February, and family-owned businesses that introduce their customs to a wider audience.

Here, at the top of the world some 400km north of the Arctic Circle, dark and light affect the days in dramatic ways. The Midnight Sun illuminates the sky from the end of May to the end of July, with 24-hour daylight allowing more time to explore the surroundings by husky or snowmobile. 

From the end of November to mid-January, Polar Night takes over - when the sun never rises. These hours of never-ending night set the stage for dancing displays of Northern Lights. Some of Norway’s clearest and boldest shows occur above Alta. Be sure to pack your thermals because the temperatures never reach double digits, but happily, it rarely feels too cold thanks to the Gulf Stream that warms much of Norway.

July tends to be the wettest month and February the driest, with everything frozen solid. It’s when the landscape wears its white cloak that Alta is probably at its most enchanting.