Location: The Queen Elizabeth Islands are the northern part of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, and include all the islands north of latitude 74:30 including the Parry and Sverdrup island groups. The largest single islands are
Ellesmere, Melville, Devon, and Axel Heiberg.
Terrain: The Victoria Islands in total have a land area of more than 390,000 square km.
History: They were partially explored (1615–16) by the English navigators William Baffin and Robert Bylot. However recent diggings by Peter Schlederman, professor of Archaeology at the University of Calgary's Arctic Institute of North America discovered Viking artifacts, rivets, carpenters tools, and chain mail that suggested a European presence in North America by the Vikings about AD 1000. The westernmost areas (including Prince Patrick Island and parts of
Melville, Borden, and Mackenzie King islands) are administratively a part of the Northwest Territories, but the greater portion of the region is administered by Nunavut territory. The islands were named in 1953 to honour the recently crowned Queen Elizabeth II.
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