Iceland is a meeting-place of the forces of nature which conjure up contrasts with a variety and ingenuity that almost defy belief. Active volcanoes and boiling geothermal springs coexist side by side with glaciers, and dramatic eruptions even burst forth from beneath the surface of Europe's largest ice cap. Today, Icelanders have harnessed the natural warmth of the Earth's water to heat their homes and the outdoor swimming pools that are used all year round.

This is a grand and epic landscape of mountains and deep fjords, black volcanic sands and rugged lava fields, majestic waterfalls and rich earth colours, rock formations so bizarre that they are explained away in legends and local folklore as trolls and giants with lives of their own. But even on the rim of the Artic Circle there are tender sides to nature's character, in idyllic grassy valleys and plains, colourful coastal towns and villages, peaceful farmsteads and the romantic hues of the midnight sun. Besides a huge variety of native and migrant birds, lceland's fauna includes reindeer and foxes on land, and whales and seals at sea.

By far the youngest country in Europe from a geological perspective, Iceland is literally split down the middle on tectonic plates, one moving towards Europe, the other towards North America, at a centimetre or two a year. An apt setting for the ocean outpost where Vikings would bring their ancient tongue which is still spoken hardly changed today. Iceland was also a stepping-stone to the New World, the starting place for the Viking settlement of Greenland and birthplace of Leif the Lucky, who in the year 1000 became the first European to set foot in North America. In the year 2000 Iceland will be celebrating that historical milestone as well as the dawn of the new millennium, with a special programme of activities.

But Icelanders look to the future too, eagerly pursuing a modern lifestyle and comforts nowhere symbolized as strongly as in the capital, Reykjavfk. Icelanders largely earn their livelihoods by harvesting seafood from the pure and plentiful fishing grounds all around them, and by harnessing renewable resources of hydro and geothermal energy, environment-friendly activities that show how man can still live in harmony with nature in the modern world.

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