Heimaey

The largest island of the Vestmannaeyjar at 13.4 square kilometres, four nautical miles off the south coast, and the only one of the group with people on it, 4,414 of them. In January 1973 lava from Eldfell destroyed half the town and advanced on the harbour the island lives by; the harbour was saved by pumping sea water onto the flow to cool and stop it. Tradition makes Herjólfur Bárðarson the first settler, building his farm around 900, though a 1971 excavation found occupation nearly a century earlier. Barbary pirates raided the island in 1627.