Amazing Iceland: People lived in TURF HOUSES!

I spent two amazing weeks on the eastern part of Iceland. I stayed in the small town of Egilsstaðir. The reason for my visit was to see one of my sons who was participating in seasonal work in Seydisfjörður. To get there from Egilsstaðir, one has to drive about 30 kilometers over the mountain. The scenery is magnificent, often shrouded in dense sea fog. The fog is also part of the unique nature experience.
In a rental car, I drove around in the eastern part of this fascinating country. What astonishes someone who has never been here before, is the almost complete lack of forests and the fact that so few people live on this island. Iceland is over two and a half times the size of Denmark and has only about 380,000 inhabitants. You can drive for dozens of kilometers without seeing a single person or encountering another driver.
When the Vikings settled in Iceland in the latter half of the 9th century, there were forests on the island. Not tall, straight pine and spruce trees like in Norway and Sweden, but at least there was some forest. The Vikings were used to having plenty of wood to work with, so they started cutting down the timber they needed. The trees were not particularly suitable for building houses, but the Vikings needed wood for many other things, such as extracting tar and burning charcoal.
The result was that over the years, large parts of the forest in Iceland disappeared, and parts of the country appeared even more barren than before. How did people manage to build homes and get shelter? Turf was the solution. There was plenty of it. Compact turf could be found a bit down in the earth, and it was suitable for the walls of turf houses. Surface turf with grass was suitable for covering roofs and walls, and it could be used as fuel after drying.
Icelandic turf contains a lot of volcanic ash, making it not particularly suitable for burning, but in the absence of wood, people dried the turf and used it.
During my drives in East Iceland, I saw several turf houses. Many of these are now owned by the National Museum of Iceland and are open to tourists and other interested visitors.
The turf house I visited on the Sænautasel farm, a few miles from Egilsstaðir, is privately owned.
I also visited a turf house on the old Galtastaðir farm. This is owned by the National Museum and will be opened to the public in a few years.