willkommen-in-germany: Viking ship at Haithabu (German) / Hedeby (Danish). The town was an impo
willkommen-in-germany: Viking ship at Haithabu (German) / Hedeby (Danish). The town was an important Viking Age (8-11th century) trading settlement near the southern end of the Jutland Peninsula, now in the Schleswig-Flensburg district of Schleswig-Holstein, Northern Germany. It is the most important archaeological site in the state. The settlement developed as a trading post at the head of a narrow, navigable inlet known as the Schlei, which connects to the Ostsee (Baltic Sea). The location was favorable as there’s a short portage of less than 15 km to the Treene River, which flows into the Eider with its North Sea estuary, making it a convenient place where goods and ships could be ported overland for an almost uninterrupted seaway between the Baltic and the North Sea to avoid a dangerous and time-consuming circumnavigation of Jutland. Providing Hedeby with a role similar to later Lübeck, it was the 2nd- largest Nordic town during the Viking Age, after Uppåkra in present-day Sweden. -- source link