Hekla volcano

Hekla volcano, also known as the “gateway to hell”, is an active stratovolcano.

The oldest recorded eruption of Hekla occurred in 1104, but scientists know for sure that it has been active for at least 6600 years.

The length of the mountain range, which includes the Hekla volcano, is 40 kilometers. And the most active part of the volcano is a crack in the rock length of 5.5 kilometers. The volcano got its name - Hekla - because its top is almost always covered with clouds - as if a cloak, because the literal translation of Hekla is a short cloak with a hood.

His middle name – “Gate to Hell” – Hekla received from the monks. Thus, in a poem by the monk Benedith from 1120 about the adventures of St. Brendan, the volcano is referred to as the prison of Judas. And in the sixteenth century Caspar Peucer wrote that the gates of hell could be found in the bottomless palaces of the volcano Hekla, and the belief that Hekla is the gate to hell, persisted until 1800. There is another story that says that witches gather here every Easter.

Over the past 900 years, there have been more than 20 strong eruptions of the Hekla volcano. The last volcanic eruption was recorded on February 28, 2000.