Iceland volcano
Hekla
You can see 180 km from here, looking north.
Calculating the panorama…
Drag to turn around. The relief is drawn 2.2 times taller so the ridges can be read; far ridges are paler, as in the real air.
The view
Up to 180 km away.
Calculated on the relief one degree at a time, up to 250 km, with the curvature of the Earth and the refraction of the air: what stands above the horizon from here.
Our own rating, from the relief and the climate only: open horizon (35 points), how far you see (25), sea and named peaks in view (20) and clear months (20).
- 180 kmFarthest ridgelooking north
- 100%Open horizonof the circle where the horizon is below your eyes
- 16%Seaof the circle where the horizon is the sea
- 72Peaks in viewnamed summits that rise above the relief in front
- 1,470 mAltitudeabove the sea, at the highest point of the viewpoint
The 72 peaks you can name from here
From west to east as you turn around: height, distance and direction. Each one links to its guide on Peakyas, our mountain atlas.
From the relief only: buildings, trees and haze are not in the model. On a hazy day you see much less; 250 km is the limit of our calculation.
The sun
The best sunsets are from November to December.
When the sun really disappears from this viewpoint — behind the relief or into the sea — and in which direction, on the 15th of each month, in local time.
- Jansouth-west-6 min before the sea-level sunset24%
- Febsouth-west-4 min before the sea-level sunset24%
- Marwestsets on an open horizon22%
- Aprnorth-westsets on an open horizon22%
- Maynorth-west4 min before the sea-level sunset22%
- Jun——sets on an open horizon18%
- Julnorth-west6 min before the sea-level sunset16%
- Augnorth-west-2 min before the sea-level sunset20%
- Sepwest-2 min before the sea-level sunset20%
- Octwest-4 min before the sea-level sunset23%
- Novsouth-west8 min before the sea-level sunset25%
- Decsouth-west-4 min before the sea-level sunset27%
- Time: when the sun goes behind the horizon you see from here.
- Minutes: how much earlier the relief hides the sun.
- %: share of clear sky that month (NASA, 2001–2020).
The highlighted months are the clearest. Golden hour starts about an hour before.
The place
Hekla.
Stratovolcano in southern Iceland
Hekla is a volcano in Iceland, 1,470 m above the sea.
On a clear day the farthest ridge you can see is 180 km away, looking north.
The sea fills 16% of the horizon.
72 named peaks rise above the relief in front; the most prominent is Bárðarbunga (2,010 m), 126 km away.
The horizon is open, below your eyes, over 100% of the circle.
The skies are clearest from November to December.
Get there and stay
- Rjúpnavellircampsite · 9.5 km · 1 within 10 km
- Reykjavík Domestic Airport (RKV)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 112 km in a straight lineCar hire at RKV airport (Reykjavík)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
A guided tour, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above
The viewpoint and its surroundings.
The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the viewpoint, with what OpenStreetMap shows nearby.
Around, in OpenStreetMap
- 2named peaks within 5 kmRauðkembingar, Öxl
- 1car parks within 3 km
- 1campsites within 10 kmRjúpnavellir
- other viewpoints within 5 km
- cable car and funicular stations within 5 km
- marked trails within 3 km
- shelters and huts within 5 km
- visitor centres within 5 km
- restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- places to stay within 10 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
In our other atlases
What you see from Hekla, and what is near.
Everything around this viewpoint — mountains, water, forests, birds, caves and the night sky — in the family's atlases.
Peakyas35 mountains within 25 km
Darkskyas7 dark-sky places within 30 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap, GBIF). Links open when each site is online.
Photographs
The view, as people saw it.
Other viewpoints nearby.
Hekla
Iceland
- 81Viewyas Score
- 180 kmFarthest ridge
- 72Peaks in view
- 1,470 mAltitude
Hvannadalshnúkur
Iceland · 146 km
- 84Viewyas Score
- 207 kmFarthest ridge
- 41Peaks in view
- 2,076 mAltitude
Where these figures come from
| Name and type | Wikidata (Q184975) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Sun | J. Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms |
| Peaks in view | Peakyas (Wikidata, CC0) |
| Panorama and altitude | Copernicus DEM GLO-90 / GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Clouds | NASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2) |
| What is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Sister atlases | Peakyas, Islandyas, Darkskyas, Cascadyas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.
beaches
Find your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit 
lakes
Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Visit mountains
Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Visit 
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Visit 
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.Visit 
canyons
Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Visit 
caves
Every cave with its real depth and length: the rock above, the temperature inside all year, and how to visit.Visit dark skies
Where the night is still dark: the sky of every place, the Milky Way month by month, the Moon, eclipses and auroras.Visit 
viewpoints
Every viewpoint with its real 360° panorama: the peaks you can name, how far you see and where the sun sets.You are here
birdwatching
Every bird sanctuary and wetland with the species recorded month by month: who is resident, who comes for the summer, who only passes through.Visit 
forests
Every forest with its land-cover rings, what grows and lives in it, and the best months to walk it.Visit