Svartifoss

Svartifoss in Skaftafell, part of Vatnajökull National Park in southern Iceland, is a waterfall about 20 m high. Its name means ‘black waterfall’: dark, mostly hexagonal basalt columns surround it like a natural amphitheatre. The columns formed about 300,000 years ago, when lava filled an old riverbed on the Skaftafellsheiði plain and cracked into vertical columns as it cooled.

The columns are said to have inspired the state architect Guðjón Samúelsson in designing Hallgrímskirkja and the National Theatre in Reykjavík. A 1.5 km uphill path leads to the falls from the Skaftafell visitor centre; allow about an hour and a half there and back. If you want a longer outing, the easy 5.8 km circuit Svartifoss–Sjónarsker–Sel takes about two hours; from the Sjónarsker viewpoint, with its orientation table, the view stretches far across the surroundings in good weather.