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and rather close to the northern end of
Sprengisandur, prefers to travel to the Alþingi by going south along the shore of the island - his route is much longer and slower, but it goes through inhabited regions for the entire route. His enemies, living in the same neighbourhood but needing speed,
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that means "to ride a horse to death; to be on the point of bursting after running for too long". One needed to ride as fast as possible, nearly driving the horses to death, to cross the mountain desert and reach the inhabited regions of the island again before one ran out of victuals.
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After the loss of independence in 1265, the route gradually fell out of use and was lost until the 19th century. The modern gravel road goes more or less parallel and a bit southeast of the ancient horse trail. A tourist bus runs over the
Sprengisandur every other day from
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Sprengisandur is only accessible during summer - like other parts of the inner desert, it is impassable in winter because of the snow, and in spring because of floods. While being the shortest way to the Alþingi for some
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As usual with uninhabited places in
Iceland, Sprengisandur route was considered to be haunted by ghosts. Both themes, the difficulty of passage and the presence of ghosts, are referred to in the famous Icelandic song
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decide to take the shorter yet more exhausting
Sprengisandur route, so as to arrive at the Alþingi much earlier and have enough time to drum up some support for their case. Another example is in
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route north and then going east along the northern shore of the island - a much longer road home than one through
Sprengisandur, yet one going largely through inhabited regions.
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Hence, Sprengisandur was, if at all possible, avoided by medieval
Icelanders, even if it meant taking the longer route. One example is in ch. 8 of the
192:(ca. 930–1265) it was one of the several important north–south routes that connected remote regions of the island to the Plains of the Parliament,
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parts of the country. The road, and shorter tracks leading from the main road, are only open in the summer months.
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and back in July and August. If the weather is good, the route offers views of both glaciers and volcanoes
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A very remote airfield with two runways named
Sprengisandur is located in the area (ICAO: BISP).
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that is very close to the northern end of the route, and for inhabitants of
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This article is about the geographical area. For mountain track, see
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A view of
Sprengisandur road with a view of Hofsjökull, in August
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121:Learn how and when to remove this message
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320:Herðubreið
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208:"Sand" or
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