Cape York is a cape

Headland

A headland is a point of land, usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends out into a body of water.Headland can also refer to:*Headlands and bays*headLand, an Australian television series...

 on the northwestern coast of Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...

, in northern Baffin Bay

Baffin Bay

Baffin Bay , located between Baffin Island and the southwest coast of Greenland, is a marginal sea of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is connected to the Atlantic via Davis Strait and the Labrador Sea...

. The cape, located 37 km (23 mi) west-south-west of the Savissivik

Savissivik

Savissivik is a settlement in the Qaasuitsup municipality, in northern Greenland...

 settlement, delimits the northwestern end of Melville Bay

Melville Bay

Melville Bay , is a large bay off the coast of northwestern Greenland. Located to the north of the Upernavik Archipelago, it opens to the south-west into Baffin Bay. Its Kalaallisut name, Qimusseriarsuaq, means "the great dog sledding place"....

, with the other end commonly defined as Wilcox Head

Wilcox Head

Wilcox Head is a cape in the Qaasuitsup municipality in northwestern Greenland.- Geography :The cape is the western promontory on Kiatassuaq Island, delimiting the southern end of Melville Bay, with the other end defined as Cape York, to the northwest, in northern Baffin Bay. An alternative...

, the western promontory on Kiatassuaq Island

Kiatassuaq Island

Kiatassuaq Island is an uninhabited island in the Melville Bay region of the Upernavik Archipelago in the Qaasuitsup municipality in northwestern Greenland.- History :...

.

History

The cape was the one of many places visited in 1894 by Admiral Robert Peary

Robert Peary

Robert Edwin Peary, Sr. was an American explorer who claimed to have been the first person, on April 6, 1909, to reach the geographic North Pole...

 during his second expedition to the Arctic

Arctic

The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...

. Cape York was the site of discovery of the Cape York Meteorite

Cape York meteorite

The Cape York meteorite is named for Cape York, the location of its discovery in Savissivik, Greenland, and is one of the largest iron meteorites in the world.-History:The meteorite collided with Earth nearly 10,000 years ago...

. In the Greenlandic language, the name of the settlement Savissivik means 'place of meteorite iron' (savik = iron/knife), alluding to the numerous meteorite

Meteorite

A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives impact with the Earth's surface. Meteorites can be big or small. Most meteorites derive from small astronomical objects called meteoroids, but they are also sometimes produced by impacts of asteroids...

s from 10.000 years ago that have been found in the area. The meteorite is estimated to have weighed 100 tonnes before it exploded. The iron

Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...

 from the meteorite attracted migrating Inuit

Inuit

The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...

 from Arctic Canada.