The Pingo Canadian Landmark protects a unique arctic landform: ice-cored hills called pingos.

Rising out of the flat tundra, pingos provide a distinctive backdrop to the community of Tuktoyaktuk. (Tuktoyaktuk is commonly referred to simply by its first syllable, Tuk.)

The Pingo Canadian Landmark features 8 of the 1350 pingos found in the region, including Ibyuk Pingo. Ibyuk is Canada’s tallest and the world’s second-tallest pingo. It reaches 49 metres in height and stretches 300 metres across its base.

Photo: in the Mackenzie Delta (near Tuktoyaktuk). Lorenz King, August 8, 1987. Wikimedia Commons

For centuries, pingos have acted as navigational aids for Inuvialuit travelling by land and water.

Photo: spectacularnwt.com