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Facts About Halifax

How many of these interesting facts about Halifax do you know?

  • Halifax is home to one of the world's longest downtown boardwalks
  • The 100 Wild Islands is one of the last remaining intact and ecologically rich island groups of its size in North America
  • The Sambro Lighthouse is the oldest functioning lighthouse in North America
  • The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic is the oldest and largest Maritime museum in Canada.
  • The Discovery Centre is the largest science centre in Atlantic Canada and home to Atlantic Canada’s first immersive Dome Theatre
  • The Halifax Citadel National Historic Site has FREE entry for the entire year in celebration of Canada 150
  • The Canadian Museum of Immigration is Atlantic Canada’s only national museum
  • The Halifax Seaport Farmers’ Market is the longest continuously operating farmers’ market in North America.
  • The Halifax Transit Ferry is the oldest salt-water passenger ferry service in North America.
  • The Halifax Public Gardens is one of the finest surviving examples of a Victorian Garden in North America.
  • The Halifax Waterfront is the most visited attraction in Nova Scotia.
  • Murphy’s on the Water offers ways to experience Nova Scotia by land and by sea
  • Peggy’s Cove is one of the most photographed lighthouses in the world
  • Halifax is home to the greatest man made explosion before the atomic bomb - the Halifax Explosion on Dec. 6, 1917
  • Halifax is home to the First Supreme Court in North America (Oct 21, 1754)
  • The Fairview Lawn Cemetery has the world’s largest collective group of graves from the Titanic tragedy

More Halifax Facts:

  • First public school in Canada
  • Canada's first law school and art college
  • First printed book (1752) and first newspaper in Canada (Halifax Gazette)
  • First place of free speech and freedom of the press in the British Commonwealth
  • First all-electric city lights in North America
  • First naval dockyard in North America and largest on the eastern seaboard north of Norfolk, Virginia
  • Oldest intact executive mansion in North America (Government House circa. 1800)
  • First seat of democratic government in Canada (1758)
  • Location of the first official rules for ice hockey

 

 

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Welcome to Halifax

P'jilita'q wla Kjipuktuk

land acknwoledgement logo
Land Acknowledgement

Halifax is in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq people. The people of the Mi’kmaw Nation have lived on this territory for millennia, and we acknowledge them as the past, present and future caretakers of this land.  Historically, a land acknowledgment is a traditional practice shared amongst Indigenous groups to recognize the Indigenous land and territory they are visiting. Today a land acknowledgement remains a way to express one’s gratitude to the Indigenous people for being stewards of the land that we live and work on.