Rivers in Iceland

Drekkingarhylur

Drekkingarhylur is a pool in the Öxará river in Þingvellir National Park where at least 18 women were executed by drowning in the 17th and 18th centuries, on sentences passed at the Alþingi assembly. The name means the Drowning Pool, and the calm, clear water makes that history harder to shake. Most of the women had been convicted of adultery, incest or killing a newborn child. They were tied in a sack and held under the water, while men sentenced at Þingvellir were beheaded or hanged at other spots nearby. The last drownings took place in the middle of the 18th century, and today the pool is one of the most sobering stops in the park. You will find it beside the footbridge where the main path crosses the Öxará, in the heart of the old assembly site. Because the pool sits between Lögberg, the Law Rock, and the trail up to Öxarárfoss waterfall, most people walk past it on a loop through the rift. From the Hakið visitor center at the top of Almannagjá, the walk down takes about 15 to 20 minutes, and the P2 parking lot below Öxarárfoss is closer still. There is no entry fee, but parking in the national park costs 1,000 ISK per day for a car with up to five seats and 1,200 ISK for six to nine seats. Pay at the machines at Hakið, P2 or P5 (Valhöll), or online, and one payment covers all three lots for that day. Þingvellir is about 45 minutes by car from Reykjavík and open all year. The paths can be icy in winter, so bring traction if there is snow, and on summer days the area around Drekkingarhylur is quieter in the early morning or evening than at midday.

Peningagjá

Peningagjá, the "money fissure," is a water-filled crack in Þingvellir National Park, under the little bridge by Þingvellir church, where you can see coins glinting on the bottom. Officially it is part of Nikulásargjá, the eastern branch of a fault that splits opposite the old assembly site. The coins started arriving after the fissure was bridged in 1907, the year King Frederik VIII of Denmark visited Þingvellir. There is no folk tale behind the habit, and the national park presents the coins as a sign of how much the clear groundwater is worth. Please keep yours in your pocket, since metal and litter in the water do the fissure no good. Peningagjá is a five-minute stop rather than an outing in itself. It sits a few steps from Þingvallakirkja, so pair it with the church, Lögberg and the walk up to Almannagjá and Öxarárfoss. Silfra, where the snorkeling and diving tours go in, is also close to the same parking area. Þingvellir is about 45 minutes' drive northeast of Reykjavík on Route 36. The nearest parking lot is P5 at Valhöll, and the park charges 1,000 ISK per day for a car with up to five seats, valid in P1, P2 and P5. Seeing the fissure itself is free at any time of year, though the bridge and paths can be icy in winter.