Thingvellir is the place where the Icelandic government, the Althing, was held from 930 to 1798.
Each year at the end of June, representatives from all districts of the country would travel here and meet to hear the law recited by the lawspeaker. The speakers stood at the edge of the Lögberg cliff, to the north of the lake Thingvallavatn, so they could be heard by the assembly.
Just east of Reykjavik, the site is a plain between high black cliffs. It is a graben, or broad canyon, part of the Great Atlantic rift, sinking gradually as the American and Eurasian tectonic plates drift apart.
Thingvellir is now a national park.