Arsuk is a village in the Sermersooq municipality in southwestern Greenland. It had 156 inhabitants in 2010. The name of the settlement means the beloved place in the Greenlandic language. The village is served by the communal all-purpose Pilersuisoq store.GeographyArsuk is located at the southern end of the Sermersooq municipality, on the coast of Labrador Sea near the mouth of the Arsuk Fjord in the southeast. It is north of Cape Desolation, where the coastline of southwestern Greenland turns to the east approximately 30km to the south of the settlement at the wide mouth of Alanngorsuaq Fjord. The 1418m Kuunnaat mountain rises on the mainland directly to the north of the village.HistoryThe region was first settled by people of the Saqqaq culture arriving from the north. The area was resettled by the Norse between the 10th century and the 14th century. Thule people were the second southbound Inuit migration, to arrive in the region in the 15th century, with the area permanently settled since then.The discovery of cryolite in Ivittuut in the inner parts of Arsuk Fjord attracted the interest of the Danes during the colonial era, leading to the formal foundation of the settlement in 1805. The timber Lutheran church was built in 1830.