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Alaska is a land of superlatives the biggest this, highest that and most of these. Whether it's a world-record 97-pound, 4-ounce king salmon or a massive 20,320-foot-tall mountain (Mount McKinley), Alaska is all about unique, amazing sights
Alaska is a sparsely populated state in the United States of America, in the northwest of the North American continent. It is the largest U.S. state by area (by a substantial margin), and one of the wealthiest
The name "Alaska" was already introduced in the Russian colonial time, when it was only used for the peninsula and is derived from the Aleut alaxsxaq, meaning "the mainland," or more literally, "the object towards which the action of the sea is directed." It is also known as Alyeska, the "great land", an Aleut word derived from the same root.
"Alaska" came from an Aleut word for "great land," though some believe the Aleut word meant "mainland," referred to it by those residing on the Alaska Peninsula. Scientist and surveyor William Healey Dall wrote in 1870: "This name, now applied to the whole of our new territory, is a corruption, very far removed from the original word . . . called by the natives Al-ak-shak or Al-ay-ek-sa. From Alayeksa the name became Alaksa, Alashka, Aliaska, and finally Alaska. We have, then Alaska for the territory, Aliaska for the peninsula."
Alaska today refers to the entire state as well as the Peninsula. "Alyeska" is still around, though, as the name of a ski resort in Girdwood, as well as the name of the Anchorage consortium overseeing the trans-Alaska pipeline company.
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