Photo by B. Thompson

As capital cities go, few can compare with Yellowknife, an amazing metropolis in the middle of Canada's Far North.

Culturally diverse and loaded with history, Yellowknife lies on the beautiful northern shores of Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories.

Yellowknife has coffee shops, a movie theatre, shopping malls, an Olympic sized hockey rink, and many of the same goods and services found everywhere else in Canada.

Rich in mining history, this city of 20,000 was built on gold, but has now proudly become the Diamond Capital of North America.

Until the mid 1990s, it was said the gold in Yellowknife was paved with streets. With the gold mines empty now, diamonds have injected new life and new money into the region.

Its industries also include prospecting, transportation, and tourism. This gateway to the Arctic, located 1,500 km north of Edmonton, Alberta.

For more information about the City of Yellowknife, click here.