Alaska was "Alyeska," meaning the great land. Visitors Nowadays are likely to agree that alaska is truly one of the world's special places. visitors can't help marveling at the exotic wildlife, magnificent mountains, glacier-carved valleys and steep, rocky coastline.The town of Barrow is 2,575 km north of Ketchikan, while Attu lies almost 3,220 km west of Anchorage. Acreage aside, Alaska is large in lots of other ways: It has the tallest mountains, biggest glaciers, best fishing and wildest wilderness on the continent.