Kill Devil Hills is a town in Dare County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 7,633 at the 2020 census, up from 6,683 in 2010. It is the most populous settlement in both Dare County and on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The Kill Devil Hills Micropolitan Statistical Area is part of the larger Virginia Beach-Norfolk, VA-NC Combined Statistical Area.
Kill Devil Hills beach guard tower, north of the Wright Memorial
Panorama of Kill Devil Hills at Night
In 1903 the Wright Brothers flew the first airplane, the Wright Flyer, from land now part of Kill Devil Hills
The Outer Banks are a 200 mi (320 km) string of barrier islands and spits off the coast of North Carolina and southeastern Virginia, on the east coast of the United States. They line most of the North Carolina coastline, separating Currituck Sound, Albemarle Sound, and Pamlico Sound from the Atlantic Ocean. A major tourist destination, the Outer Banks are known for their wide expanse of open beachfront and the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. The seashore and surrounding ecosystem are important biodiversity zones, including beach grasses and shrubland that help maintain the form of the land.
View from the International Space Station in 2019 (north is in the lower left of the photo)
Aerial view of Outer banks (looking north), with sound on the left and ocean on the right
Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum, Hatteras, North Carolina, June 2007