Saimaa

Where is Saimaa?

Countries on its shores: Finland.

Largest lake of: Finland.

Middle of the lake: 61.25° N, 28.25° E

The story behind it

Saimaa is not one round lake but a whole system of lakes, bays and narrow channels joined together. It has 13 710 islands, and if you walked along all its shores, you would cover about 14 850 km! It is the fourth-largest natural freshwater lake in Europe. Its size depends on which side lakes are counted, so books give between about 4 280 and 4 400 km². Saimaa is Finland's biggest lake, and it hides a special animal: the Saimaa ringed seal, a seal that lives only here. In 2025 there were about 530 of them. The mothers raise their pups in snow caves, and in mild winters volunteers pile up snowdrifts to help them. In the town of Savonlinna, the old castle of Olavinlinna stands by the water. The water leaves the lake through the Vuoksi River and flows to Lake Ladoga in Russia.

Find it on the globe

Saimaa is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.