Mountain · Lithuania
Aukštojas
Aukštojas is the highest hill in Lithuania, reaching 294 metres in the gentle Medininkai Highlands. It lies south-east of the capital Vilnius, close to the border with Belarus.
Picture credit: Resutas (Public domain) · Aidas U. (CC BY 3.0) · Aidas U. (CC BY 3.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Aukštojas?
Aukštojas is part of the Medininkai Highlands.
You will find it in: Lithuania.
Summit: 54.527° N, 25.626° E
The story behind it
Aukštojas was built by ice: during the last ice age a glacier pushed sand, clay and stones ahead of it and left them behind in a low swell of hills when it melted. The result is a rounded rise among fields, pine woods and small lakes, so soft in shape that from the road it is easy to walk past without noticing it. For a long time people thought the neighbouring hill Juozapinė was the highest place in the country, until careful surveys showed that this one is a little higher, and it was then given the name of an old Baltic sky god. A monument marks the top, and a track leads up through the trees in a few minutes. In winter the slopes are used for sledging, and in autumn families come to gather mushrooms and cranberries in the woods around.
Find it on the globe
Aukštojas is there as a small peak with its own shape — a horn, a ridge, a volcano — standing on the surface. 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.
Questions children ask
How high is Aukštojas?
The hill reaches 294 metres above sea level. That is modest for a country high point, but Lithuania is a land of plains and gentle ridges.
Which country is Aukštojas in?
The hill lies in Lithuania, one of the three Baltic states in northern Europe. It stands about twenty kilometres south-east of Vilnius, near the village of Medininkai.
Can you climb Aukštojas?
Anyone can walk up, and it takes only a few minutes from the small car park below. A short forest path leads to the monument on the top, and the surrounding trees mean the view is limited.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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