Lake Traffic
Lake Saimaa and Lake Pielinen
Lake Saimaa, the largest body of water in eastern Finland is connected by canal to Vyborg in Russia. The principle harbours are Kuopio, Mikkeli, Varkaus, Savonlinna and Lappeenranta, although most smaller towns have harbours, too. Lake Pielinen in North Karelia is also linked to the Saimaa waterway. Its main harbours are in Lieksa (Koli), Nurmes and Joensuu.
Lake Saimaa (76 m a.s.l.) is a vast body of water comprising numerous chains of lakes with many stretches of open water and maze of smaller lakes. Its total area of 4460 km² makes Greater Saimaa Finland's largest lake. There are more than 2000 km of marked routes. The shoreline is 13 700 km long and one of the most fascinating archipelagoes with over 76 000 islands. At its deepest, it is 82 m, but the average depth is 17 m. Lappeenranta on Lake Saimaa is the starting point of the Saimaa canal, which runs from Finland to Russia, connecting the waters of Saimaa with the Gulf of Finland at Vyborg. The total length of the canal is 43 km, with 23.3 km in Finland and 19.6 km in Russia. Three of the canal's locks are in Finland. Visitors have a choice of cruises from Lappeenranta to the Finnish locks plus longer, one-day cruises to Vyborg.
Lake Pielinen, the fifth largest lake in Finland, is 100 km long, up to 35 km wide and 10 m deep on average. It has more than, 1000 islands. Cruising waters include the Pielisjoki, which at 67 km is Finland's seventh longest river. It has a height difference of around 20 m and an average flow rate of 240³/s.
Lakes Päijänne and Keitele
These two lakes make up the lake district of Central Finland, with extensive waters surrounding the towns of Jyväskylä, Lahti and Heinola. A canal links the lakes Päijänne and Keitele, forming a waterway several hundreds of kilometres long.
Lake Päijänne, Finland's second largest lake covers a total area of 1090 km². It is 120 km long and up to 30 km wide. It has a maximum depth of 104 m.
Lake Keitele, the seventh largest lake in Finland, is 86 km long, up to 10 km wide and 64 m deep. It covers 450 km² and has 1000 km of shoreline.
The Keitele-Päijänne canal: Completed in 1993, the canal connects the two lakes, thus forming a waterway 450 km long. The 40-km canal has five locks and a total height difference of 40 m. Based in Jyväskylä, the recently built 200-passenger Suomen Suvi serves cruise traffic.
Lakes Pyhäjärvi - Näsijärvi and Vanajavesi
The three of the country's big lakes - Pyhäjärvi, Näsijärvi and Vanajavesi are situated by the major towns in this region Tampere, Hämeenlinna and Virrat.
Pyhäjärvi is a lake in southern Finland. Although the name means in modern Finnish "holy lake", it probably meant originally "border lake". Pyhäjärvi is shaped like the letter "C" with the cities of Tampere and Nokia on the northern end, and Hämeenlinna at the southern. The lake is fed by the water running through the Tammerkoski rapids in the center of the city of Tampere. Because of the rapids, the water in Pyhäjärvi is warmer and richer in ozone than that in the northern lake Näsijärvi.
- 40 km long, 3 km wide, up to 50 m deep (There are number of other Pyhäjärvis in Finland.)
Näsijärvi is the biggest lake in the Tampere area. It is 257 km² in size. The city of Tampere is located between lakes Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi and there is a rapid flow of water through the city from lake Näsijärvi. The water quality of the lake has improved as forest industry has decreased the amount of waste water. There are excellent boat cruising services on lake Näsijärvi.
- 40 km long, 63 m at its deepest. The Murole canal lies at the northern end of the lake.
The third of the big lakes of Western Lake District is Vanajavesi. Hämeenlinna (Häme Castle) is located on Vanajavesi in the city of Hämeenlinna.
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