Höytiäinen

Historic lowering of the lake

The Höytiäinen is a lake in the Finnish countryside of northern Karelia.

It lies north of the Pyhäselkä, the north-eastern of the Saimaa Lake, in the communities Polvijärvi and Kontiolahti. With a water area of ​​282.64 km ² it is one of the 20 largest lakes in Finland. The lake lies at an altitude of 87.3 m and has a maximum water depth of 59 m.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the lake had an area of ​​400 km ² and was 9.6 m higher than today. It was then planned to win by controlled lowering of the water level new agricultural land. On August 4, 1859 came to an uncontrolled flooding of the effluent waters situated. The volume of effluent poured over the Höytiäisen channel in the neighboring lake Pyhäselkä was about 5000 m³ / s The water level of Pyhäselkä increased temporarily by 2 m. Within the following weeks, the water level of Höytiäinen fell by 7 m. The following year, more water was drained, so that the lake reached its present state and lost a total of about 157 km ² in area.