Lake Onega

The second largest lake in Europe

The Onega (Russian Онежское озеро, Oneschskoje Ozero, Oniegu Karelian, Finnish Ääninen or Äänisjärvi ) is the second largest lake in Europe. It is located in north-western Russia, mostly in the Republic of Karelia.

Its area is 9720 km ², it is 250 km long and 91.6 km wide. During its surface lies at an altitude of 33 m, its maximum depth is 127 m. In the lake there are numerous islands, including the island of Kizhi, with its famous, recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site Church.

The lake is geologically very young. He was, like almost all lakes in northern Europe, through the ausschürfende activity of the glacial ice sheet. Only at the end of the most recent - the Weichsel ice age about 11,000 years ago - the ausgeschürfte basin filled with the melt-back of ice with water.

His only outlet, the short river Svir, connects it to the Lake Ladoga and further over the Neva and Saint Petersburg with the Baltic Sea. About canals and rivers, such as the White Sea - Baltic Canal or the running partly through the lake Volga-Baltic channel is the Lake Onega to the White Sea, via the Volga and the Caspian Sea and the Volga - Don Canal also connected to the Black Sea.

As early as the Neolithic period the shores of Lake Onega was settled. Economic importance was in the 18th century, the mining of iron ore. The favored by forest wealth pulp industry is still an ecological problem for the lake dar.

The largest city on Lake Onega is Petrozavodsk (Russian Петрозаводск, Karelian and Finnish Petroskoi, Swedish Petroskoj or old Onegaborg ), the capital of the Republic of Karelia; also be Kondopoga and Medvezhyegorsk on its banks.