Estonia's Topography, Nature & Climate

As the other Baltic states, Estonia was almost completely formed by the last ice ages, therefore offering a typical glacial landscape. The country doesn't have mountains but nice, rolling hills, numerous lakes and even more islands and islets. Altogether there are in the 1520 islands in the Baltic Sea belonging to Estonia. The country is bordered by the Baltic Sea in the West (namely the Gulf of Riga) and in the North (Gulf of Finland). The East is dominated by the large Peipsi järv (Lake Peipus). This lake is connected to another large lake - known as the Pskovskoye Osero (Lake Pskov) - by a narrow river. Large stretches of the Estonian-Russian border are marked by those lakes.

Larger hills can only be found in the Southeast, with the Suur Munamagi as the highest summit with a breathtaking, oxygen-demanding altitude of 318 m. Same as Finland, wide parts of the Northwest coast are characterized by islands and countless bays. West of the mainland, the large islands Saaremaa saar (also:Ösel Island) and the smaller Hiiumaa saar (aka Dagö) are worth mentioning.

It goes without saying that Estonias climate is rather maritime. This means that the summer is not very long and rather cool, the winter is not so long either and rather mild - considering the longitude. Mild still means that there are only very few days above freezing point between the end of November and February. Precipitation is highest in summer, but the annual precipitation is around 500 mm only.