The

border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

between

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

and

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

is long. It is a land and river border between two

tripoint A tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints as of 2020. Nearly half are situated in rivers, l ...

s. The western tripoint is marked by

Treriksröset The Three-Country Cairn ( fi, Kolmen valtakunnan rajapyykki, se, Golmma riikka urna, no, Treriksrøysa, sv, Treriksröset) is the point at which the international borders of Sweden, Norway and Finland meet, and the name of the monument that ...

, a concrete cairn where both countries border Sweden. The eastern tripoint is marked by Treriksrøysa, a stone cairn where both countries border

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. The border was defined in a treaty from 1751, but was then a part of the border between the Kingdom of Sweden, ruling Finland, and Denmark-Norway. In the period 1738-1751 there were field investigations and negotiations on the border, although the Finnish part needed less negotiation. Cairns were erected after that with the last one at

Nesseby or (also unofficially ''Uuniemi'' in Kven) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Varangerbotn. Other villages in Nesseby include Gandvik, Karlebotn, Nesseby ...

in 1766. After Finland became the

Grand Duchy of Finland The Grand Duchy of Finland ( fi, Suomen suuriruhtinaskunta; sv, Storfurstendömet Finland; russian: Великое княжество Финляндское, , all of which literally translate as Grand Principality of Finland) was the predecess ...

, a Grand Duchy of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, and the independent Kingdom of Norway was evoked into but in personal union with Sweden under the Swedish King, a treaty was again negotiated in 1816 with Russia. Defining the easternmost part of the borderzone. Between 1920 and 1944, the Petsamo area belonged to Finland, so the Finland–Norway border extended along the present

Norway–Russia border The border between Norway and Russia ( no, Russergrensen / Russergrensa, russian: Российско-норвежская граница, ''Rossiysko-Norvezhskaya Granitsa'') consists of a land border between Sør-Varanger, Norway, and Pech ...

to the ocean. The 1751 treaty also granted the Sami people the right to cross the border freely, including their

reindeer Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 sub ...

, as they always had done. In 1852, the border of Norway–Finland/Russia was closed, causing trouble for the Sami, who needed the Finnish forests for reindeer winter grazing. The Finland–Norway border is open as both countries are part of the Schengen Area. It is legal to cross the border anywhere if no customs declaration or passport check is needed. A treaty gives the customs officers of one country the right to carry out clearance and checks for both countries. There is an wide clear-cut zone along the land border in forest areas. Almost half of the border follows the rivers

Anarjohka Anarjohka ( se, Anárjohka, no, Anarjokka or ''Anarjohka'', fi, Inarijoki, sv, Enare älv) is a tributary of Tana River. It is about long, with a drainage area of about .Tana Tana may refer to: Places Africa * Lake Tana, a lake in Ethiopia (and a source of the Nile River) * Tana Qirqos, an island in the eastern part of Lake Tana in Ethiopia, near the mouth of the Gumara River * Tana River County, a county of Coast P ...

. A fairly large share of the western part of the border goes over treeless mountains. There are 57 original cairns north of Treriksröset from until 1766, numbered 293-342 west of Anarjohka river and 343-349 east of Tana river. Later further cairns numbered 343–353 against Finland were erected east of Nesseby, and cairns in between the originals with a letter after the number. The extreme eastern end of Norway (containing the town of Kirkenes) actually reaches east of Finland, located between Finland and Russia. Since Norway uses

Central European Time Central European Time (CET) is a standard time which is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The time offset from UTC can be written as UTC+01:00. It is used in most parts of Europe and in a few North African countries. CET ...

and Finland uses

Eastern European Time Eastern European Time (EET) is one of the names of UTC+02:00 time zone, 2 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. The zone uses daylight saving time, so that it uses UTC+03:00 during the summer. A number of African countries use UTC ...

, the time zone on the east side of the border is one hour behind the time zone on the west side.

List of road border crossings

From east to west: * Neiden (road 92), N * Polmak (road 970/895), N * Utsjoki (road E75), F * Karigasniemi (road 92), F * Kivilompolo (road E45), F * Helligskogen (road E8), N :N = customs station on the Norwegian side :F = customs station on the Finnish side All road crossings on this border have customs stations.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Finland-Norway border European Union external borders 1751 establishments in Finland 1751 establishments in Norway 1751 in international relations

Borders of Norway International borders

List of road border crossings

See also

References