Kaali is a village in

Saaremaa Parish Saaremaa Municipality, also known as Saaremaa Rural Municipality ( et, Saaremaa vald), is a municipality in Saare County in western Estonia. It is the largest municipality in Estonia by land area. The administrative centre of the municipality is i ...

Saare County Saare County ( et, Saare maakond or ''Saaremaa''; la, Oesel; german: Ösel; sv, Ösel) is one of 15 counties of Estonia. It consists of Saaremaa, the largest island of Estonia, and several smaller islands near it, most notably Muhu, Ruhnu, Abru ...

in western

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

, from

Kuressaare Kuressaare () is a town on Saaremaa island in Estonia. It is the administrative centre of Saaremaa Parish and the capital of Saare County. Kuressaare is the westernmost town in Estonia. The recorded population on 1 January 2018 was 13,276. Th ...

, the island capital.

Valjala Valjala is a small borough (') in Saare County, Estonia, on the island of Saaremaa. It is the administrative centre of Saaremaa Parish. As of 2011 Census, the settlement's population was 410. The Valjala St. Martin's Church lies in centre of Va ...

, to the north-east, is the nearest town.

Kaali crater

The village is the site of the

Kaali crater Kaali is a group of nine meteorite craters in the village of Kaali on the Estonian island of Saaremaa. Most recent estimates put its formation shortly after 1530–1450 BC (3237+/-10 14C yr BP). It was created by an impact event and is one o ...

, actually a series of craters formed by

meteorite A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the ...

impacts more than 4,000 years ago. The main crater has become well-known and is now a popular tourist destination. Supporting a museum, cafeteria, shop, and hotel,Hotel and Museum joint websit
here
the crater has led to tourism becoming an important part of Kaali's economy.

Facilities

The village is served by a community school. Other local facilities are mostly associated with the tourist destination at the crater, including a cafeteria and hotel. Before the administrative reform in 2017, the village was in

Pihtla Parish Pihtla Parish was a municipality in Saare County, Estonia. The municipality had a population of 1,400 (as of 1 January 2006) and covered an area of 228.11 km². During the administrative-territorial reform in 2017, all 12 municipalities on ...

References

Villages in Saare County {{Saare-geo-stub