Koli is a hill by the lake

Pielinen Pielinen ( sv, Pielisjärvi) is the fourth largest lake of Finland, with a drainage basin area of equally distributed between eastern Finland and Russia. The creation of the lake and its outlet is attributed to a post-glacial isostatic rebound, w ...

in municipality of

Lieksa Lieksa () is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the North Karelia region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The municipality is unilingually Finnish. ...

in eastern

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 ...

. It mainly consists of white

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tect ...

, and its summit has large treeless areas. Koli village is at the root of the hill, and the area is part of

Koli National Park Koli National Park ( fi, Kolin kansallispuisto) is a national park in the municipalities of Joensuu, Lieksa and Kontiolahti in the North Karelia region of Finland. It covers of forested hills on the western shore of Lake Pielinen. The park wa ...

Description

Predecessor of the Koli fells, the Karelian fold mountains, or

Karelides The Karelides are an ancient mountain chain located between Eastern Finland and Lapland. It forms the current hill zone of Eastern Finland and Lapland's arctic hills, splitting central Finland. The Karelides formed about 2000 million years ago, wh ...

were formed in a crash of tectonic plates about 1800 million years ago, an old plate sunk down towards the core of the Earth and a younger plate pushed upwards. From the younger plate arose the five-kilometre-high peaked mountains known as Karelides. Over the millions of years, however, the high mountains eroded and only Koli remains. Koli's cliffs have received their characteristic smooth, rounded shape during the ice age. The continental ice has also collected moraines to eskers, moved huge boulders and created boulder caves and rocks with ripple marks in the area. The summits are called Ukko-Koli (347 m), Akka-Koli (339 m), Paha-Koli (334 m) and Pieni-Koli (238 m). (Names refer to the God of Sky,

Ukko Ukko (), Äijä or Äijö ( Finnish for 'male grandparent', 'grandfather', 'old man'), parallel to Uku in Estonian mythology, is the god of the sky, weather, harvest and thunder in Finnish mythology. Ukkonen, the Finnish word for thunder, ...

, the Female Spirit

Akka Akka or AKKA may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Akka'' (film), a 1976 Indian Tamil film * ''Akka'' (TV series), a 2014–2015 Indian Tamil soap opera * Akka, a character in the children's novel ''The Wonderful Adventures of Nils'' by Selma ...

, the Evil Spirit and the Little hill, respectively) Koli has inspired many painters and composers, e.g.

Jean Sibelius Jean Sibelius ( ; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and 20th-century classical music, early-modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest com ...

Juhani Aho Juhani Aho, originally Johannes Brofeldt (11 September 1861 – 8 August 1921), was a Finnish author and journalist. He was nominated for the Nobel prize in literature twelve times. Early life Juhani Aho was born at Lapinlahti in 1861. His pa ...

and

Eero Järnefelt Erik "Eero" Nikolai Järnefelt (8 November 1863 – 15 November 1937) was a Finnish painter and art professor. He is best known for his portraits and landscapes of the area around Koli National Park. He was a medal winner at the Paris ''Expositi ...

. Eero Järnefelt painted a large scene together with

Alfred William Finch Alfred William (Willy) Finch (1854 –1930) was a ceramist and painter in the pointillist and Neo-Impressionist style. Born in Brussels to British parents, he spent most of his creative life in Finland. Life and work Alfred William Finch ...

and

Ilmari Aalto Ilmari Aalto (August 7, 1891 – 29 September 1934) was a Finnish painter. He was a member of the expressionist November Group led by the artist Tyko Sallinen. Aalto painted still lives, landscapes and portraits. Life Aalto was born in Kuopi ...

in 1911, which can be seen in the Helsinki railway station restaurant. Painters discovered Koli in the 19th century and it has been called one of the national sceneries of Finland.

Gallery

References

{{Reflist Lieksa Landforms of North Karelia