The Ice Age Centre () is a museum dedicated to the understanding of

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

s, located in

Äksi Äksi is a small borough ( et, alevik) in Tartu Parish, Tartu County in Estonia. It is located on the southern shore of Lake Saadjärv, and has a population of 477 (as of 1 January 2010). The Ice Age Centre, a museum about the latest ice age ...

village,

Tartu Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of ...

County, Estonia. The museum popularises knowledge about the origins and dynamics of different ice ages, including their effect on the landscape, animal life, and humans, with a special focus on the impact of the latest ice age on what is today

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 ...

. The centre was awarded the Best New Tourist Venue in Estonia in 2012.

About the Centre

Location

The centre is in Aksi village, on the shores of Lake Saadjärv, in Tartu county, a two-hour drive from

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

, Estonia's capital. Located on the property is a lake, small zoo and an amusement park located nearby. One of the

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...

"Yellow Windows" is situated near the Ice Age Centre, emphasizing the importance of this region for tourists to discover Southern Estonia. The area is known for the ice age and Estonian

Kalevi Kalevi may refer to * Kalevi (mythology), an ancient Finnish and Estonian ruler, known from the Finnish epic Kalevala and Estonian epic Kalevipoeg. * Kalevi, Estonia Kalevi is a village in Rapla Parish, Rapla County in northwestern Estonia ...

poeg legends.

Exhibitions

The Ice Age Centre is an interactive exhibition, exploiting three floors of educational entertainment. It's generally geared towards children, but there are activities for visitors of all ages. On the first floor, visitors will learn about the ice ages and the animals that lived then, including the woolly

mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks and, ...

. Entering the exhibition hall, the visitor first sees the ice age mammoth. Around the mammoths is a diorama, a piece of nature in which they once lived. Such a community formed in Estonia after the melting of glaciers. Here visitors can get acquainted with life-size prehistoric animals and experience an experiential overview of how the world and Estonian nature have developed over the millennia. You will also learn how humans adapted during ice ages. Children will have the opportunity to experiment with ice, including a playground that is designed as an ice age cave. The second floor explores the impact of ice ages on Estonian landscapes, including their traces in folktales. Here the visitor be introduced to the history of Estonian nature and human settlement after the last ice age. Central to this post-glacial history of nature are the research stories of scientists, whose "storytelling" helps the visitor to read and understand the signs in natural landscapes and heritage culture. The third floor hypothesises about the future - will there be another ice age? Are humans contributing to it through the

impact of climate change The effects of climate change impact the physical environment, ecosystems and human societies. The environmental effects of climate change are broad and far-reaching. They affect the water cycle, oceans, sea and land ice (glaciers), sea level ...

? What is the attendee's ecological footprint? They will also meet a life-size polar bear, Franz.

Educational Programs

Environmental study programs are offered from kindergarten groups to high school graduates. Giving visitors first hand experience surveys of Saadjärv take place (on a raft in summer, on ice in winter), invertebrates are caught and identified, and many other interesting and educational activities are done both outdoors and indoors. Curricula for kindergarten and first grade school focus on play. For example: *familiarity with landforms ("How did the toboggan run?"), *observe the adaptations of the animals to the weather, *get to know the three states of water, animals and their habitats, *get to know the animals that lived in the ice age and compare them with modern animals ("Is a mammoth a furry elephant?"). For older students, the focus is on active learning, which covers the following topics: *"

Ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

- an integral part of Earth's development" (glacier formation, land development history, ice age biota and human life), *"The story of Estonian nature - post-ice age biota development" (climate change, climate periods), *"Heritage of

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

s on the surface of Estonia" (leading boulders, landforms), *"Post-Ice Age Nature and Man in Estonia" (climate change in Estonian areas and nature, adaptation of organisms, formation of human settlements), *"Do you know

Vooremaa Vooremaa ("Drumlin Land" in Estonian language, Estonian; also Saadjärv Drumlin Field) is a landscape region mostly in Jõgeva County, Estonia. It consists of drumlins and Depression (geology), depressions that were formed by Glacier ice accumu ...

?" (landforms, environment, one of the most representative networks in Europe, positioning).

Other Activities

The centre also offers raft trips on Lake Saadjärv. The raft is operated by guides who tell stories about the nature of Lake Saadjärv, the formation of Vooremaa and about the great deeds of the national hero

Kalevipoeg ''Kalevipoeg'' (, ''Kalev's Son'') is a 19th century epic poem by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald which has since been considered the Estonian national epic. Origins In pre-Christian ancient Estonia there existed an oral tradition of legends e ...

. Using

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), educ ...

goggles, visitors can dive into the "Mystical Primitive Sea," of hundreds of millions of years ago and experience the life that once inhabited Estonian territories, such as giant reptiles, vigorous trilobites, giant predators, sea scorpions and

nautiloid Nautiloids are a group of marine cephalopods ( Mollusca) which originated in the Late Cambrian and are represented today by the living ''Nautilus'' and ''Allonautilus''. Fossil nautiloids are diverse and speciose, with over 2,500 recorded species ...

s. There is also an educational Christmas program about the life of animals in the winter and, of course, Santa Claus. Other special events (conferences, birthdays) can be organized by arrangement.

History

In 2004, the idea to create a visitor center in Tartu municipality near Saadjärv, which would attract visitors to the area, but would also be a provider of nature education. The idea emanated from the Saadjärv Nature School and its then-director, Asta Tuusti. "The exhibition introduces ice ages in the context of world history, the heritage of glaciers in our landscapes and wildlife, and introduces future prospects in the context of climate change," explained Tuusti. "Äksi is a very suitable place for the ice age center. The surrounding landscape with its rounds, lakes and rocks is a legacy of ice age glaciers." Tartu rural community and mayor, Aivar Soop, supported the concept and, with community cooperation, the exposition was created, introducing the ice ages in the context of world history, glacier heritage in Estonian landscapes and wildlife, and future prospects in the context of climate change. "It is unique that one local government undertakes to establish such a large and special nature education center," said Tuusti. The entire region benefits from the thousands of tourists who visit the Centre each year. The Centre cost about 4 million euros, some of which was a grant from the

European Regional Development Fund The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is one of the European Structural and Investment Funds allocated by the European Union. Its purpose is to transfer money from richer regions (not countries), and invest it in the infrastructure and se ...