Stora Sjöfallet
Encyclopedia
Norrbotten County
Norrbotten County is the northernmost county or län of Sweden. It borders Västerbotten County to the southwest, the Gulf of Bothnia to the southeast. It also borders the counties of Nordland and Troms in Norway to the northwest, and Lapland Province in Finland to the northeast.The name...
in northern Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, in Gällivare Municipality
Gällivare Municipality
Gällivare Municipality is a municipality in Norrbotten County in northern Sweden. Its seat is located in Gällivare.The municipality is the third largest in Sweden, but it has not been amalgamated with other entities....
. It is situated by the Norwegian border. It was declared a national park
National park
A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...
in 1909. The national park is part of the Laponian area
Laponian area
The Laponian area is a large mountainous wildlife area in the Lapland province in Northern Sweden, more precisely in the Gällivare Municipality, Arjeplog Municipality and Jokkmokk Municipality...
which is a UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
. The great waterfalls at the heart of the park were, in historic times, among the most powerful and visually striking in Europe, but relatively soon after the area was given its protected status, the government permitted hydroelectric development of the falls, which deprived the sheer drop of most of its visible water flow except for a few times a year and damaged the shorelines of Akkajaure. Later developments in this part of the park have included a power line, roads and gravel banks. Already in the 1960s the status as national park was questioned due to these severe changes, and the area of the falls, which was the chief reason for setting it aside, today is no longer a part of the national park.
It covers an area of 1,278 km². It is divided in two by the Akkajaure
Akkajaure
Akkajaure is one of the largest reservoirs in Sweden. It lies at the headwaters of the Lule River in Norrbotten County, in Swedish Lappland, within the Stora Sjöfallet national park. The lake formed after the construction of the first Suorva dam in 1913–1923. The rim of the current dam is at...
hydroelectric reservoir. The park's western and northern portions lie in the Scandinavian Mountains
Scandinavian Mountains
The Scandinavian Mountains or the Scandes, in Swedish Skanderna, Fjällen or Kölen , in Finnish Köli and in Norwegian Kjølen, with the three latter meaning The Keel, are a mountain range that runs through the Scandinavian Peninsula...
, featuring several glaciers and some of the highest peaks of the country. The mountain Áhkká
Áhkká
Áhkká , also known in its "Swedified" form Akka, is a massif in the southwestern corner of Stora Sjöfallet National Park in northern Sweden....
, known as the Queen of Lappland, dominates much of the park. The lower hills in the south of the park are covered by forests of fir
Fir
Firs are a genus of 48–55 species of evergreen conifers in the family Pinaceae. They are found through much of North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, occurring in mountains over most of the range...
trees.
External links
- Stora Sjöfallet National Park from the Swedish Environmental Protection AgencySwedish Environmental Protection AgencyThe Swedish Environmental Protection Agency is a Swedish government agency responsible for proposing and implementing environmental policies...