Lake Girvas

Fresh Lake Girvas lies in the southwest of the Kola Peninsula east of the Russian-Finnish border, at an altitude of more than a hundred meters above sea level. Girvas is part of the Barents Sea basin and is connected with it by the river of the same name.

The lake lies in a swampy, sometimes hilly area. Local hills reach 250 meters. height. One of the largest hills is Mount Kundas. The lake is adjacent to marshy terrain and pine-birch forests, the height of trees in which reaches 17 meters.

The area of Girvas is 17 km2, which makes it the 39th largest lake in the Murmansk region.

The lake has an uneven shape, stretched from west to east. In its basin there are many nameless gentle peninsulas and islands, capes and bays, the largest of which are Fadeev Bay and Bear Bay with a length of 800 meters.

From the nearby hills in the lake drain picturesque streams. Around Girvas there are many small lakes - Saptozero, Lake Long, Upper and Lower, Waterzero.

Several barracks have been built on the northern shores, from which the winter runs to Mount Kundas.

The name of the lake comes from the Pomeranian word "hirvas" - male deer. The indigenous Sami have a legend about the origin of the name. The story tells how two hunters, against their father’s advice, killed the leader of a herd of deer. After his death, the animal turned into a huge stone in the middle of the lake.