Aavasaksa

Aavasaksa is a 242-metre granite hill in Finnish Lapland, lying just south of the Arctic Circle and part of a UNESCO World Heritage site. Its position made it the site of the famous Lapland Expedition of 1736–37, in which French mathematician Pierre Louis Maupertuis measured a degree of the meridian arc here to confirm Newton's theory of the Earth's oblate shape. The hill has been a celebrated Midsummer gathering spot ever since: at this latitude the midnight sun barely grazes the horizon without setting, making it a rare spectacle visible from the summit. A marked trail leads to the top, where the Tornionjoki river — the natural border between Finland and Sweden — unrolls beneath a wide northern panorama.