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Kebnekaise

Smygehuk

Stora Drammen

Kataja

Treriksröset

Vattenriket

Extreme points of Sweden

The extreme points of Sweden include the coordinates that are farthest north, south, east and west in Sweden, and the ones that are at the highest and the lowest elevations in the country. The northern-most point in Sweden is Treriksröset, where the borders of Sweden, Norway, and Finland meet. The southern-most point is Smygehuk; the western-most is Stora Drammen, and the eastern-most is Kataja. The highest point in Sweden is Kebnekaise at 2,104 metres (6,903 ft). The lowest point is in the Kristianstads Vattenrike Biosphere Reserve, and it is 2.41 metres (7.91 ft) below sea level.

The latitude and longitude are expressed in decimal degree notation, in which a positive latitude value refers to the northern hemisphere, and a negative value refers to the southern hemisphere. Additionally, a negative elevation value refers to land below sea level. The coordinates used in this article are sourced from Google Earth, which makes use of the World Geodetic System (WGS) 84, a geodetic reference system.

Latitude and longitude

Treriksröset, Sweden's northern-most point

Signpost in the harbour of Smygehuk, Sweden's southern-most point

Sweden's northern-most point is Treriksröset, in the Lapland province,^[1] where the borders of Sweden, Norway, and Finland meet. The closest Swedish city to the area is Kiruna, which is Sweden's northern-most city.^[2] Sweden's southern-most point is in the harbour of the fishing village Smygehuk, near the city of Trelleborg,^[3] which borders the Baltic Sea.^[4] At the pier of the harbour, a signpost displays the exact position of the point, as well as the distance to Treriksröset, Stockholm, Berlin, Paris, and Moscow.^[3]

Sweden's western-most point is on Stora Drammen, an islet in Skagerrack outside the coast of Bohuslän.^[5] Seabirds and harbor seals have colonies on the islet, but it is uninhabited by humans.^[6] Sweden's eastern-most point is on Kataja,^[5] an islet south of Haparanda in the Bothnian Bay.^[7] The islet is divided between Sweden and Finland. The border was established in 1809, after the Finnish War, between what was previously two islets, a Swedish one called Kataja and a smaller Finnish one called Inakari. Since 1809, post-glacial rebound has caused the sea level in the region to drop relative to land level, joining the two islets.^[8] If counting the mainland only, Stensvik in Strömstad is Sweden's western-most point,^[9] and Sundholmen in Haparanda is the eastern-most point.^[10]

Elevation

At 2,104 metres (6,903 ft), Kebnekaise is Sweden's highest point.

The highest point in Sweden is Kebnekaise, which stands at 2,104 metres (6,903 ft). It is in the Scandinavian Mountains chain, in the province of Lapland.^[21][22] The mountain has two peaks, of which the glaciated southern one is the highest at 2,104 metres (6,903 ft).^[21] The northern peak, which stands at 2,096 metres (6,877 ft), is free of ice. Although the south top is traditionally said to be 2,111 metres (6,926 ft) high,^[1] new measurements have shown that the glacier has shrunk; therefore the summit is not as high as earlier.^[21] Other points of comparable height in the vicinity of Kebnekaise include Sarektjåkka at 2,089 metres (6,854 ft), and Kaskasatjåkka at 2,076 metres (6,811 ft).^[5]

Sweden's lowest point, which is 2.41 metres (7.91 ft) below sea level, is in the Kristianstads Vattenrike Biosphere Reserve in the city of Kristianstad.^[1] The point is at the bottom of what was once Nosabyviken, a bay on the lake of Hammarsjön. The bay was drained in the 1860s by John Nun Milner, an engineer, to get more arable land for Kristianstad.^[23]

See also

• Extreme points of Europe
• Extreme points of the world
• Geography of Sweden

Notes

References

• (in Swedish) Almqvist & Wiksells stor-atlas. Stockholm: Liber AB. November 2003. ISBN 9121206805. OCLC 243941349.