Top of Mount Vottovaara in Karelia

Mount Vottovaara is the highest in the Central part of Karelia. Its height reaches 416 meters. From its top, there are beautiful views of the Karelian taiga and lakes. The surface of the mountain is overgrown with heather, in many places there are seids. 

On the south side of the top of Mount Vottovaara there is a famous Amphitheater. Here you can see very picturesque clusters of stones and seids. In the center of the Amphitheater there is a swampy area and the Eye Lake. From there, a path leads to the top of Vottovaara. 

The slope of the mountain that rises from Lake Eye to the top is most densely covered with dead trees. Some of them are without tops, others look like ordinary trees, but they all stand withered and without bark. This is a unique feature of the trees on Mount Vottovaara. At first, they grow like ordinary trees, but then the trunk begins to rotate around its axis, and the bark of the trees falls off. Therefore, the tree dies. 

The very top of Mount Vottovaara is a vast flat space. Here you can see a lot of seids. The weight of some of them reaches several tens of tons. They are standing on the ground. There are footstones at the bottom, but perhaps this is the result of the glacier`s activity. 

In some places, there are mazes on large slabs, lined with stones nowadays. Followers of occult practices come here, who conduct their rites on the top of Vottovaara.