Lake Peipus - WikiHQ

thumb|Drone video of Lake Peipus and the town of [[Mustvee in July 2022]]

Lake Peipus (; , ; or ) is the largest trans-boundary lake in Europe, lying on the international border between Estonia and Russia.

The lake is the fifth-largest in Europe after Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega (in Russia), Lake Vänern (in Sweden), and Lake Saimaa (in Finland).

It covers , and it has an average depth of , the deepest point being . The lake has several islands and consists of three parts:

Lake Peipus (, ), the northern part of the lake, with an area of (73%)
Lake Pskov (, ), the southern part of the lake (area or 20%)
Warm Lake (, ), the sound connecting the other two parts of the lake (area or 7%).

The lake is used for fishing and recreation, but suffered from environmental degradation from Soviet-era agriculture. Some 30 rivers and streams discharge into Lake Peipus, the two largest of which are the Velikaya and Emajõgi. The lake drains into the Gulf of Finland via the Narva River.

On 5 April 1242, the frozen lake was the site of the Battle on the Ice (also known as the Battle of Lake Peipus) between the armies of the Novgorod Republic and the Teutonic Order.

Name

The origin of the name Peipus () is uncertain, although it may be paralleled by Lake Peipiä () and the village of Peipiä () along its shore, and by Peipozero () near Onega Bay. Paul Ariste suggested a pre-Finnic origin of the name, Julius Mägiste suggested a connection with peipo or peippu "chaffinch" (or other songbird) or Votic põippõ "chicken", Lauri Kettunen suggested derivation from a personal name, and suggested a Baltic etymology, comparing it to Latvian piepe and Lithuanian pepis "moisture, mold". The Russian name Chudskoye ozero (Чудское озеро) means "Chud Lake" (i.e., "Estonian Lake"); the ethnonym Chud () referred to various Finnic peoples in what is now Estonia, Karelia, and northwestern Russia. In the Paleozoic Era, 300 to 400 million years ago, the entire territory of the modern Gulf of Finland was covered by a sea. Its modern relief was formed as a result of glacier activities, the last of which, the Weichselian glaciation, ended about 12,000 years ago.

Topography and hydrography

The banks of Lake Peipus have smooth contours and form only one large bay: Raskopelsky Bay. On the northern and northwestern shores of the lake there are sand dunes covered with pine forest and sandy beaches. Along the sandy shores, there is a wide stretch of shallow waters. The low shores of the lake mostly consist of peat and are bordered by vast lowland and marshes, which are flooded in the spring, with the flooding area reaching up to .

{| Class = "wikitable"

|+ Water balance of Lake Peipus

The lake is well-flowing, with the annual inflow of water equal to about half of the total water volume.

Because of the shallow depth, the lake quickly warms and cools. Water temperature reaches in July. The largest are Velikaya and Emajõgi; smaller rivers include Zadubka, Cherma, Gdovka, Kuna, Torokhovka, Remda, Rovya, Zhelcha, Chernaya, Lipenka, Startseva, Borovka, Abija, Obdeh, Piusa, Võhandu, Kodza, Kargaya, Omedu, Tagajõgi and Alajõgi. The lake is drained by only one river, the Narva, into the Baltic Sea.

Flora and fauna

The lake hosts 54 species of coastal aquatic flora, including cane, calamus (Acorus calamus), bulrush, grass rush, lesser bulrush (Typha angustifolia) and water parsnip (Sium latifolium). Floating plants are rare and are of only three types: arrowhead, yellow water-lily and water knotweed. The lake is home to perch, pike-perch, bream, roach, whitefish, smelt, and other species of fish. Lake Peipus is one of the main stopovers for Bewick's swan (Cygnus columbianus). The swans leave their breeding grounds in the Russian Arctic away, and the lake is the first stop for many. Bewick's swans rarely fly more than without feeding, and so they are near the limits of their endurance when they reach the lake.

Ecology

The ecological condition of the lake basin is, in general, satisfactory: the water is mostly grades I and II (clean), and is grade III in some rivers due to the high content of phosphorus. The water condition of the rivers has improved since 2001–2007, but there has been an increase in the population of blue-green algae. The main problem of Lake Peipus is its eutrophication.

PercaFluviatilisMediumSize.JPG|European perch

AbramisBramaCarpBream.JPG|Carp bream

Blausteinsee Tierwelt 03.jpg|Roach

Walleye painting.jpg|Pike-perch

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Economy

The towns standing on the banks are relatively small and include Mustvee (population 1610), Kallaste (population 1260) and Gdov (population 4400). The largest city, Pskov (population 202 000) stands on the Velikaya River, from the lake. The picturesque shores of the lake are a popular destination for tourism and recreation at several tourist camps and sanatoriums.

History

In 1242, the southern part of Lake Peipus was the site of a major historical battle in which the Teutonic Knights were defeated by Novgorod troops led by Alexander Nevsky. The battle is remarkable in that it was mostly fought on the frozen surface of the lake, and it is therefore called the Battle on the Ice.

The largest city on the lake, Pskov, is also one of the oldest cities in Russia, known since at least AD 903 from a record in the Primary Chronicle of the Laurentian Codex. The city had a certain measure of independence even though it was dominated by its neighboursNovgorod, Lithuania and Muscovyand eventually incorporated in the Russian state. Several historical buildings remain in the city, including Mirozhsky Monastery (1156, which contains famous frescoes from the 14th to 17th centuries), Pskov Kremlin (14th to 17th centuries) with five-domed Trinity Cathedral (1682–1699), churches of Ivanovo (until 1243), Snetogorsky Monastery (13th century), Church of Basil (1413), Church of Cosmas and Damian (1462), Church of St. George (1494) and others.

Gdov was founded in 1431 as a fortress and became a city in 1780; the only remains of the historical Gdov Kremlin are three fortress walls. Kallaste was founded in the 18th century by the Old Believers who had fled from the Novgorod area, and there is still a functional Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church in the town. Near Kallaste, there is one of the largest surfacings of Devonian sandstone with a length of and a maximum height of , as well as several caves and one of the largest colonies of swallows in Estonia.

References

External links

360° aerial panorama of Peipus and Piirissaar
Peipsi Infokeskus Estonian tourist information website
Settlements in the vicinity of Lake Peipsi Estonica