Geography
of Sweden
Sweden
is located in the northern part of Europe on the Scandinavian
Peninsula between the mountains in the north and the seas
to the south. The Scandinavian Mountains in the north form
the border between Norway and Sweden. Sweden has a lot of
space with almost 450,000 square kilometres. The shape of
Sweden is long and narrow, measuring about 1,600 km (995 miles)
long and about 500 km (310 km) wide. Sweden has 1600 km of
coastline and contains many islands.
More than
half of the country is forested with thick woods. The forests
consist of many spruce, fir and pine trees and in the south
there is also beech, elm, maple, and oak trees. Sweden is
rich in minerals and has many rivers and almost 100,000 lakes.
Regions
The south of Sweden is called Götaland. Götaland
contains plains with rich soil and good farmland.
Central
Sweden consists of plains, hills and forests and is also good
for farming. There are many lakes in central Sweden. The largest
lake is Lake Vänern. This region is called Svealand.
Northern
Sweden is called Norrland. This area is rich with dense forests,
waterfalls and reindeer. This is where you will see the midnight
sun (the summer has nearly 24 hours of daylight), the northern
lights and lots of rivers, lakes and snow. Norrland covers
about half of Sweden.
Climate
The climate of Sweden varies from the north to the south.
The north has cool summers with cold, snowy winters. The south
of Sweden has warm sunny summers with lots of rain. The winters
are much more mild in the south than in the north.
Animals
and Fish
There are many animals in Sweden such as bears, lynx, reindeer,
moose, owls, deer, foxes and hare. Because of the amount of
water in and around Sweden there is also a lot of fish including
herring, salmon, perch, carp and pike.
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