Friday, 22 January 2010

Sanjay is off to Kiruna today!


Sanjay is off to Kiruna which is north of the Arctic Circle for the weekend. I'm sure he'll have a nice time unwinding from work. have fun bro!

Kiruna is located in the north of Sweden, 145 kilometers north of the Arctic circle. The city centre is built on the Haukavaara hill at an altitude of 530m, high above the Torne river to the north and the Kalix river to the south. Other parts of the town are Lombolo and Tuolluvaara. Near Kiruna are the mountainsKiirunavaara and Luossavaara. Kiirunavaara is an iron ore mine that is the town's primary economic resource. Luossavaara is a former mine and now used as a skiing slope.
The city is built near the lake Luossajärvi with outflow to the Luossajoki that flows in the Torne river at Laxforsen. The area around Kiruna is very sparsely populated. The northwest, west and southwest of Kiruna are dominated by the Scandinavian mountains, visible from the city centre. Swedens highest mountain, Kebnekaise, is 75 km from the city centre and can be seen from it as well. To the west isNikkaluokta and to the northwest are AbiskoBjörklidenRiksgränsen and the Norwegian town of Narvik, 180 km via the road. 12 km north of Kiruna is Kurravaara, on the edge of the Torne River. The land north of Kurravaara is roadless, uninhabited land, partly barren and partly birch forest, up to the Norwegian and Finnish borders at Treriksröset. The lower-lying east is dominated by boreal forest, stretching hundreds (if not thousands) of kilometers into Finland and Russia. Around 15 km east of Kiruna is a group of villages at the Torne River, most notably Jukkasjärvi, where an ice hotel is built in winter, attracting tourists from all over the world. The twin cities Gällivare andMalmberget are some 120 km south of Kiruna.
Kiruna became a Swedish city on January 1, 1948, and was at one time listed as the largest city in the world by area,[3] even if most of its territory of course was non-urban. After the Swedish municipality reform in the 1970s, the term "city" has been legally discontinued. Today only the built-up area is considered a de facto city.
Being located 145 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, Kiruna has a Sub-Arctic climate with short, cool summers and long, cold winters, although the city itself can be considerably milder than the surrounding forest. Snowcover generally lasts from mid-October to mid-May, but snowfall can occur year-round. The sun doesn't set between May 30 and July 15, and perpetual daylight lasts from early May to early August. The period that the sun doesn't rise lasts from early December to early January, the exact boundaries depending on local topography. In this time of the year, a few hours of twilight are the only daylight available.

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