South Karelia - Imatra and Lappeenranta region

South Karelia is a border province in the southeast corner of Finland, between the Saimaa lake district and Russia. It has for centuries been part of the old, historical Karelia - a borderland between the cultures of East and West.

As a province South Karelia is young, for it only aquired its present borders under the post-war treaty in the 1940's, but the first settlers came to the area thousands of years ago. Today South Karelia is a province of great diversity: an expanding economy, giant wood-processing mills, white steamers, the Imatrankoski Rapids, rare seals and flowers, spectrolite, moraine ridges and verdant groves.