The Pajtas-vaara point is located on Mount TYNNYRILAKI at an altitude of 445 meters above sea level and is the highest point in the Pingisvaara mountainous area. The slopes of the mountain are covered with birch trees. It is situated approximately 30 km southeast of Karesuando and east of road number 99. After driving about seven kilometers on gravel roads, there is a parking lot at the northern foot of the mountain, from where you can walk one kilometer on foot. From the summit, there is a wide panorama of most parts of Finland, as well as the western flatlands of Sweden.
The name comes from the Swedish word “tunna,” meaning “barrel,” because barrels were used as optical signals during measurements. The mountain received its name during the geodetic work of Selander and Skogman in the mid-19th century. The working group signaled to each other between measurement points by raising a barrel on a tall pole. The barrel was large enough to be seen from nearby mountains. At some distance below the summit, near the trail, there is a wind shelter and a fire pit. You will also find posts on the ground that mark the sight lines to other measurement points closest to Tynnyrilaki. No traces remain marking the results of Selander and Skogman’s survey. However, at the summit of Tynnyrilakis, there is a stone with an engraved cross, which may be a mark indicating the approximate location of the main point.
The Struve Geodetic Arc, once known as the “Russian” and later the “Russian-Scandinavian Meridian Arc,” is one of UNESCO’s World Heritage monuments. The arc consists of 265 triangulation points, where measurements were conducted from 1816 to 1852 that allowed the precise determination of the Earth’s size and shape.
The reference points of this triangulation network were marked on the ground in various ways: hollows carved into rocks, iron crosses, stone pyramids, or specially installed obelisks. Often they were marked with sandstone bricks placed at the bottom of a pit; sometimes it was a granite cube with a cavity filled with lead, placed in a pit with cobblestones.
During the eight-year project to include the Struve Arc in the UNESCO list, special search and geodetic work was undertaken in each country to locate the original points. All information from all the Struve Arc countries was collected, structured, and standardized.
Not all of the original points were found during the special search and geodetic work carried out in recent years with active cooperation from scientists of the interested countries, and many of them were found to be heavily damaged. Therefore, only the best-preserved points—34 in total—were included in the World Heritage site.
Sources:
http://www.gototrip.com/publications/geodezicheskaya-duga-struve
https://www.lansstyrelsen.se/norrbotten/besoksmal/varldsarv/struves-meridianbage/tynnyrilaki-matpunkt.html?sv.target=12.382c024b1800285d5863a897&sv.12.382c024b1800285d5863a897.route=/&searchString=&counties=&municipalities=&reserveTypes=&natureTypes=&accessibility=&facilities=&sort=none
https://ohdarling.org/struves-meridianbage-en-promenad-uppfor-tynnyrilaki/
