Editing Saimaa (section)

==History==
[[Image:GreaterSaimaa.gif|left|thumb|200px|Saimaa highlighted on a satellite photo, Gulf of Finland at the bottom, [[Lake Ladoga]] on the right. The black line is the Russo-Finnish border.]]
The lake was formed by [[Glacier|glacial]] melting at the end of the [[Last Glacial Period|Ice Age]]. Major [[town]]s on the lakeshore include [[Lappeenranta]], [[Imatra]], [[Savonlinna]], [[Mikkeli]], [[Varkaus]], and [[Joensuu]]. About 6,000 years ago, ancient Lake Saimaa, estimated to cover nearly {{cvt|9000|km2|||}} at the time, was abruptly discharged through a new outlet. The event created thousands of square kilometres of new residual wetlands.<ref>Markku Oinonen et al. (2014) Event reconstruction through Bayesian chronology: Massive mid-Holocene lake-burst triggered large-scale ecological and cultural change; url=http://hol.sagepub.com/content/24/11/1419.abstract</ref> Following this event, the region saw a population maximum in the decades following only to later return to an ecological development towards old boreal conifer forests which saw a decline in population.{{cn|date=June 2023}}