Much of the geography of Finland is explained by the Ice Age. The glaciers were thicker and lasted longer in Fennoscandia compared with the rest of Europe. Their eroding effects have left the Finnish landscape mostly flat, covered largely (86% of land area) by coniferous taiga forests and fens, with little cultivated land. Finland is known also as "the land of the thousand lakes", because it has about 188,000 lakes, among which the largest is Saimaa, the fourth largest in Europe. The area with the most lakes is called Finnish Lakeland.
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