Looming out of a forest clearing in the southeastern part of Finland is an enormous 7-meter-long, 500-ton rock whose sheer size is enough to turn heads. However, this rock is an ancient gymnast. Some have speculated that it was carried by melting glaciers during the last glacial period to its final resting place. This rock has been balancing on top of a much smaller boulder for some 11,000 years.
Kummakivi, meaning “strange rock” in Finnish, is a natural wonder that is found in the forest region of Ruokolahti in South Karelia in southeastern Finland and despite its jaw-dropping presence, it does not see a huge amount of tourist traffic.
Kummakivi was protected in 1962 and remains accessible only to hikers willing to navigate mossy trails, wade through streams, and duck low-hanging branches.
Baffled by Kummakivi’s gravity-defying pose, the Finnish have offered numerous explanations over the centuries.
Driving beside “wonderful woodland roads and vast blue lakes,” the pair relished the landscape as their navigator took them deeper into the forest on increasingly tiny roads. Soon, it got to a point where there were really few road signs and they reached a small, steep gravel road.
Tarja wrote: “Trusting our car, slowly but surely, we drove up the hill and found ourselves at a parking area alongside some clearcut woods. There was no sign where to go, but [after] some pondering, we decided that the most well-tread path must be the correct one to Kummakivi.”
Armed with mosquito repellent and a big stick to fend off wild animals, the duo took a wrong turn at a fork in the path and doubled back, wrestling with blueberry shrubs and spiky spruce branches until finally, after 15 minutes of hilly hiking, they reached a canyon between two large hills. From there, they caught their first sighting of the rock.
“Kummakivi is truly strange,” Tarja wrote. “You can’t help but think it’s going to fall down if you go sit at its foot. Trust me: it is not.”
Dazzled by the mystery of Kummakivi, Tarja implores other visitors not to try and make the balancing rock fall–even though human hands could never shift its bulk–for the sake of history, safety, and the enjoyment of others. However, Finland’s 500-tonne titan, which has stood stoic in its same balanced pose for 11,000 years, shows no signs of falling any time soon.
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