1.
Toompea
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Toompea is a limestone hill in the central part of the city of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. The hill is an oblong tableland, which measures about 400 by 250 metres, has an area of 7 hectares and is about 20–30 metres higher than the surrounding areas. In folklore the hill is known as the mound over the grave of Kalev. The history of Toompea is closely linked to the history of rulers, today Toompea is the center of the Government of Estonia and the Riigikogu, both of which are often simply referred to as Toompea. The location of the Riigikogu is the Toompea Castle, situated in the corner of the hill. The flag on the top of the tower is one of the symbols in Estonia of the government in force. Toompea is part of the Tallinn Old Town UNESCO World Heritage Site, geologically Toompea is associated with the North Estonian Klint. A separate relic klint island, Toompea lies about 1.5 km northwest of the North Estonian Limestone Plateau, the plateau and Toompea are connected with a gently sloped sandstone ridge. From the east, north and west Toompea is bordered for 1.5 km by a cliff with a height of up to 25 m, the southern slope of the hill descends more gently. The upper layer of the consists of Ordovician limestone, which is also the main rock exposed at the cliff. However, most of the face has been hidden behind a protective wall. Toompea first emerged as an island from the Baltic Ice Lake around 10,000 years ago, due to steady post-glacial rebound it became connected with the mainland during the early Littorina Sea stage. At 5,000 BCE the sea reached the foot of the cliffs of Toompea. The modern coastline is at a distance of more than 1 km from Toompea, the hill reaches about 48 metres in elevation. She heaped a cairn of stones over his tomb, which formed the hill on which the Cathedral of Revel now stands. Kirby,1895 The first stronghold is believed to have built on the hill in either the 10th or 11th century by residents of the ancient Estonian county of Revala. The late Iron Age fortified settlement did not probably have permanent inhabitants, early archaeological evidence from the hill dates mainly to the second half of the 12th century and first half of the 13th century. Smaller amounts of older finds support the view that the stronghold might have been established already during the Viking Age, the hill fort is mentioned in the Henry of Livonias Chronicle of the Livonian Crusade by the name Lindanise
2.
Tallinn
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Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland,80 km south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm, from the 13th century until 1918, the city was known as Reval. Tallinn occupies an area of 159.2 km2 and has a population of 444,591, approximately 33% of Estonias total population lives in Tallinn. Tallinn was founded in 1248, but the earliest human settlements date back 5,000 years, making it one of the oldest capital cities of Northern Europe. The initial claim over the land was laid by the Danes in 1219 after a raid of Lyndanisse led by Valdemar II of Denmark. Due to its location, the city became a major trade hub, especially from the 14th to the 16th century. Tallinns Old Town is one of the best preserved cities in Europe and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Tallinn is the political, financial, cultural and educational center of Estonia. Often dubbed the Silicon Valley of Europe, it has the highest number of startups per person in Europe and is a birthplace of international companies. The city is to house the headquarters of the European Unions IT agency, providing to the global cybersecurity it is the home to the NATO Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence. It is ranked as a city and has been listed among the top 10 digital cities in the world. The city was a European Capital of Culture for 2011, along with Turku in Finland and it has been suggested that Quwri may have denoted a predecessor of the modern city. The earliest names of Tallinn include Kolyvan, which is known from East Slavic chronicles, up to the 13th century, the Scandinavians and Henry of Livonia in his chronicle called the town Lindanisa (or Lyndanisse in Danish, Lindanäs in Swedish and Ledenets in Old East Slavic. It has been suggested that the archaic Estonian word linda is similar to the Votic word lidna. According to this suggestion, nisa would have the meaning niemi, producing Kesoniemi, another ancient historical name for Tallinn in Finnish is Rääveli. The Icelandic Njals saga mentions Tallinn and calls it Rafala, which is a variant of the name Raphael, after the Danish conquest in 1219, the town became known in the German, Swedish and Danish languages as Reval. The name originated from Revelia Revala or Rävala, the adjacent ancient name of the surrounding area and it is usually thought to be derived from Taani-linn, after the Danes built the castle in place of the Estonian stronghold at Lindanisse. However, it could also have come from tali-linna, or talu-linna, the element -linna, like Germanic -burg and Slavic -grad / -gorod, originally meant fortress, but is used as a suffix in the formation of town names
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
4.
Estonia
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Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia, across the Baltic Sea lies Sweden in the west and Finland in the north. The territory of Estonia consists of a mainland and 2,222 islands and islets in the Baltic Sea, covering 45,339 km2 of land and water, and is influenced by a humid continental climate. The territory of Estonia has been inhabited since at least 6500 BC, in 1988, during the Singing Revolution, the Estonian Supreme Soviet issued the Estonian Sovereignty Declaration in defiance of Soviet rule, and independence was restored on 20 August 1991. Estonia is a parliamentary republic divided into fifteen counties. Its capital and largest city is Tallinn, with a population of 1.3 million, it is one of the least-populous member states of the European Union, Eurozone, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, OECD and Schengen Area. Estonia is a country with an advanced, high-income economy that is among the fastest growing in the EU. Its Human Development Index ranks very highly, and it performs favourably in measurements of economic freedom, civil liberties, the 2015 PISA test places Estonian high school students 3rd in the world, behind Singapore and Japan. Citizens of Estonia are provided with health care, free education. Since independence the country has developed its IT sector, becoming one of the worlds most digitally advanced societies. In 2005 Estonia became the first nation to hold elections over the Internet, in the Estonian language, the oldest known endonym of the Estonians was maarahvas, meaning country people or people of the land. The land inhabited by Estonians was called Maavald meaning Country Parish or Land Parish, one hypothesis regarding the modern name of Estonia is that it originated from the Aesti, a people described by the Roman historian Tacitus in his Germania. The historic Aesti were allegedly Baltic people, whereas the modern Estonians are Finno-Ugric, the geographical areas between Aesti and Estonia do not match, with Aesti being further down south. Ancient Scandinavian sagas refer to a land called Eistland, as the country is called in Icelandic. Early Latin and other ancient versions of the name are Estia and Hestia, esthonia was a common alternative English spelling prior to 1921. Human settlement in Estonia became possible 13,000 to 11,000 years ago, the oldest known settlement in Estonia is the Pulli settlement, which was on the banks of the river Pärnu, near the town of Sindi, in south-western Estonia. According to radiocarbon dating it was settled around 11,000 years ago, the earliest human inhabitation during the Mesolithic period is connected to Kunda culture, which is named after the town of Kunda in northern Estonia. At that time the country was covered with forests, and people lived in communities near bodies of water
5.
Counties of Estonia
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Counties are the first-level administrative subdivisions of Estonia. Estonian territory is composed of 15 counties, including 13 on the mainland and 2 on islands, the government of each county is led by a maavanem who represents the national government at the regional level. Governors are appointed by the government for a term of five years. Each county is divided into municipalities of two types, urban municipalities and rural municipalities. Population figures are those of 31 December 2011, in the first centuries AD, political and administrative subdivisions began to emerge in Estonia. Two larger subdivisions appeared, the parish and the county, the parish consisted of several villages. Nearly all parishes had at least one fortress, the defense of the local area was directed by the highest official, the parish elder. The county was composed of several parishes, also headed by an elder, by the 13th century the following major counties had developed in Estonia, Saaremaa, Läänemaa, Harjumaa, Rävala, Virumaa, Järvamaa, Sakala, and Ugandi. Additionally there were several smaller elderships in central Estonia where danger of war was smaller – Vaiga, Mõhu, Nurmekund, the exact number and borders of some elderships are disputed. The first documented mentioning of Estonian political and administrative subdivisions comes from the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, the Autonomy of the Estonia counties and parishes ended after conquered and divided between Denmark, Livonian Order, Bishopric of Dorpat and Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek. The name of Rävala became Reval, replacing the name of an Estonian town Lindanisse, Ugandi, Sakala and the smaller elderships disappeared from common usage. In the 1580s, after the Livonian war as Sweden had conquered Northern Estonia, Harju, Järva, Lääne, southern Estonia, which belonged to Poland 1582-1625, was divided into voivodships of Pärnu and Tartu, the island of Saaremaa belonged to Denmark until 1645. They all became counties as they went under Swedish rule and this administrative system mostly remained as Estonia went under Russian rule as a result of the Northern War. In 1793 were formed Võru County in the south of Tartumaa, in 1796 Paldiski County was joined with Harjumaa again. Until 1888 Võrumaa and Viljandimaa were not completely independent from Tartumaa and Pärnumaa respectively, several changes were made to the borders of counties after Estonia became independent, most notably the formation of Valga County and Petseri County. During the Soviet rule, Petseri County once again became a part of Russia in 1945, hiiumaa seceded from Läänemaa in 1946, Jõgevamaa from Tartumaa in 1949 and Jõhvimaa from Virumaa in 1949. Counties were completely dissolved in 1950 as Estonian SSR was divided into regions, until the 1960s the borders of regions changed often until 15 of them were left. Out of them, Põlva and Rapla regions became separate, while the others were roughly corresponding to the pre-1950 counties, Counties were re-established on 1 January 1990 in the borders of the Soviet-era regions
6.
Harju County
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Harju County, or Harjumaa is one of the 15 counties of Estonia. In January 2015 Harju County had a population of 575,601 – constituting 43. 8% of the population of Estonia. Tallinn, the capital and largest city of Estonia, constitutes about 72% of the population with its 413,782 inhabitants. Lindanise, then a trading post at the Gulf of Finland. It eventually grew into the mostly German-populated Hanseatic town of Reval, in 1219, the Danish King Valdemar II landed in Lindanise and conquered both Revala and Harju counties, while the inhabitants were forced into Christianity. At the end of the Livonian Crusade, both counties were captured by the Order of the Sword Brothers until given back to Denmark with the Treaty of Stensby in 1238. The Danes built the Toompea Castle on Toompea Hill in Tallinn, in 1248, it was the first settlement in Estonia to receive its town rights, and in 1285 it became the northernmost member of the Hanseatic League. German dominance led to the St. Georges Night Uprising, that out in 1343 with the burning of Padise Abbey in modern Padise Parish. The uprising led to Denmark selling its possessions in Northern Estonia to the Livonian Order, after the outbreak of the Livonian War the North Estonian nobility and Tallinn Town Council declared loyalty to Sweden in 1561. Swedish possessions were secured with the Treaty of Plyussa in 1583, the Great Northern War left Harju County one of the few regions in Estonia untouched by warfare for a long time. Nonetheless, Harju County was greatly affected by the 1710-1713 Plague, Russian forces finally arrived in 1710 and laid siege to Tallinn for a month until the Swedish garrison surrendered, thus ending the Great Northern War in Estonia. Russian rule was secured with the Treaty of Nystad in 1721, the plague raged on for several years, eventually leaving several parts of Harju County completely empty. Imperial Russian rule started with the construction of harbours in Tallinn. Russian Tsar Peter I visited Tallinn at least nine times in 1711-1723 and he personally opened the construction for Tallinn Naval Harbour in 1714 and Paldiski Naval Harbour in 1718. Petersburg Railway was opened, after several smaller settlements along the line - Paldiski, Keila, Saue, Nõmme, Aruküla, Raasiku, Kehra. Several elements of Peter the Greats Naval Fortress were built in Harju County, during World War I in 1914, the native population of Naissaar island was expelled from the island as it was turned into a military base. A narrow-gauge railway network was built on the island, on 9 November 1917, the Bolsheviks took power from Governor Jaan Poska. After the coup, refusing to cooperate with the Estonian Soviet Executive Committee, in December 1917, Russian sailors under the leadership of Stepan Maximovich Petrichenko declared the Soviet Republic of Soldiers and Fortress-Builders of Naissaar
7.
Estonian Centre Party
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The Estonian Centre Party is a centrist, social-liberal and populist political party in Estonia. It is one of the two largest political parties in Estonia and currently has 27 seats in the Estonian Parliament, the Party is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. The party was founded on 12 October 1991 from the basis of the Popular Front of Estonia after several parties split from it, at that time, the party was called Peoples Centre Party in order to differentiate from the smaller centre-right Rural Centre Party. The Centre Party chairman from 5 November 2016 is Jüri Ratas, the party has served as the major coalition partner in the Rõivas cabinet since 26 March 2014. The Centre Party has become by far the most popular party among Russians in Estonia, in the parliamentary elections of March 1995, the Centre Party was placed third with 14. 2% of votes and 16 seats. It entered the coalition, Savisaar taking the position of the Minister of Internal Affairs, after the tape scandal where Savisaar was involved, the party was forced to go to opposition. A new party was formed by those who were disappointed by their leaders behaviour, Edgar Savisaar became the Chairman of the City Council of the capital city Tallinn. In 1996, CPE candidate Siiri Oviir ran for the presidency of Estonia, in the parliamentary elections of March 1999, the Centre Party, whose main slogan was progressive income tax, gained 23. 4% of votes and 28 seats in the Riigikogu. CPE members are active in its 26 branches – eight of them are active in Tallinn,18 in towns, the Centre Party became a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party at the organisations July 2003 London Congress. In 2001, Kreitzberg unsuccessfully ran for the presidency of Estonia, Savisaar was the Mayor of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, from 2001 to fall 2004, when he was forced to step down after a vote of no confidence. He was replaced by Tõnis Palts of Res Publica, in January 2002, the Centre Party and the Estonian Reform Party formed a new governmental coalition where Centre Party got 8 ministerial seats. The coalition stayed until the new elections in 2003, in which the party won 28 seats, though the Centre Party won the greatest percent of votes, it was in opposition until March,2005 when Juhan Parts government collapsed. In 2003, the majority of the assembly did not support Estonias joining the European Union. Savisaar did not express clearly his position, a number of Centre Party members exited the party in autumn 2004, mostly due to objections with Savisaars autocratic tendencies and the partys EU-sceptic stance, forming the Social Liberal group. Some of them joined the Social Democratic Party, others the Reform Party, one of these MPs later rejoined the Centre Party. Since Estonias accession to the EU, the party has largely revised its formerly EU-sceptic positions, in 2004 the Centre Party gained one member in the European Parliament – Siiri Oviir. The Centre Party gathered 17. 5% share of votes on the elections to the European Parliament, Oviir joined the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group. The Centre Party participated in government with the Estonian Reform Party, the Centre Party had 5 minister portfolios
8.
Estonian language
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Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken natively by about 922,000 people in Estonia and 160,000 outside Estonia. It belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic language family, Estonian belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic languages, along with Finnish, Karelian, and other nearby languages. The Uralic languages do not belong to the Indo-European languages, Estonian is distantly related to Hungarian and to the Sami languages. Estonian has been influenced by Swedish, German, and Russian, furthermore, the apocope of word-final sounds is extensive and has contributed to a shift from a purely agglutinative to a fusional language. The basic word order is subject–verb–object, modern standard Estonian has evolved on the basis of the dialects of Northern Estonia. The domination of Estonia after the Northern Crusades, from the 13th century to 1918 by Denmark, Germany, Sweden, the oldest written records of the Finnic languages of Estonia date from the 13th century. Originates Livoniae in Chronicle of Henry of Livonia contains Estonian place names, words, the earliest extant samples of connected Estonian are the so-called Kullamaa prayers dating from 1524 and 1528. In 1525 the first book published in the Estonian language was printed, the book was a Lutheran manuscript, which never reached the reader and was destroyed immediately after publication. The first extant Estonian book is a bilingual German-Estonian translation of the Lutheran catechism by S. Wanradt and J. Koell dating to 1535, an Estonian grammar book to be used by priests was printed in German in 1637. The New Testament was translated into southern Estonian in 1686, the two languages were united based on northern Estonian by Anton thor Helle. Writings in Estonian became more significant in the 19th century during the Estophile Enlightenment Period, the birth of native Estonian literature was in 1810 to 1820 when the patriotic and philosophical poems by Kristjan Jaak Peterson were published. His birthday on March 14 is celebrated in Estonia as the Mother Tongue Day, a fragment from Petersons poem Kuu expresses the claim reestablishing the birthright of the Estonian language, Kas siis selle maa keel Laulutuules ei või Taevani tõustes üles Igavikku omale otsida. In English, Can the language of this land In the wind of incantation Rising up to the heavens Not seek for eternity. Kristjan Jaak Peterson From 1525 to 191714,503 titles were published in Estonian, in modern times Jaan Kross and Jaan Kaplinski remain as two of Estonias best known and most translated writers. Writings in Estonian became significant only in the 19th century with the spread of the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment, after the Estonian War of Independence in 1919, the Estonian language became the state language of the newly independent country. In 1945,97. 3% of Estonia considered itself ethnic Estonian, when Estonia was invaded and occupied by the Soviet Union in World War II, the status of the Estonian language changed to the first of two official languages. As with Latvia many immigrants entered Estonia under Soviet encouragement, in the second half of the 1970s, the pressure of bilingualism intensified, resulting in widespread knowledge of Russian throughout the country. The Russian language was termed as ‘the language of friendship of nations’ and was taught to Estonian children, although teaching Estonian to non-Estonians in schools was compulsory, in practice learning the language was often considered unnecessary
9.
Tallinn Bay
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The Tallinn Bay is a bay in Estonia on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland. The Estonian capital city Tallinn is located on the southern coast of the bay, Tallinn Bay itself is divided into several parts, Tallinn Bay minor, Kopli Bay, Kakumäe bay and Paljassaare Bay. The islands Naissaar and Aegna border the bay in the north, the shore waters are shallow but deep rapidly. Tallinn Bay has a slope, which allows for good water exchange with the waters of the Gulf of Finland. Tallinn Bay is one of the deepest bays in Estonia, max depth is about 100 m, the Old Town is situated close to the sheltered Tallinn bay, which is a natural harbour and the main passenger port. The Paljassaare Harbor and the Bekker Harbor by the Kopli Bay serve for cargo traffic, there are four public beaches on the coastline, Pirita, Stroomi, Kakumäe and Pikakari. Bungsberg, ship Copterline Flight 103 Estonian Maritime Museum Charles Leroux Olympic Yachting Centre in Pirita
