Trip in Lapland: SIIDA musuem (Sámi's culuture & nothern nature).

The SIIDA museum is definitely the place to learn about the Finnish Sámi’s culture and their natural environment. We had the opportunity to visit this museum during our trip in Lapland at Inari.

The two main galleries present a mix of background information between the Sámi’s history and the northern nature of Finland.

The first one present several diagrams which talk about the geological formation of Lapland landscapes. The visit keep going in a chronological way with a lot of pictures which represent key dates of Sámi’s history and few objects of bygone days.

My favourite part was the second gallery which show a lot of things concerning the climate and the biodiversity of Lapland through the seasons. Cause if there is something really special in Lapland, it’s obviously its rich nature. Lapland is situated beyond the Arctic Circle so we are tempt to think about a freezing region with snow everywhere and every time. After all, saying that it’s a little bit right but we’ll be also wrong. Of course the winters in Lapland are extreme and very long if we compare to central Europe. The snow begin to appear in October and melt between April and May. December and January are both months in which you probably won’t see the sun. November to February represents the darkness part of the year, so it won’t really appear before 10:00 a.m. and will set before 3:00 p.m. With very few sunshine time you must expect cold temperature: we talk about an average of -15°C on that period but I swear that it’s pretty nothing when you have tasted -30°C.

But after the darkness winter, the north of Finland show its longest days with almost no more bit of shadow. After its holidays, the sun comes back and becomes your sticky friend in June to July.

Beside that glacial weather, the museum show to its public the large biodiversity which is present in Lapland. A large panel of unique living species and how they act to survive through the seasons. So it’s the opportunity to understand the abundance of the behaviours of every species.

In fact, this visit was as I watch a captivating nature reportage just as I usually do.

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Different kinds of protected areas