Yli-Kitka is a

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

, in the municipalities of

Kuusamo Kuusamo (; ; ; ) is a List of cities and towns in Finland, town and municipalities of Finland, municipality in Finland. It is located in Koillismaa, the northeastern part of the Northern Ostrobothnia regions of Finland, region. The municipality h ...

and

Posio Posio is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Lapland. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . Neighbour municipalities are Rovaniemi, Kemijärvi, Ra ...

. The lake is connected to the medium-sized lake Ala-Kitka at Kilkilösalmi strait. Yli-Kitka combined with Ala-Kitka is the largest unregulated lake in Finland. Together they are called

Kitkajärvi Lake Kitkajärvi is a rather large lake of Finland. It is situated partly in Posio in Lapland region and partly in Kuusamo municipality in Northern Ostrobothnia region, and belongs to the Koutajoki main catchment area. The southern part of the l ...

or simply ''Kitka''.

Riisitunturi National Park Riisitunturi National Park () is a national park in Posio, Finnish Lapland. It was established in 1982 and covers . The park is in a mountainous area, and there are also many swamps, especially hillside swamps. The only wilderness hut A w ...

is located north of the lake. From Ala-Kitka the waters flow through the

Kitkanjoki Kitkajoki or Kitkanjoki is a river of Finland. It begins from the lake Ala-Kitka that is connected to the lake Yli-Kitka in the municipalities of Posio and Kuusamo in the region of Northern Ostrobothnia and flows then towards Russia joining the r ...

river to the

Oulankajoki The Oulankajoki ( - ''Olanga'') is a river of Finland and Russia (Republic of Karelia). It is part of the Kovda river system. The Oulankajoki discharges into the Lake Pyaozero in the Republic of Karelia in Russia, which is drained by the Kovda to ...

river which is part of the Kovda River basin that drains into the

White Sea The White Sea (; Karelian language, Karelian and ; ) is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea located on the northwest coast of Russia. It is surrounded by Karelia to the west, the Kola Peninsula to the north, and the Kanin Peninsula to the nort ...

in Russia.

References

LYli-Kitka Landforms of North Ostrobothnia Lakes of Kuusamo Lakes of Posio {{Lapland-geo-stub