View from Lielais Liepu hill observation tower

Lielais Liepu kalns (Great Linden hill) observation tower is the highest sightseeing wooden tower in Latvia. The tower itself is 34 metres high but it's absolute height above sea level reaches 323 metres as it's built on the top of 3rd highest hill in Latvia (289 m).

View to highest hill and largest lake

Feelings there, well above the treetops, with green forests surrounding from all sides, are quite dizzy. The scene isn't between the most diverse but also not too monotonous - in between the forest tracts you can see the backs of Latgale heights hills, they appears like molehills over the green sea. One of them is the "shameless" neighbour of Lielais Liepu hill - Dzerkaļu hill (see it in 5th photo). Although it is 3 metres lower than Lielais Liepu hill by absolute height, it's the highest hill in Latvia by relative height (89,2 metres).

In the distance one can see (4th photo) also one of largest lakes in Latvia (largest by water volume, second largest by area) - Rāznas lake. There are also some other eye-catching landscape elements.

The edge of European Union

Emotions are heightened by the feeling of wilderness - it seems as you are quite far from any civilisation, around only forests, any populated places almost invisible except for a few farmsteads. It's said that in good weather conditions it's possible to see even up to the border of Belarus. This area is one of the edges of European Union - Russian and Belarussian borders are just a couple of tens of kilometres to the east and south-east, respectively.

Visit to Lielais Liepu hill observation tower is also a good physyical activity because to reach it you have to walk almost kilometer long path leading uphills from the car parking.