Karigasniemi is one of the villages of Finland's most northern municipality of Utsjoki

Utsjoki

Utsjoki is a municipality in Finland. It is located in Lapland and borders Norway as well as the municipality of Inari. The municipality was founded in 1876. It has a population of and covers an area of ofwhich is water. The population density is....

 . It lies at the foot of Mount Ailigás.

The village is situated on the border between Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 and Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 18 kilometres (11.2 mi) south-east of Karasjok

Karasjok

Kárášjohka or is a village and municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Karasjok.-Name:Karasjok is a Norwegianized form of the Sámi name Kárášjohka...

. It lies on the banks of the rivers Anarjohka

Inarijoki

Inarijoki is a tributary of Tana River. It runs along the Finnish–Norwegian border....

 and Karasjohka which, downstream of Karigasniemi, form the famous salmon fishing Tana River

Tana River (Norway)

Tana river , is a long river in Sápmi, in the Norwegian county of in Finnmark and the Lapland of Finland. The Sámi name means "Great River". The main tributaries of Tana are Anarjohka and Karasjohka....

 .

Karigasniemi lies on the road between the Finnish villages Ivalo

Ivalo

Ivalo is a village in Inari Municipality, in Finland's Lapland Province, located on the Ivalo river 20 kilometres to the south of Lake Inari. It has a population of 3,998 and a small airport...

 and Inari

Inari

Inari may refer to:* Inari , a Shinto spirit** Mount Inari in Japan, site of Fushimi Inari-taisha, the main Shinto shrine to Inari** Inari Shrine, shrines to the Shinto god Inari* Inari Sami, one of the Sami languages...

 and the Norwegian villages of Karasjok and Lakselv on the north Finnmark

Finnmark

or Finnmárku is a county in the extreme northeast of Norway. By land it borders Troms county to the west, Finland to the south and Russia to the east, and by water, the Norwegian Sea to the northwest, and the Barents Sea to the north and northeast.The county was formerly known as Finmarkens...

 coast. The Red Line bus between Ivalo and Lakselv makes a 15 minutes' stop in front of the Kalastajan Majatalo (Fisherman's Inn).

Karigasniemi is home to about 300 people of which more than half are Sámi, there are three shops, two petrol stations and five bars and restaurants, merely because of a lot of border traffic from the Norwegian side.

Karigasniemi is also a junction point where travellers can choose the road to Nordkapp

Nordkapp

Nordkapp is a municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Honningsvåg.Nordkapp was separated from Porsanger on 1 July 1861...

 or other shores of the Arctic Ocean

Arctic Ocean

The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions...

.

There has always been active trade across the border in Karigasniemi. Today, the village offers ample trade, catering, and accommodation services and takes pride in many buildings, maintenance, and repair firms in the area. There is a post office, a school and a small health care center in the village.

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