Norway mulls giving mountain to Finland for 100th birthday

HELSINKI -- Norway is considering moving a mountain - or at least its peak - to neighboring Finland.

Anne Nordskog, a spokeswoman for Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, said Wednesday the government is contemplating a proposal to give the Halti peak as a gift to Finland next year as the Finns celebrate 100 years of independence.

Most of the mountain is on the Finnish side of their northern border but the peak of 4,367 feet is in Norway. The proposal would redraw the border to put the peak in Finland.

While mountainous Norway has several peaks that are higher, Finland's highest mountain is 1,325 meters.

Former Norwegian state surveyor Bjorn Geirr Harsson came up with the idea when he learned of Finland's upcoming birthday and recalled a flight he took over Halti in the 1970s.

He was puzzled by the location of the border: a "geophysically illogical," straight line drawn in the 1750s, the Guardian newspaper reported.

He wrote to Norway's ministry of foreign affairs in July 2015 to suggest the gesture and point out it would cost Norway a mere 0.015 sq km of its national territory.

"It would be nice to give Finland an extra 6 meters (20 feet)," Harsson said.