Latvia, Araisi Lake Prehistoric site

Araisi lake dwelling site is a popular tourist location with original and reconstructed remnants of Latvian prehistory. It is a unique nationally important archaeological site: remains of the 9th-10th centuries Latgalian fortified settlement on the island of Araisi lake. Remains of such lake villages or fortresses have been found from couple of other lakes in Northern-Latvia and Southern-Estonia. However the remains of the Araisi village appear to be the best preserved, and thus, as exact a replica as researchers could come up with was built on the spot using new materials. The remains of buildings from the original village that were uncovered during the 1960s and 1970s, and were studied in minute detail to discern just how the ancient constructions might have looked. The project to reconstruct the village-fortress was then initiated in 1993.