Lake Ilmen is a large lake in the Novgorod Oblast of Russia. A historically important lake, it formed a vital part of the medieval trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks. The city of Novgorod - which is a major trade-center of the route - lies six kilometers below the lake's outflow.
The average surface area is 982 square kilometres (it may vary between 733 square kilometres and 2,090 square kilometres depending on water level). The lake is fed by 52 inflowing rivers, the four main ones being the Msta, the Pola, the Lovat, and the Shelon. It is drained through a single outlet, the Volkhov, into Lake Ladoga, and subsequently via the Neva into the Gulf of Finland. The source of the Volkhov is marked by the Peryn Chapel built in the 1220s.
The basin of Lake Ilmen contains vast areas in Novgorod, Pskov, and Tver Oblasts of Russia, as well as minor areas in the north of Vitebsk Region in Belarus. Lake Ilmen is navigable. Shipping lines are Veliky Novgorod – Staraya Russa and Veliky Novgorod – Shimsk. There is a fishery in the lake.
Ilmen glint - a natural formation, a geological monument located on the territory of the Shimsky and Starorussky districts of the Novgorod region in the western part of the southern shore of Lake Ilmen, between the deltas of the Lovat and Shelon rivers.
On this section, the shore of the lake is a high exposed cliff-ledge facing north, northeast. The length of the glint is 8 km, the highest height is up to 15 meters - on the site between the village of Korostyn and the village of Pustosh. Spreading further east, the ledge drops and, as a result, nullifies. In the bureg layers, you can also find many remains of the rich fauna of ancient invertebrates - brachiopods, double-leaves, gastropod mollusks.