Stockholm, the capital and the largest city of Sweden, is situated on the eastern coast of the country, on the Stockholm archipelago. The archipelago, situated on the Saltsjön Bay (Baltic Sea) and the Melar lake, consists of 24 000 islands. It is one of the most beautiful agglomerations of islands in the world, divided into three parts: inner, central and outer. The inner part consists mostly of land, central more less of equal parts of land and sea, outer - mostly of the sea (the distances between islands are larger there). It is commonly assumed that the name Stockholm originates from the geographical location of the city, more precisely for the words stock - a trunk, a beam and holme - an island. The location of the capital on the archipelago causes that Stockholm is sometimes called Venice of North.
