The largest part of the territory of Karelia is a hilly plain with evident traces of glacier. The wavy surface of the land keeps the traces of ancient mountains. Karelia is often called "stony lake-forest land", highlighting the leading elements of landscape, beautiful combinations, created by countless lakes and rivers and the land in-between, covered with forest.

More than 49% of the republic area is covered with forest (main species are pine and fur tree), 25% of the territory is watery surface. There are more than 60 thousand lakes and 27 thousand rivers in Karelia. The largest are the Ladoga lake (area is 17,7 thousand square km) and the Onega lake (area is 9,9 thousand square km). The largest rivers are: Vodla (400 km), Vyg, Kovda, Kem, Suna, Shuya. The total length of the river net is about 83 thousand km.

More than 50 types of minerals, located in more than 400 deposits were discovered in Karelia. The minerals are: iron ore, vanadium, molibden, rare metals, diamonds, mica, construction materials (granite, marble, diabasis), clay, appatit-carbonate ore, asbest.