To best understand Norway one must study its geography, tax system and its educational system. To best understand Norway one must study its geography. Norway covers a area of 125,017 square miles. Nearly two-thirds of Norway is covered in mountains and there are more than 160,000 lakes and islands from glaciers that were once there. For instance, if the fiords could be straitened out it is believed that they would reach halfway around the equator. At the north cape ( 71 degrees above the equator ) the sun shines day and night from the middle of May through the end of July and then is completely absent for two and a half months in winter ( Europa world yearbook, 178