Valga County ( or Valgamaa) is a first-level administrative unit and one of 15 counties of Estonia. It comprises the former area of Valga District. The present-day county was created on 1 January 1990. The capital and largest town of Valga County is Valga, followed by Tõrva and Otepää. It is situated in the southern part of the country and borders Põlva and Võru County to the east, Latvia to the south and west, and Viljandi and Tartu County to the north. 27,650 people live in Valga County as of 2022. General Valga County is located in the southern part of Estonia. By the economic-geographical and regional-political distribution it belongs to the area of South-East Estonia (together with Põlva and Võru County). By historical ties and landscape the county belongs to the region of South Estonia (together with Põlva, Võru, Viljandi, Tartu and Jõgeva Counties). With a population of 30,176 people (as of 1 January 2014), the total area of the county is 2,043.53 km2 (2,046.49 km2 together with the area of Võrtsjärv), it reaches 65 km in the north–south direction and 59 km in the east–west direction. Valga County ranks the 12th in Estonia by population and the 14th by the area. The distances from the county centre, Valga, are the following: Tallinn 267 km, Tartu 86 km, Viljandi 88 km, Võru 73 km, Põlva 96 km, Pärnu 141 km, Narva 264 km and Riga 157 km. Valga County borders with Viljandi County in the north-west, with Tartu County in the north and Põlva and Võru County in the east. Valga County has a borderline with the Republic of Latvia in the south and west (102.4 km). History Medieval Period It can be read from the Livonian Chronicle of Henry that the history of the county goes back to the 13th century when the Germans conquered the settlement. By the Chronicle the Ümera River was the borderline between Estonia and Latvia. Historians suggest that the Säde River was the borderline, flowing through the northern part of Tireli Bog and falling into Lake Burtnieks. Meadows and forests surrounding the big Tireli Bog and the upper stream of the River Säde were probably even wider and impassable at that time and therefore functioning perfectly as a border. The ancient (13th century) national border ran in a totally different place. Assumably the area of Härgmäe belonged to Estonian settlements and the national