The Battlefield.

The town of Poltava sat atop of a plateau, close by the Kiev-Karkov Road, on the western bank of the Vorskla River; the river itself meandered its way from north to south where it flowed into the Dnieper. The ground around the little fortress was cut up by steep ravines, and here and there dotted with fields and woodland. To the north, separating the Swedish fieldworks from the Russian camp stood the Yakovetski woods, through which another deep gully slashed the ground from north to south. About three miles northwest of the town yet another boggy depression bisected the plain, beyond which the ground became gradually higher and covered in orchards and vineyards around the villages of Tachtaulova and Pobivanka. The Swedish baggage train, together with several thousand Cossacks, whom Charles considered of little use in the coming battle, was to the south west of Poltava, near the village of Pushkaryavka.