​The peninsulas of Lahemaa are mostly stony and covered with woods; sandy areas are less numerous. Beaches are especially stony on the headlands of the peninsulas and in the areas open to the sea. The headlands of the peninsulas first rose from the sea as off-shore islands about 5000 years ago, and have been affected by waves ever since. Sandy isthmuses, or the so-called necks, formed by sand in the quiet water between islands and the mainland, have risen above sea level as the result of later deposition and land uplift. As a result the earlier islands have become peninsulas. This is a continuous process, and in the course of time more and more new islands come into being near shoals, which later join the mainland because of the joint effect of the sediment-accumulating action of waves and the rising of the Earth’s crust.