TOP/BEST/Spectacular nature: Siberia -15
Think Siberia and perhaps the fisrt images that comes to your mind would be of a vast, barren expanse of snow, ice and wilderness where human habitation is next to impossible except for prisoners banished to the gulags. The land of the reindeer, where vodka shots were as essential for survival as oxygen.
But what if we were to tell you that Siberia is all that and more -- It has has more natural resources than any other area of the world, spans nine time zones and contains the largest plain in the world. This is your opportunity to lean more about this land:
Trees covered with snow and hoarfrost on bank of Yenisei river in Central Siberia.
Siberia comprises about 77% of modern day Russia and more. Encompassing much of the Eurasian Steppe, the territory of Siberia extends eastward from the Ural Mountains to the watershed between Pacific and Arctic drainage basins, and southward from the Arctic Ocean to the hills of north-central Kazakhstan and the national borders of both Mongolia and China.
A house covered in snow in Kuznetsk Ala Tau region in the Southern Siberia.
"Siberia" comes from the Mongolian word "sibir", which means "sleeping land." In the early 1700's, Siberia became a place of exile. It continued to be "the last stop" for criminals and political exiles throughout much of the 20th century.
Siberia formed a natural prison or gulag. If a prisoner escaped from a gulag, there was simply nowhere to go. The closest population center might be 1,000 miles away.
With an area of 13.1 million square km, Siberia has a population density of about four people per square kilometer.
The climate of Siberia varies dramatically. Temperatures can drop into the -40s in the winter. In the spring and summer, however, temperatures can reach as high as 110 degrees
Siberia is extraordinarily rich in minerals, containing ores of almost all economically valuable metals. It has some of the world's largest deposits of nickel, gold, lead, coal, molybdenum, gypsum, diamonds, silver and zinc, as well as extensive unexploited resources of oil and natural gas.
Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin rides a horse in southern Siberia's Tuva region.
Siberia is one of the few locations in the world still considered to be an untamed adventure travel destination. You can fish, hike, camp, hunt, drink vodka, ski, swim, take in a spa and do just about anything you like.
General view of the Siberian Yenisei river, about 180 km south of Krasnoyarsk.
Rising in Mongolia, in the Sayan mountains, the Yenisei crosses all of Siberia from south to north to enter the Kara sea.
Siberian flowers named in Siberia "Zharki" are seen in southern Siberia.
The Yenisei River valley is habitat for numerous flora and fauna, with Siberian pine and Siberian larch being notable tree species.
A Russian soldier carries a shovel as he fights his way through deep snow close to his military base near the city of Mirny.
Heavy snowfalls are common in this region of Siberia, where a number of military bases are stationed.
A tree covered with snow and hoarfrost is seen on the bank of the Yenisei river after strong frost in Central Siberia.
The first great modern change to Siberia was the Trans-Siberian railway, constructed in 1891-1916. It linked Siberia more closely to the rapidly-industrializing Russia of Nicholas II.
People ski along the bank of the Yenisey river, some 25 kms from Krasnoyarsk, in Siberia.
The highest point in Siberia is the active volcano Klyuchevskaya Sopka, in the Kamchatka peninsula. Its peak is at 4,649 metres
Boris Turov creates an ice sculpture at a winter playground for children at a temperature about minus 30 Celsius in Divnogorsk some 40 km south of Krasnoyarsk, Siberia.
Horses graze in a steppe near a sacred place of local Shamans in the Khakassiya region, some 450 km south of the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.
Novosibirsk is the largest city in Siberia, with a population of about 1.5 million. Tobolsk, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk and Omsk are the older, historical centers
A cattle farm is seen in the wake of a thunderstorm in the Siberian district of Novosyolovsk.
Many cities in Siberia, such as Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, cannot be reached by road,as there is virtually none connecting from other major cities in Russia or Asia. The best way to tour Siberia is through the Trans-Siberian Railway.
Siberian explorer Bernard Buigues stands near the tusks of a 23,000-year-old mammoth that rests in a block of ice 320 kms from the Russian city of Khatanga after it was unearthed in 1999.
Frozen mammoth carcasses found in Siberia have challenged imagination for centuries. These carcasses sometimes come with skin, hair, and internal organs including the heart.
Sunset view of the river Yenisei and the mountain of Borus in Western Sayans 570 km (356 miles) to the south of the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, the third largest city in Siberia.
Source: India Syndicat
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