Siberia !
 For
foreigners it is a vast and almost unknown territory in Asian part
of Russia. It might conjure up cold, snow and forbidding images! Now
it's time to learn new things, which will change your idea about
this land.
It’s like no
other!
The land of
contradictions wherein stories have been written and images created!
Vast and intimate! Rugged and yet refined! The land where Scythians
and Huns, Chingis-khan and Russian Cossacks left their traces! The
land with new cities and new findings!
Rich in its treasures! The area where traditions have lived!
Come,
discover!
Why Siberia?
For
many people it is an essential question. Why Siberia? What is the
reason for visiting this remote and unknown land? The impressions of
many our foreign guests could be the answer to this question. “It is
incredible! One couldn’t suppose to find here civilization and
cultural life similar to European cities!” – said German tourists
who had traveled along Transsib.
A
good friend of ours from the USA confessed that when he was going to
Novosibirsk for the first time he thought of the city to be just a
settlement of about 30 thousand inhabitants. It was an astonishment
for him to find the city which was 50 times bigger than he had
expected – 1, 5 million people. The funniest thing is that
he brought 13kg of different cans and he had to get rid of them
because he ate fresh fruit and vegetables from the nearest
supermarket.
 Quick
changes of the Ex-USSR cities surprise most of the tourists. A much
bigger surprise awaits everyone who happens to see some places that
had been always hidden from the foreigners and explore the ancient
culture of native people settled here centuries ago. These places
are the Altai Mountains, monuments of primitive constructions in
Khakasia, majestic Lake Baikal, etc. Siberia is a real paradise for
those tourists who love wild nature.
Enjoy
marvelous scenery and nature nooks by horseback riding, rafting
rough rivers or having a comfortable rest in a camp on the lakeside!
Let the invitation to visit Siberia sound like a challenge for you.
It is another world that differs much from your representations.
Russia has been changing recently, but its unique originality is
still in the depth of its soul. And one can find the evidence of
this in the hospitable culture of its people. And it means that
there nowadays is the best time to see this land with your own eyes.
What keeps you from seeing it right now?
Map of Siberia
 Siberia
briefly
Siberia is located on Russian territory, and represents the 3rd
part of Asia. A part of this land that stretches from the Arctic
Ocean to the south for about 400 km is just northern treeless tundra
and the territory of eternally frozen land. Gradually tundra changes
into a forest belt called taiga – the huge kingdom of evergreen
trees and swampy bogs. Siberia takes up more than 2/3 of Russian
territory – from the Urals in the west to the Bering Sea in the
east. The southern border of Siberia runs along the steppes of
northern Kazakhstan and Russian borders with China and Mongolia.
The
division of Siberia into regions is rather approximate: the
western-Siberian Plain – wide expanse of lowlands with numerous
bogs; the central-Siberian Plateau crossed by many rivers; the
mountains in Southern Siberia; the vast field of Eastern Siberia
stretching up to the Arctic Ocean. There are more than 150000 rivers
in Siberia and all of them flow into the Artic Ocean. The rivers are
frozen more than 6 months of the year. The main rivers are the Ob’,
the Yenissey and the Lena. Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the
world, is located in the east of Siberia. Due to its severe climate,
Siberia is inhabited mostly in the south.
The
word “Siberia” is Tatar by origin and means “a sleeping land”. In
the 16th century Cossacks’ ataman Ermak defeated the Siberian
khanate of Tatars and nothing more prevented Russians from advancing
to the east. And the word “Siberia” became widely used in Asia (from
the Urals to the coast of the Pacific Ocean). In the 15th and 16th
centuries Siberia became a place for exiling convicts and political
prisoners. Fur Trade, the most important income for native people,
declined and new economic activities took its place. The completion
of the Trans-Siberian Railroad in the early 1900s brought a big
number of farmers and gave a new impulse to development of the
area.
With
the beginning of World War II industrialization took a start in
Siberia. The development concentrated on mining, manufacturing, and
agriculture. Pipelines were built to connect newly opened fields of
oil and gas in western Siberia with the Ural. In the 70-80’s
large-scale hydroelectric power projects were finished and they
discovered real energy potential of many rivers. For example,
Sayano-Shushenskay HPS in Krasnoyarsk area is one of the most
powerful HPS in the world. The main Siberian cities Novosibirsk,
Omsk and Krasnoyarsk are located in the south, along Trans-Siberian
Railroad. In the west the regions of forested steppe and fertile
black soil make up the main part of Siberia agriculture (mostly
dairy products and grains). In the north economy is based on
reindeer hunting. Siberia is especially rich in mineral resources,
primarily coal, gold, diamonds, and iron ore. Huge reserves of
nature gas and petroleum add importance to Siberia economy.
ACRIS tour & travel services
Russia, Novosibirsk,
tel. +7 383
219 51 56,
fax: +7 383
233 33 55
E-mail: in@acris.ru
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without the express permission of Acris Tour & Travel services.
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