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Siberia

Siberia is a region in Russia, the greater part of the Asian territory, which occupies an area larger than the USA. It stretches to the Ural in the west, the North Pole Sea in the north, the Siberian highlands and the Pacific watershed mountain ridges in the east and up to hilly steppes of Kazakhstan and boundary with Mongolia in the south.

The area is about 10 million square km. The name “Siberia” came from the Tartar word “Sibi”, that means “sleeping land”. It splits into the west Siberian lowland, central Siberian plateau (also mid-Siberian mountains), the North-eastern Siberian mountain terrain, Kamchatka peninsula, and the south-Siberian highlands (also Trans-Baikal Region). The west Siberian lowland lies east of the Urals with vast marshlands through which the great Ob and Enisey rivers flow. The majority of the rivers of Siberia, including large ones (Ob with Irtysh, Enisey and Lena), belong to the pools of the seas of Arctic ocean.

In the natural respect Western Siberia and Eastern Siberia, within the limits of which West Siberian plain, Central Siberian plateau, mountains of Southern Siberia, Altai, Western Sayan mountains, East Sayan mountains, mountains of Tuva, Pribaikalye, Transbaikalia are located and system of mountain ranges in north-east of Siberia, framed by the Verhoyansk ridge and Kolyma range, stand out.

The Mid-Siberian mountains cut through the vast highland region from Enisey to Lena. The eastern part reaches the Mid-Yakut lowland, and in the north the mountain land drops down into the Taimyr marshy, to ascend again over the Arctic coastline to the Byrranga mountain range. The southern border of the Mid-Siberian mountains is marked by mountain chains, which begin in the most westerly outpost with the Altai mountains, and follow the Western and Eastern Sayan and Trans-Baikal mountain landscape.

North-east of the Eastern Sayan mountains lies the deepest inland lake in the world (1620m deep), the “Pearl of Siberia”, Lake Baikal. It takes the area of 32’000km² - it is about the same size as Belgium. East of Lake Baikal and south of Lena the East Siberian mountain terrain spans out into more mountain chains and curves through South-east Siberia to the north-west coast of the Okhotskoe Sea. The Verhoyansk, Tscherskogo and Kolyma mountains (all over 3000m high) rise over north Siberia. The most part of Siberia is occupied with tundra and taiga; in the south - forest-steppe and steppe terrain.

In Siberia the severe extreme continental climate prevails with long cold winters and short hot summers. Cold is the determining element in Siberia. Average temperatures of January is negative 16 °Ñ in the south of West Siberian plain and reaches up to negative 48 °Ñ in the east of Yakutia where one of cold poles of Northern hemisphere is located. However the winter climate feels very pleasant in spite of low temperatures. Winter in Siberia means high pressure, i.e. a lot of sunshine and dry air. The summer is clear, sunnier and warmer than in central Europe.