Yekaterinburg also called as Ekaterinburg is the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast and the fourth largest city in Russia. It is located at the middle of the Eurasian continent, along the border of Asia and Europe. The population of the city has been noted as 1,349,772 in the 2010 Census.
The city is the significant cultural and industrial center of the Ural Federal District. Yekaterinburg was called as Sverdlovsk between 1924 and 1991 which was named after Yakov Sverdlov, the popular leader of the Communist party.
Geography and Climate of Yekaterinburg
Located on the border of the continents of Europe and Asia, Yekaterinburg is about 1,667 kilometers to the east of Moscow, and on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains on the River Iset. The city is fully surrounded by wooded hills and small lakes and has cultivated lands for agricultural purposes. The climate of the city is a humid continental climate where the winter starts from the month of October and lasts till the middle of April. The temperature during the winter season often falls to −45 °C (−49 °F) and is rarely between −20 °C (−4 °F) to −25 °C (−13 °F). The city has short summers with warm climates that lasts for only about 65 to 70 days and has an average temperature of about 18 °C (64 °F). Yekaterinburg has a variable climate throughout each year as it is located behind the high mountain range.
Sights to visit in the city
There are many libraries in the city of Yekaterinburg among which the largest public library called the V. G. Belinsky Scientific Library is located in Sverdlovsk Oblast.
The city is also famous for its theaters and has some of the world's popular theatre companies such as the the Sverdlovsk Academic Theater of Musical Comedy, the Yekaterinburg Academic Ballet and Opera Company, the Yekaterinburg Academic Dramatic Theater, the Volkhonka which was a chamber theatre, the Yekaterinburg Theater for Young Spectators and the Kolyada Theater founded by the Russian actor, producer and playwright Nikolai Kolyada. The city is known to have the popular dance companies like the Kipling, the Tantstrest, the Provincial Dances, as well as a special department of contemporary dance that is present at the Yekaterinburg University of Humanities. Hence the city is often called as the capital of contemporary dances.
Yekaterinburg is the significant center for rock music as it has various popular Russian rock bands like Urfin, Chaif, Dzhyus, Chicherina, Pompilius, Trek, Nautilus, Nastya, Smyslovye Gallyutsinatsii and Agata Kristi that were actually formed in the city of Yekaterinburg. The most popular opera singers like Boris Shtokolov, Vera Bayeva and Yuri Gulyayev are known to have graduated from the Urals State Conservatory.
The city also is famous for the number of museums located in it. It includes museums of Ural minerals and jewelry and many museums of art galleries among the thirty museums in the city. These museums house the largest collections of the Kasli mouldings the most famous Shigirskaya Kladovaya or the Shigir Collection.
Yekaterinburg is also the home of Vladimir Yelizarov's Recording Studio called the SVE Records. This studio which was built in the year 1837 is inside a private residence with the name "The House of the Misters". It is located in one of the historical centers of the city of Yekaterinburg.
