English: The Krasnodar Krai, in the North Caucasus and the Southern Federal District of southwestern European Russia. Krasnodar Krai federal subject of Russia.

Contents • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Geography [ ] The krai lies in the middle of, and occupies nearly half of the, almost splitting it in half, stretching 3,000 km from the in the south along the to the in the north. It borders (counting clockwise from the sea) the,, the, the, and,, and, and the and of the in the north. Adobe flash player. The krai is located in the basin of the; a great number of rivers that flow through the krai into it eventually. The main rivers of the krai are the Yenisei, and its (from south to north): the, the, the, and the. There are also several thousand lakes in the krai. The largest lakes include,,,,,,,,,.

The rivers and lakes are rich with fish. The climate is strongly with large temperature variations during the year. For the central and southern regions where most of the krai's population lives, long winters and short, hot summers are characteristic. The territory of Krasnoyarsk Krai experiences conditions of three climate belts:,, and moderate.

In the north there are less than 40 days with temperature above 10 °C (50 °F), while in the south there are 110–120 such days. The average temperature in January is −36 °C (−33 °F) in the north and −18 °C (0 °F) in the south. The average temperature in July is +10 °C (50 °F) in the north and +20 °C (68 °F) in the south.

The annual precipitation is 316 millimeters (12.4 in) (up to 1,200 millimeters (47 in) in foothills of the Sayan Mountains). Snow covers the central regions of the krai from early November until late March. The peaks of the Sayan Mountains higher than 2,400–2,600 m and those of the higher than 1,000–1,300 m are covered with permanent snow. Is widespread, especially in the north.

The coastline contains a number of prominent peninsulas - from west to east the main ones are the,, the (by far the largest, and itself containing the, and ) and the. There are also a large number of islands off the krai's coast, the most prominent of which are (from west to east),,,, (in the ),, the, the, the, the,, the,,,, the, the, the,,, the, the, and the. There are also a number of islands further out that fall under the administration of Krasnoyarsk Krai - the most prominent being,, the, the, the,,, (the largest group),. The highest point of the krai is in the East Sayan Mountains at an elevation of 2,922 meters (9,587 ft). History [ ] According to archaeologists, the first people reached Siberia circa 40,000. The grave-mounds and monuments of the culture in Krasnoyarsk Krai belong to the 7th century BCE and are ones of the oldest in. A prince's grave, the, discovered in 2001, is also located in the krai.

Russian settlement of the area (mostly by ) began in the 17th century. After the construction of the the Russian colonization of the area strongly increased. During both the and the ' times the territory of Krasnoyarsk Krai was used as a place of exile of political enemies.

The first leaders of the Soviet state, and were exiled to what is now the krai in 1897–1900 and 1903, respectively. In Stalin's era numerous camps were located in the region.

In 1822, the was created with Krasnoyarsk as its administrative center that covered territory very similar to that of the current krai. On June 30, 1908, in the basin of the Podkamennaya Tunguska River, there occurred a most likely to have been caused by the air burst of a large or fragment at an altitude of 5–10 kilometers (3–6 miles) above Earth's surface. The force of the explosion is estimated to be about 10–15 megatons. It flattened more than 2,000 square kilometers (500,000 acres) of pine forest and killed thousands of reindeer. Krasnoyarsk Krai was created in 1934 after disaggregation of the and and later included. In 1991, Khakassia separated from the krai and became a republic within the Russian Federation. On January 1, 2007, following a referendum on the issue held on April 17, 2005, territories of and were merged into the krai.