Kiev

I am Tink.  I live in Kiev and I love my city. I made a short story about its history, illustrated it with photos and published on the Internet. It was interesting and a lot of fun.

If you love the place you live, you can do this too. Show me your city as I've shown you mine!

Yours,

Tinker Bell.

chief city and capital of Ukraine. A port on the Dnieper (Dnipro) River and a large railroad junction, it is a city with an ancient and proud history. As the centre of Kievan Rus, the first eastern Slavic state, 1,000 years ago it acquired the title "Mother of Rus Cities." It was severely damaged during World War II, but by the mid-1950s it was fully restored, and by the 1970s it had become a thriving, modern city with a well-developed economic and cultural life. The emergence of an independent Ukraine in the early 1990s renewed Kiev's status as a major European capital.

Kiev originally occupied the high and steep right (west) bank of the Dnieper, but since World War II rapid growth has extended the city onto the wide, low, flat floodplain on the left bank. The city has moderately cold winters, with snow cover usually from mid-November to the end of March, and warm summers.

The focus of the contemporary city remains its ancient Upper Town, crowning the high bluff above the Dnieper. Its central area, although for the most part of postwar construction, contains most of Kiev's surviving historical and architectural monuments. The 11th-century Cathedral of St. Sophia, one of the most beautiful examples of Russo-Byzantine ecclesiastical architecture, and the striking 18th-century Baroque Church of St. Andrew are both now state museums. Other surviving relics include the ruins of the 11th-century Golden Gate, the 18th-century Zaborovskyy Gate, and the 19th-century five-domed Desyatynna Church, built on the site of a church founded by St. Vladimir in the 10th century. The axis of the centre of the city is the tree-lined Kreshchatyk, the main shopping street. Many of the city's museums and theatres are located within and adjacent to the former Old Town.

Area city, 300 square miles (707 square km). Pop. (1993 est.) 2,646,000.

(taken from Encyclopaedia Britanica)