Murmansk
Murmansk is a relatively young city, founded in 1916. Nowadays, it is the biggest city in the world situated beyond the polar circle. There are about 380,000 inhabitants in the city. Standing on the shore of the never freezing Kola Bay, Murmansk is a major center of fishing industry, a big cargo port and home of Russian nuclear powered fleet. It is the capital of the Murmansk Region, which fully occupies the Kola Peninsula. Murmansk hosts Polar Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography, three theaters, regional and naval museums.

Murmansk is mainly located on the eastern shore of Kola Bay, stretching for 20 km from north to south and 3-5 km from west to east. The city is surrounded by hills covered with low vegetation (the city lies in the zone between taiga and tundra). Murmansk has an unusually mild climate due to the warm North Anlantic current. Since the entire coast of Kola Bay is occupied by the huge port, Murmansk has no smooth coastline and therefore one can only enjoy the vast sea from higher ground. The city's area is about 15 thousand hectares, including 1357 hectares of the Kola Bay waters. The landscape of Murmansk is unusual and has three natural terraces.

The climate of Murmansk is strongly influenced by the sea, which makes the weather in this city quite changeable. June occasionally sees frosts and snowfalls. Autumn and winter are often accompanied by storm warnings. There is a lot of snow in winter. The best time for visitors is July and early August. The polar night lasts in Murmansk from November, 29 to January, 15. The snow cover lies for about 200 days, more than half a year. The sunniest month of the year is March.