Sakha

The area of the Republic of Sakha, 3,083,523 km², is about the same as that of the European Union without Sweden and Finland, but has less than one four-hundredth of the population of that rump of Europe. In the north, the republic is bounded by the Arctic Ocean, where it reaches its northernmost mainland point at Cape Paksa between Northwik Bay and Anabargolf at 73° 59′ 31″ N, about 400 km south of Cape Chelyuskin, the northernmost mainland point of the Old World belonging to Krasnoyarsk Krai. The northernmost land area of Sakha is formed by Henrietta Island, part of the New Siberian Archipelago, at 77° 6′ 0″ N. To the south, Sakha extends to the latitude of Copenhagen in the Aldan Highlands. The territory extends from the Central Siberian Highlands in the west through the Lena Valley (Central Yakutian Lowlands), the Verkhoyansk Mountains, the Chersky Mountains through the Yana-Indigirka Lowlands to the Kolyma Lowlands (western and eastern parts of the East Siberian Lowlands) in the northeast.

Most of the republic belongs to the basin of the Lena River. The main rivers besides the Lena are its tributaries Vilyui and Aldan, as well as the streams Indigirka and the Kolyma.

The entire territory is covered by permafrost. When this thaws in summer and snow and ice melt, floods regularly occur in the floodplains and especially in the lowlands.

The Republic of Sakha is divided into 34 rajons and the urban districts of Yakutsk and Shatai.

The capital and only major city is Yakutsk. Nerjungri, Mirny, Lensk and Aldan still have more than 20,000 inhabitants. The "cold poles" Verkhoyansk and Oimyakon have achieved national fame.

* urban settlement