Crimea is becoming its geographical location. Crimea area

On the border of two climatic zones, where East meets West, this unique edge- Crimean peninsula. How many people live here today? What features of the nature of the peninsula can be identified? What is the area of ​​Crimea in sq. km? The answers to all these questions are in this article.

Crimea is a special and amazing land!

Crimea, Taurida is a real peninsula of treasures: natural, architectural, cultural and historical. Here you can see the rocky peaks of the mountains, high waterfalls, ruins of ancient Greek cities and beautiful caves.

General information about Crimea:

• total population - about two million people;
• almost 60% of them live in cities;
• - city of Simferopol;
• The peninsula is multinational: today about 130 different ethnic groups live here;
• The southern coast of Crimea is a continuous chain of resort villages, sanatoriums, children's camps and recreation centers.

Unique and inimitable Here three come together at once natural areas: these are steppes, mountains and sea ​​coast with a subtropical climate. On the territory of the peninsula, botanists have counted 240 species of endemics - plants that cannot be found anywhere else in the world!

Crimea is also known for its other records. Thus, the city of Simferopol is connected to the coast by the longest trolleybus line in the world. Its length is 90 kilometers! At the same time, in Crimea (in the village of Molochnoye near Evpatoria) there is the shortest one on the planet tram line. It was built solely to transport vacationers to the sea.

What is the area of ​​Crimea in square meters? km. and the length of its borders? This will be discussed in the next section.

Geographical location, area of ​​Crimea

The Crimean Peninsula is located in the southern part of Eastern Europe. It separates two seas - the Black and Azov. From neighboring Taman Peninsula Crimea is separated by a narrow Kerch Strait.

Quite often, Crimea is called an island, since it protrudes deep into the sea surface and is almost completely isolated from the mainland. Only two isthmuses and the narrow Arabat Spit connect it to the mainland.

In many geographical reference books you can find information that the area of ​​Crimea in square meters. km is 26,100. This figure is not entirely true, and the data is outdated. After all, no meaningful investigation of Crimea has been carried out since the 1980s. Only in 2009 did Ukrainian surveyors determine the exact area of ​​Crimea. It amounted to 25.6 thousand square kilometers. Thus, Crimea “shrank” by almost 500 square meters. km! This is not so little. For example, such a territory could accommodate almost 4 Simferopols!

The total length of Crimea's borders (all, including land borders) is 2,500 kilometers. The peninsula resembles an irregularly shaped quadrangle. Some people see its shape as a bunch of grapes, which is very symbolic, given the centuries-old local winemaking traditions.

Where did the name Crimea come from?

Since ancient times, the peninsula, together with the adjacent Black Sea region, bore the proud name of Tavrika. This toponym obviously comes from the name of the Taurian tribes. He could be found on geographical maps up to the 17th century.

Since the middle of the 15th century, another name for the peninsula - Crimea - has become increasingly widespread. Most likely, it comes from the name of the Mongolian city of Kyrym. It was from here that the Khan of the Horde came from, who conquered and settled in the lands of the Northern Black Sea region.

After the annexation of Crimea to Russian Empire they began to call it differently - Taurida.

Features of the nature of Crimea

Despite its small area, the peninsula boasts a unique diversity natural conditions, as well as landscapes. Well, where else in the world can you visit a wild and deserted semi-desert, and then, after traveling some 50 kilometers, find yourself in the subtropics, surrounded by lush vegetation?

Crimea amazes with the beauty and diversity of its flora and fauna. More than 200 endemic species of flora can be found here. And in terms of species diversity of insects, Crimea has no equal in all of Europe!

On the peninsula there are dozens of seaside parks with exotic plantings, and the most beautiful grand caves underground, and even the so-called failed volcanoes - remnant mountains. The most famous of these peaks is Mount Ayu-Dag - a symbol of Gurzuf and the entire South Coast.

In terms of relief, the territory of Crimea can be divided into three parts: flat, mountainous and hilly. The Crimean Mountains consist of three parallel ridges. The highest of them reaches a height of 1500 meters ( highest point peninsula is Mount Roman-Kosh, 1545 m). Main ridge Crimean mountains, in turn, consists of separate arrays - yayl. Each of them has its own name (for example, Demerdzhi-yayla, Karabi-yayla, etc.).

Population of Crimea and its ethnic composition

According to statistics at the end of last year, about two million people live in Crimea. According to Ukrainian sources, almost 20,000 Crimeans left the peninsula throughout 2014. At the same time, it was replenished due to a significant influx of refugees from the war zone in Donbass (about 200 thousand people per year).

The ethnic composition of Crimea is very diverse. Representatives of more than 120 different nationalities live here. Even 250 years ago, the most numerous people of Crimea were the Tatars. However, over time the situation has changed dramatically. After the end of World War II most of Crimean Tatars were deported outside their historical homeland.

Today, the largest ethnic group on the peninsula are Russians (68%). Next come Ukrainians (16%), Crimean Tatars (12%) and Armenians (no more than 1%). The majority of Crimean residents are Orthodox.

Conclusion

Accurate in sq. km is 25.6 thousand. The total length of the peninsula's borders is 2,500 kilometers. Almost two million people now live in this territory.

The geographical position of Crimea is very favorable and has always been so. It was not for nothing that the ancient Greeks built their colony cities on its banks. The peninsula is deeply cut into the Black Sea and is connected to the mainland only by two rather thin isthmuses.

The Crimean Peninsula is located in the south of Eastern Europe between 44°23’ – 46°15’ north latitude and 32°29’ – 36°39’ east longitude. The area of ​​the peninsula is 26860 km2. The geographically integral, well-separated natural formation is administratively divided into three units: the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (the main part), the lands of the city of Sevastopol (in the southwest) and the Genichesk district of the Kherson region (the northern half of the Arabat Spit).

Crimea is rightly called the natural pearl of Ukraine. Here, at the junction of temperate and subtropical latitudes, a variety of landscapes have formed, including mountains and plains, ancient volcanoes and modern mud hills, seas and lakes, forests and steppes, stretching from the South Coast sub-Mediterranean to the semi-desert Sivash region...

Crimea is located in the latitudinal zone of the globe, located at equal distances from the equator and the North Pole (approximately 5 thousand kilometers each). In the north, the peninsula is attached to the mainland by the narrow (7-23 km) Perekop Isthmus. From the west and south, the peninsula is washed by the Black Sea, from the east by the Kerch Strait (the border with Asia!) and in the northeast by the Sea of ​​Azov and its Sivash Bay.

The Azov-Black Sea basin forms the easternmost edge of a chain of seas stretching from Atlantic Ocean. Thus, the Crimean peninsula is washed by the waters of the Atlantic. These seas, although interconnected, actually bear little resemblance to each other. The Black Sea is an oval-shaped, almost closed, very deep body of water (up to 2245 m). In terms of its water surface area (413,488 km2), the Black Sea flat-bottomed basin is more than 15 times larger than the Crimean Peninsula. The Sea of ​​Azov, on the contrary, is very shallow. Its greatest depth does not exceed 13.5 m. It is much smaller than the Black Sea in area (37,600 km2). The two bodies of water also differ sharply in other natural qualities. The Black Sea is saltier (18 ppm), almost non-freezing, it is contaminated with hydrogen sulfide and is therefore almost lifeless from a depth of 150-200 m. The Sea of ​​Azov has low salinity (up to 13 ppm), freezes annually and is saturated with living organisms throughout the entire water column. Sivash Lagoon - a bay of this sea, which has a constant area (from 2400 to 2700 km2), is completely shallow - from 0.5 to 3.5 m, but its salinity is extremely high - up to 200 ppm.

Crimea is the geographic focus of the Black Sea region. Connecting in the north with the East European Plain, its southern, mountainous outskirts extend far into the Azov-Black Sea basin. From the southernmost Crimean cape Sarych (44°23’ N) to the nearest Asia Minor cape Kerempe (42°02’ N) is only 250 km. From the same Cape Sarych to the shores Balkan Peninsula the distance is about 400 km, and a little less to the shores of the Caucasus. From the northernmost edge of the Perekop Isthmus (46°15’ N), where Crimea borders continental Ukraine, to the extreme south of the Cape Sarych peninsula – 195 km. From west to east – from Cape Priboyny on the Tarkhankut Peninsula (32°29’E) to Cape Fonar on the Kerch Peninsula (36°39’E) – 325 km. Based on these coordinates, it can be calculated that the geographic center of Crimea is located in the Nizhnegorsky district near the village. Hawks.

Located at latitude southern France and northern Italy.

Crimean rivers

The main river is Salgir. Her 232 -x kilometer-long channel begins in the area of ​​​​the Angarsk Pass and is lost off the coast of the Azov Sea. In total, approx. 150 rec. The most fertile and picturesque valleys are located between Bakhchisarai and Sevastopol. They are formed by the Alma, Kacha, Belbek, and Chernaya rivers.

Being essentially an island, it has become a kind of reserve for some endemic (not found anywhere except in this area) representatives of flora and fauna. Vegetable and animal world.

Rare plants and animals, unique landscapes that the peninsula is so rich in, are under conservation protection. Their total area is about 700 square kilometers, that's more 2,5% from the territory, one of the highest indicators of reserve saturation for the CIS. Many of the protected areas are visited by tourists; here you are required to be especially careful about nature.

In the extreme south of Ukraine, the Crimea peninsula juts deep into the Black Sea, resembling an irregular quadrangle.

It's small. Its area is only about 26 thousand square meters. km - 14 times less than Kamchatka. In the north, it is connected to the mainland by the narrow (up to 8 km) Perekop Isthmus, in the south and west it is washed by the waters of the Black Sea, in the northeast and east - by the Sea of ​​Azov and the Kerch Strait.

In the distant geological past, in the south of the Russian Plain there were extensive seas: Sarmatian, Meotic and Pontic. The bottom of the Pontic sea-lake began to rise, and its waters finally gathered in two basins: the Black Sea and the Caspian, which were first connected by the Kuma-Manych Strait. They then connected with Mediterranean Sea through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, they separated from it.

The modern Black Sea arose about 10 thousand years ago. It is one of the most deep seas among the CIS countries. Along its shores stretches a strip of coastal shallow water - a continental sandbank with depths of up to 200 m. This sandbank descends in several more or less steep ledges to the central part of the bottom. The maximum depth of the Black Sea is 2245 m. The Black Sea is warm. In summer, surface waters in the open sea warm up to 24-25°, and shallow coastal waters warm up to 28-29°. Winter surface water temperature open sea 6-7°. The temperature of the waters of the coastal part generally remains around 0° with slight fluctuations. In this regard, in its coastal part the sea freezes only in especially cold winters.

Located inland, desalinated by the rivers flowing into it, the Black Sea is a basin of medium salinity. The salinity of its surface waters is 16-18 ppm, that is, 16-18 parts by weight of salt per 1000 parts by weight of water. The deep waters of the Black Sea are saturated with hydrogen sulfide and are therefore lifeless.

Its organic world is very unique. Here are found fish that previously inhabited the Pontic sea-lake - Pontic relics, which include beluga, sturgeon, sturgeon, sprat, some species of gobies, etc. There are fish that, in the cold eras of the past, descended from the temperate latitudes of the Atlantic Ocean to the south, penetrated to the Mediterranean Sea, and from it to the Black Sea. Representatives of this so-called boreal-Atlantic group of fish are sprats, salmon, glossy flounder, dogfish shark, and sea fox ray. Representatives of the Arctic fauna - seals - are also found, although rarely. In 1934, a seal was spotted near Batumi.

The most numerous and diverse fish of the Mediterranean fauna are: mullet, mackerel, mackerel, red mullet, bonito, sea bass, sea crucian carp, flounder, and stingray.

Small fish also live: pipefish, seahorse, stickleback.

Two species of Mediterranean fish are poisonous. This sea ​​ruffe(scorpionfish) and sea dragon. The ruffe has a gland at the base of the second ray of the dorsal fin that produces a toxic liquid that causes a painful inflammatory process.

A large and bold predator is the swordfish. In a state of irritation, she attacks not only fishing scows, but even passing ships.

Dolphins are the most common mammals. There are three species in the Black Sea: the common dolphin, the common dolphin and the bottlenose dolphin. Dolphins breathe through their lungs. To change the air in their lungs, they jump out of the water at short intervals. As studies have shown, these animals have a highly developed central nervous system, and therefore are of great interest to science. Their fishing is prohibited. The flora of the Black Sea is also quite diverse. There is a lot of algae here. Among them are Ulva, Cystoseira, Laurentia and Phyllophora. Agaragar, a gelatinous substance of great practical importance, is extracted from phyllophora. Of the planktonic organisms, the most interesting are the protozoa - nocturnals, which cause water to glow in the autumn, during the period of their mass development.

The Sea of ​​Azov is a kind of Black Bay. It is connected to the Black Kerch Strait, which is 14-15 km wide and 40 km long. Even at the beginning of our era it was much wider. There was no Taman Peninsula then. In its place in the shallow strait there were five alluvial islands. Subsequently, these islands grew, connected and attached to the coast - this is how the Taman Peninsula was formed.

The Sea of ​​Azov is very shallow: it maximum depth 14 m. The small thickness of sea water is well ventilated, and in the summer it is well lit and warmed up. The rivers flowing into the Sea of ​​Azov bring a lot of mineral and organic substances. In this regard, in the Azov Sea there are many small and tiny organisms, both living on the bottom (benthos) and in the water column itself (plankton). They serve as good food for fish. Therefore, the Sea of ​​Azov is very fishy. Here they catch sprat, anchovy, herring, pike perch, bream, ram, sturgeon, and stellate sturgeon. In addition, it is an important food source for Black Sea fish.

A long (113 km) spit, the so-called Arabat Spit, separates its shallowest western part from the Sea of ​​Azov - Sivash, which is a very shallow body of water (maximum depth 3.2 m). Sivash connects with Sea of ​​Azov narrow (120 m) and shallow (2-3 m) Genichesk, or Thin Strait. In the conditions of an almost closed shallow basin, such as the Sivash, intense evaporation of water and concentration of various salts occur. This makes Sivash an extremely important salt production area and a source of raw materials for the chemical industry.

The Republic of Crimea occupies the territory Crimean peninsula.

The territory of the Republic of Crimea is 26.1 thousand square meters. km.

Length: from west to east – 360 km, from north to south – 180 km.

Extreme points: in the south – Cape Sarych; in the west – Cape Priboyny; in the east - Cape Lantern.

The most important sea ​​ports– Evpatoria, Yalta, Feodosia, Kerch.

Related regions: Krasnodar region Russian Federation, Kherson region of Ukraine.

The climate of the peninsula differs in its different parts: in the northern part it is temperate continental, in south coast with subtropical features. It is not typical for Crimea a large number of precipitation throughout the year, a large number of sunny days, the presence of breezes on the coast.

The relief of the Crimean peninsula consists of three unequal parts: the North Crimean Plain with the Tarkhankut Upland (about 70% of the territory), Kerch Peninsula and in the south - it stretches in three ridges mountain Crimea. The highest is the Main Range of the Crimean Mountains (1545 m, Mount Roman-Kosh), consisting of individual limestone massifs (yayls) with plateau-like peaks, deep canyons. The southern slope of the Main Ridge stands out as the Crimean sub-Mediterranean. The Inner and Outer ridges form the Crimean foothills.

The Crimean peninsula is washed by the Black and Azov seas.

The natural reserve fund includes 158 objects and territories (including 46 of national importance, the area of ​​which is 5.8% of the area of ​​the Crimean Peninsula). The basis of the reserve fund is 6 nature reserves with a total area of ​​63.9 thousand hectares: Krymsky with the branch “Swan Islands”, Yalta Mountain Forest, Cape Martyan, Karadagsky, Kazantipsky, Opuksky.

Crimea is a peninsula richly endowed with natural resources. In its depths and on the adjacent shelf there are industrial deposits of iron ore, combustible gas, mineral salts, construction raw materials, oil and gas condensate.

Natural ones are more important recreational resources peninsulas: mild climate, warm sea, healing mud, mineral water, picturesque landscapes.

The largest rivers are Salgir, Indol, Biyuk-Karasu, Chornaya, Belbek, Kacha, Alma, Bulganakh. The most long river Crimea - Salgir (220 km), the deepest - Belbek (water flow - 1500 liters per second).

There are more than 50 salt lakes in Crimea, the largest of them is Lake Sasyk (Kunduk) - 205 sq. km.

The population of Crimea as of January 1, 2013 is 1 million 965.2 thousand people. Including the economically active population is 970.3 thousand people, or less than 50% of the total population.

About 130 ethnic groups live in the Republic of Crimea. The largest ethnic groups are Russians (58.3%), Ukrainians (24.3%) and Crimean Tatars (12.1%).

Official languages: Russian, Ukrainian, Crimean Tatar.

Time zone: MSK (UTC+4).

Administrative-territorial structure: cities of republican significance - 11, districts - 14.

The capital of the Republic of Crimea is the city of Simferopol.

The representative body of the Republic of Crimea is the State Council of the Republic of Crimea.

The executive body of the Republic of Crimea is the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Crimea.

The Republic of Crimea has symbols: coat of arms, flag and anthem.