Khakassia

Khakassia (Russian: Хака́сия khuh-KAHS-ee-yuh) is a region in Western Siberia, which borders Altai Republic to the southwest, Kemerovo Oblast to the west, Krasnoyarsk Krai to the north and east and Tuva to the southeast.

Khakassia is named for the Khakass people, close relatives of the Kyrgyz, who comprise only about 10% of the population. Khakassia is often called Siberia's Archaeological Mecca for its enormous quantity of important archaeological sites. Khakassia is full of monuments to the cultural history bestowed upon the region by the people who have inhabited and traversed its steppes for 30,000 years. Travelers may take interest in the many kurgans (burial mounds), sacred sites, rock drawings, stone obelisks, ruined cities, ruins of forts (as old as 3,000 years), and near ubiquitous menhirs.

• Abakan — Khakassia's only real "city" and the regional capital
• Abaza — the most important town in southern Khakassia, near the Tuvan border
• Chernogorsk — Second largest population center and location of former gulag
• Sayanogorsk — an extraordinarily polluted alluminum smelting town
• Shira — a village near the salty Lake Shira, home to an old Soviet health spa
• Sorsk

• The Great Salbyk Kurgan — a grandiose burial mound 7 stories high
• Chazy Nature Reserve
• Khakassky Nature Reserve — stone markers atop ancient burial mounds abound in this steppe reserve
• Maly Abakan Nature Reserve

Everyone understands Russian; while the Khakass minority speaks Khakas, a Turkic language, they are nearly all bilingual.

You can get to Abakan by rail from the junction at Taishet (Irkutsk Oblast), which is located on the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Abakan's small airport is serviced by domestic flights to/from Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Norilsk, Novosibirsk, Vladivostok, and Kyzyl.

• Check out the Khakass national holiday "Tum-Payram" (7 days / 6 nights) on June, 28th-04 July, 2006