Kyiv
Kyiv is the capital and the largest
city of Ukraine, located in the north
central part of the country on the
Dnieper River. The name Kyiv is
derived from the name of Kiy, one of
four legendary founders of the city.
By the ancient legend Kyiv was
founded by three brothers Kiy,
Schek, Khoriv and their sister Lybid.
They were surprised by the beauty
of Dnieper’s hills, stopped to settle here and called the town in honour of the
eldest brother- Kyiv. A monument to the founders was erected at the
Dnieper embankment in our days. The town’s place was chosen successfully,
the high Dnieper’s slopes were perfect protection against the raids of nomad
tribes.
Kyiv stretches for the space of more than 20 km along the picturesque banks
of the biggest Ukrainian river — Dnipro. Its square consists 827 sq.km. The
population of Kyiv is about 3 millions people.
Kyiv is one of the oldest Slavic centres, “Mother of Russian towns” so it was
called in olden times, its age is more than 1500 years. The first settlements
on the territory of modern Kyiv appeared from 15000 till 20000 year ago.
During the time of Vladimir
Great
(980-1015)
government our city begins
develop especially rapidly. In
to consolidate Kyiv Russ and
increase
its
international

influence the prince Vladimir
baptized the Russ in 988.
Christianity and became that
impulse
for
further
development
of
written
language and culture.

the
to
order
to

Today Kyiv is an important industrial, scientific, educational and cultural
centre of Eastern Europe. It is home to many high-tech industries, higher
education institutions and world-famous historical landmarks. The city has an


extensive
infrastructure
highly developed system of
transport, including the
Metro.

and
public
Kyiv


The capital of Ukraine has
got
great cultural potential.
There
are
more
that
30
museums,
about
200
unique
architectural monuments,
33
theatres,
enormous
quantity of constant active art exhibitions. Kyiv is one of the greenest cities
of the world, it has more that 60 parks. In spring and summer the city
resembles one huge park.
There are many historical places in Kyiv. For example, St Sophia Cathedral,
which was built in the 11th century, Kyiv-Pecherska Lavra that was founded
in the 11th century, St Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, which was ruined
and recently completely restored, St. Andrew’s church in baroque style.
The monument to Taras Shevchenko, the great Ukrainian poet, is in front of
the University, named after him. The monument to Bohdan Khmelnitsky,
famous hetman of Ukraine, stands in the square opposite to St Sophia
Cathedral.
Kyiv is the centre of cultural life of Ukraine. Fans of theatre, cinema, music,
painting and other arts can find there many interesting for themselves.

There are lots of museums in Kyiv: the Museum of Ukrainian Arts, the
Historic Museum, the Taras Shevchenko Museum, the Lesya Ukrainka
Museum, the museum of M. Bulgakov and others.