The most popular touristic sights of Russia

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Inbound and outbound tourism in Russia started developing rapidly at the end of the 20^th century. Rich cultural heritage and great natural variety place Russia among the most popular tourist destinations in the world.

The country contains 23 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, while many more are on UNESCO's tentative lists.

Major tourist routes in Russia include a travel around the Golden Ring of ancient cities, cruises on the big rivers like Volga, and long journeys on the famous Trans-Siberian Railway.

The most popular tourist destinations in Russia are Saint Petersburg (which appeared in the list of top visited cities of Europe in 2010) and Moscow.

Moscow and Saint Petersburg have such world-known museums as the Hermitage and the Tretyakov Gallery, the famous theaters like Bolshoi and Mariinsky, churches like Saint Basil's Cathedral and Saint Isaac's Cathedral, impressive fortifications like the Moscow Kremlin and Peter and Paul Fortress, beautiful squares like Red Square and Palace Square, and streets like the Arbat and Nevsky Prospect. Rich palaces and parks of extreme beauty are found in the former imperial residences in suburbs of Moscow (Kolomenskoye, Tsaritsyno) and Saint Petersburg (Peterhof, Strelna, Oranienbaum, Gatchina, Pavlovsk Palace, Tsarskoye Selo). Grand Cascade in Peterhof, nicknamed Russian Versaille, is the most popular tourist destination in Saint Petersburg.

Moscow contains a great variety of impressive Soviet era buildings along with modern scyscrapers, while Saint Petersburg, nicknamed Venice of the North, boasts of its classical architecture, many rivers, channels and bridges.

Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, shows a unique mix of Christian Russian and Muslim Tatar cultures.

The city has registered a brand of the Third Capital of Russia, though a number of other major Russian cities compete for this status, like Samara, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg and Nizhny Novgorod, all being major cultural centers with rich history and prominent architecture.

Veliky Novgorod, Pskov, Dmitrov and the cities of Golden Ring (Vladimir, Yaroslavl, Kostroma and others) have at best preserved the architecture and the spirit of ancient and medieval Rus, and also are among the main tourist destinations.

Seaside harbour in Sochi, a subtropical Russian city and the host of the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2014 Winter Paralympics

The warm subtropical Black Sea coast of Russia is the site for a number of popular sea resorts, like Sochi, known for its beaches and wonderful nature. At the same time Sochi can boast a number of major ski resorts, like the Krasnaya Polyana; the city is the host of 2014 Winter Olympics.

The mountains of the Northern Caucasus contain many other popular ski resorts, like the Dombay in Karachay–Cherkessia.

The most famous natural tourist destination in Russia is Lake Baikal, named the Blue Eye of Siberia. This unique lake, oldest and deepest in the world, has crystal-clean waters and is surrounded by taiga-covered mountains.

Other popular natural destinations include Kamchatka with its volcanoes and geysers, Karelia with its many lakes and granite rocks, Altai with its snowy mountains and Tyva with its wild steppes.

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