User:Xerxes b/Khanty-Mansiysk

Khanty-Mansiysk (Russian: Ха́нты-Манси́йск, transliterated Khanty-Mansiysk; Khanty: Ёмвош, transliterated Yomvosh) is an oil boom town in Russia, the administrative center of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. It is located on the Irtysh River, 15 km from its confluence with the Ob. The population as of the 2002 Census was 53,953, up from 34,462 recorded in the 1989 Census. It is served by Khanty-Mansiysk Airport.

A bridge crossing the Irtysh was opened in Khanty-Mansiysk in 2004. The bridge consists of fourteen spans and has a total length of 1,315.9 meters. Its main span is 231 m long.

Khanty-Mansiysk is hosting the 2009 Chess World Cup championship from November 20 to December 15, 2009.

Khanty-Mansiysk was the venue of the 2003 Biathlon World Championships, and in 2005 the first Mixed Biathlon Relay (4×6 km) took place here. The town also hosted the 2005 Chess World Cup and the 2007 Chess World Cup.

History
It was founded in 1930 as a work settlement Ostyako-Vogulsk (Остяко-Вогульск) after the obsolete names of Ostyaks and Voguls for the Khanty and Mansi peoples, three kilometres from the village of Samarovo, which had itself been founded in 1582. In 1940, it was renamed Khanty-Mansiysk, and it was granted town status in 1950. By this time, it had also merged with the village of Samarovo. On the 28th of March, 1995, it was made the capital of the newly formed federal subject of Russia, Khantia-Mansia.

Today Khanty-Mansiysk is a flourishing town, which in recent years has received considerable foreign investment. For example, in 2007, the English architect Norman Foster signed an agreement to build a 280-metre high skyscraper in an attractive part of the town. When it is built, the Crystal Skyscraper will be one of the tallest buildings in Russia. Besides this, the Dutch architect Erick Van Egeraat is planning to build a business complex in the town centre.

Geography
The town is located in Western Siberia on the eastern bank of the Irtysh, and less than 30 kilometres from that river's confluence with the Ob. It is 950 kilometres by road from Tyumen and 1900 kilometres from Moscow as the bird flies.

Climate
The climate in Khanty-Mansiysk is extreme, with temperatures as low as -49 C° and as high as 34.5 C°. On average, however, the region is very cold, with an average tempurature of -1.1 C°. Precipitation tends to be fairly low; 553 millimetres per year.

Other information

 * Average wind speed — 2.7 m/s
 * Average humidity — 77%



Miscellaneous
A bridge crossing the Irtysh was opened in Khanty-Mansiysk in 2004. The bridge consists of fourteen spans and has a total length of 1,315.9 meters. Its main span is 231 m long.

Khanty-Mansiysk is hosting the 2009 Chess World Cup championship from November 20 to December 15, 2009.

Khanty-Mansiysk was the venue of the 2003 Biathlon World Championships, and in 2005 the first Mixed Biathlon Relay (4×6 km) took place here. The town also hosted the 2005 Chess World Cup and the 2007 Chess World Cup.