Description to topographic map set Kamchatka

Topographic map set Kamchatka has now a short reference article. In this article one will find information about geographic location of Kamchatka peninsula, peculiarities of its relief, main bays, gulfs and rocky peninsulas of Kamchatka. Also one will get to know what rivers and lakes are situated in Kamchatka region. Besides, you will find a lot of information about volcanoes and thermal springs located in Kamchatka.  One can also read about main reserves and national parks of Kamchatka. Especially for tourists the article contains a section “Tourism”, where main kinds of sport and popular places of Kamchatka are described.

Kamchatka is a peninsula in the north-east of Eurasia, situated on the territory of Russia. The eastern coast of the peninsula is strongly indented, which forms large bays – Kronotsky, Kamchatsky, Ozernoi, Karaginsky and Korfa – as well as small bays, such as Avachinskaya, Karaga, Ossora, Anastasiya, Buyan, Vilyuchinskaya, Kommandor, Listvennichnaya, Medvezhka, Morzhovaya and Yuzhno-Glubokaya. A string of rocky peninsulars – Shipunsky, Kronotsky, Kamchatsky and Ozernoi – go far out into the sea.

There are over 6,000 large and small rivers flowing on the territory of Kamchatka – the Zhupanova, the Bystraya (Malkinskaya), the Kol, the Karymchina, the Levaya Avacha, the Opala, the Pymta, the Elovka, the Tigil, the Pravaya Avacha, the Bystraya (Essovskaya) and the Levaya Shchapina.The Kamchatka is the largest river of the Kamchatka peninsula.

Kamchatka has a great number of lakes – Kurilskoye, Karymskoye, Ksudach, Khangar, Uzontakiye, Azhabachye, Nachikinskoye and Dvukhyurtochnoe, Nalychevo, Shtyubelya, Dalneye, Dolgoye, Zelyonoye, Ilir-Gytkhyn, Kalagir, Ketachan, Kostakan, Palanskoye, Potat-Gytkhyn, Saranskoye, Seva, Sokoch, Teploye and Topolyovoe. The largest lake in Kamchatka is Lake Kronotskoye, which was formed in a river valley blocked by powerful lava streams of Krashennikov volcano.

Volcanoes are the most prominent sights of the Kamchatka peninsula. In total, there are 160 volcanoes in Kamchatka, of which 28 are active.

• Klyuchevskoi volcano is the biggest in Eurasia (4,750 m). It is part of the Klyuchevskaya volcano group, alongside Kamen, Bezymyanny, Plosky Tolbachik and other volcanoes. This volcano is about 8,000 years old. The mountain guide Daniel Ghauss was the first to ascend Klyuchevskoi volcano in 1788;
• Karymsky volcano is not high (1,486 m), quite young (6,100 years old) and the most active volcano in Kamchatka;
• Maly Semyachik volcano is a volcanic ridge about 3 km long, whose crest has three craters;
• Gorely volcano is a chain of 11 overlapping craters and lakes;
• Avachinsky volcano is an active complex volcano with a regular cone 2,751m high;
• Dzenzursky volcano is a ruined volcanic massif with a glacier cirque crater;
• Vilyuchinsky volcano is an extinct volcano with a regular cone, 2,175 m high;
• Mutnovsky volcano is a complex volcanic massif, 2,323 m high, which has rare minerals glaciers and lakes;
• Ostry Tolbachik is an old volcano, 3,682 m high, with a pointed ice-coated top;
• Ksudach volcano is an ancient volcano with a truncated cone and calderas filled with crater lakes, 1,000 m high.

There are a number of other volcanoes in Kamchatka - Anaun, Asacha, Bakening, Zheltovsky, Zhirovoi, Zhupanovsky, Ilyinsky, Ichinsky, Kizimen, Komarova, Koryaksky, Kupol, Olegenze, Khangar and Khodutka.

Kamchatka offers many popular kinds of tourism:

• Hiking toward the mountains Babiy Kamen, Zaykin Mys, Lyedyanaya and Moroznaya, through the mountain tundra from Anaun volcano to Ichinsky volcano, through the Vachkazhets mountain massif to the volcanoes Tobachik, Kizimen, Mutnovsky, Avachinsky and Gorely;
• Skiing tourism along the Levaya Shchapina river in the central part of Kamchatka, through the Nalychevo natural park, along the slopes of the volcanoes Avachynsky and Koryasky; downhill skiing at the Krasnaya Sopka and Moroznaya resorts;
• Fishing on the Bystraya, the Opala, Vakhil, the Kamchatka, the Pymta, the Tigil, the Bolshaya, the Bolshaya Khodutka, the Ostrovnaya, the Elovka, the Golygina, the Zhupanova rivers and on the Kommandorskiye Islands;
• Hunting in the Valaginsky and Middle mountain ranges in the central part of Kamchatka as well as the eastern part of Kamchatka in the basin of the Zhupanova River (100 km north of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky);
• Speleology at Mutnovsky and Tolbachinsky.