Russia

Saint Basil’s Cathedral, Moscow

Photograph by Izzet Keribar/IML Image Group

Legend has it that St. Basil’s Cathedral’s beauty cost its architect his eyes. The Moscow monument was built between 1555 and 1561 by Ivan the Terrible to commemorate a victory over the Mongols, and he’s said to have blinded the architect so that he couldn’t create a rival masterpiece. The Russian St. Basil the Blessed lies interred within the church.

Garden Ring, Moscow

Photograph by Gerd Ludwig

Moscow’s Garden Ring road was laid out in the early 1800s, but the view in those days was nothing like this one from the top of the Peking Hotel. The original ring was a tree-lined boulevard that traced the path of the city’s ancient outer wall. Today central Moscow lies inside the ring, but the city stretches well beyond.

Krasheninnikov Volcano

Photograph by Michael Melford

Krasheninnikov Volcano boasts two stunning, snowcapped summit cones. Located on the Pacific shore of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, it last erupted some 400 years ago. One indication of how big Russia is: The peninsula is as far from Moscow as Moscow is from Boston.

Brown Bear

Photograph by Randy Olson

A brown bear in Kurilskoye Lake shows its fishing prowess—and he won’t be practicing catch and release. This Kamchatka Peninsula lake is home to hundreds of bears, and visitors can see them tuck into a feast during the wild salmon run, one of Earth’s greatest. The bears share the fish with white-tailed eagles, golden eagles, and Steller’s sea eagles.

Soldiers at Kremlin, Moscow

Photograph by Georgy Zvonkov, My Shot

Troops line up at one of the gates to the Kremlin. A walled fortress has stood on this Moscow site for the better part of a thousand years. Today the Kremlin is the home of Russia’s president, but on its grounds are public attractions such as the Patriarch’s Palace, the State Armory, and several churches.

Reindeer Herder

Photograph by Steve Winter

A man herds reindeer in Bystrinsky Park on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. He’s one of the region’s indigenous Even people, who cherish their traditional herding culture even as they welcome increasing numbers of tourists to the high peaks, sprawling forests, and lush tundra and meadows of their homeland—one of the world’s truly wild places.

Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

Photograph by Richard Nowitz

The Hermitage houses one of the world’s greatest art collections in one of the world’s most impressive groups of buildings. A famous former occupant of the palace, Catherine the Great, acquired the core of the collection during her 18th-century reign. Later, new treasures and buildings were added for the enjoyment of other royals and, eventually, the public.

Easter Midnight Mass, Vorkuta

Photograph by Gerd Ludwig

A congregation in Vorkuta gathers to celebrate Easter at a midnight Mass. This coal-mining town, north of the Arctic Circle, was founded as a labor camp. Partly because it was a notorious gulag, partly because of the antichurch positions of the Soviet Union, the town didn’t have a dedicated church building until 2007.

Lake Baikal

Photograph by Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images

Siberia’s Lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world—at over a mile (1,700 meters)—and holds an incredible 20 percent of Earth’s unfrozen fresh water. Formed some 25 million years ago, it’s also the world’s oldest lake. Because of its age and isolation, hundreds of aquatic species evolved here that are found nowhere else on the planet.