Ukraine has seven World Heritage Sites

27.08.2018 13:36

Ukraine has seven World Heritage Sites

After Russia, Ukraine is Europe’s largest county at 603,628 square kilometers. It has seven World Heritage Sites, including the 11th century Saint-Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, the ancient city of Chersonesus, and the primeval beech forests of the Carpathians. Another is the Struve Geodetic Arc, a chain of survey triangulations linking Hammerfest in Norway to the Black Sea in Ukraine. It “helped to establish the exact size and shap e of the planet and marked an important step in the development of earth sciences and topographic mapping,” according to UNESCO. Beyond its World Heritage Sites it has a wealth of majestic Orthodox cathedrals, including St Michael's in Kiev.

City in Ukraine is “the geographical centre of Europe”

According to some geographer, within Ukraine is the geographical centre of Europe. Sure, this is disputable and a lot of of locations pretend to the title. It depends on how you measure Europe. But anyway, the small town of Rakhiv in western Ukraine is one of the serious pretender. The country has a second claimant in Transcarpathia, where an obelisk marks the spot.

Chernobyl disaster remains the biggest man-made disaster of all time

On April 26, 1986 the world witnessed the worst human made disaster in history and the effects are still being felt today. The Chernobyl disaster remains the only level 7 incident on the international Nuclear Event Scale (INES) making it the biggest man-made disaster of all time. The disaster released at least 100 times more radiation than the atom bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Nuclear rain from the disaster fell as far away as Ireland. 800,000 men risked their lives by exposing themselves to radiation in order to contain the situation. 25,000 of these have died and 70,000 are disabled. The accident has caused the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine hundreds of billions of dollars.

The largest and oldest forest of Europe with the largest animal in Europe is situated in Belarus

The first thing that tourists say when visiting Belarus is that it is green, clean, safe, and comparing to Russia and Ukraine, it has excellent roads. The territory of Belarus in 40% consists of forests, which symbolizes the green strip in the Belarusian flag. The largest and oldest forest of Europe with the largest animal in Europe is situated in Belarus. We are talking here about the Bialowieza Forest on the border with Poland and the animal is European Bison.

The capital of Belarus – Minsk, was completely destroyed during the Second World War

The first plan was to rebuild it in a different place, about 30 kilometers from the initial place, due to a large area of ruins. Still, following the example of Warsaw, it was rebuilt in the same place and now is a very nice city with lots of unique attractions for its visitors. Minsk is a very green and clean city. In addition to numerous parks, here is the third largest botanical garden in the world.

The longest street in Belarus is a candidate for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The longest street in Belarus is Independence Avenue in Minsk. In its history, it not only grew in length and width, but also changed 14 names. This is one of the last major neoclassical ensembles in the world architecture, one of the longest streets in Europe, a candidate for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The monuments of Lenin were not removed in Belarus

Belarus is the only country of the former USSR that has restored the Soviet flag (with minor changes). The monuments of Lenin were not removed here. Such monuments are still the only sights of many small towns.