The city of Kyzyl

The capital of Tuva is the city of Kyzyl. It means "red" in Tuvan. It was founded in 1914 (shortly before the communist revolution) as the town of Belotsarsk. It was actually disputed border territory between Russia and China at the time. The earliest two Russian towns in Tuva were founded in 1878 and 1885. Before that the land was undisputedly part of the Chinese empire. The Tuvan people were also completely nomadic until the 20th century.

Kyzyl is a city of 109 000 people. The population of Tuva is 300 000 of which 80% are Tuvan and 20% are Russian. It falls a long way behind other Russian cities that we have been to as far as services are concerned. Kyzyl has one new supermarket (the rest are old style soviet grocery stores), which is the hippest place to hang out in town. For decent shopping one has to drive about 5 hours to the city of Abakan. Tuva is at the end of the supply line, even airmail seems to take 3 months to get there. This is because there is no train line going there. Although there is talk that a train line will be built to Tuva.

The city is located on the bank of the Yenisey river, which is one of Russia's largest rivers, that flows north through Krasnoyarsk all the way to the Arctic Ocean. Tuva is geographically "cold desert steppe." Trees do not grow naturally in much of Tuva at all. (Personally I find this very hard, I need trees to live.) The land is sandy and rocky with a thin layer of fragile grass on the top. Trees have been planted artificially in Kyzyl.


The Yenisey River:



Kyzyl is located directly in the geographic centre of the continent of Asia. This monument marks the spot- Tuva's big claim to fame.



This monument marks the victory of the reds over the whites in the post revolutionary war!



The "parliament" building of Tuva. The new Tuvan president gave a question and answer session while we were there. Apparently there could still be an election in the next couple years. This president is a replacement for the previous president who was sacked.



Performing arts theatre.



Don't be fooled by the number of trees in this picture. While there are trees in Kyzyl, that is not the norm for Tuva. A bit of shopping on the street never goes astray.