Irkutsk - Sightseeing

Today Irkutsk has about 600 000 inhabitants and is sixth biggest city of Siberia. It lies on the Angara river, at the convfluence of the river Irkut. The name of the city comes from the name of this river. The Lake Baikal is located in distance of 66 km from Irkutsk.

5 years ago I've already been to Irkutsk and since then a lot has changed here.

Here some pictures of the city:

Emblem of Irkutsk. It illustrutates a "babr" (the name of the Amur tiger on Yakut) with a sable in mouth. He's the symbol of Irkutsk since 1690.

 

 

Irkutsk by night

 

 Bridal bouquet in front of registrar's Office

 Irkutsk is famous for its architecture. Many of old wooden houses have been sustained. Very often you see them right next to modern buildings made of stone and glass. Many streets consist of old wooden houses only. The historic city Irkutsk is registered on the preliminary list of the World Heritage Site of UNESCO.

In a shopping centre

Kvass is an old East Slavic fermented beverage. It is made of water, rye and malt and is also known as bread beverage. It contains 0,05-1,4% of alcohol and is comparable with malt beer in colour and taste, but is less sweet. In all Russian cities it is being sold on streets out of such barrels. Nowadays you can buy it also in supermarkets, filled in bottles.



Since 2012 you can see the symbol of Irkutsk also made of stone.