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Ukraine blog Your Ukraine blog 2012-02-09T05:12:24-06:00 DotClear daily 1 2012-02-09T05:12:24-06:00 Explore Ukraine’s Snake Island 2012-02-09T05:12:24-06:00 2012-02-09T05:12:24-06:00 http://www.ukraine.com/blog/explore-ukraines-snake-island Editor Features

Ukraine's Snake Island, also known as Serpent Island or Zmiiniy Island, is located near the Danube Delta in the Black Sea around 35 kilometers off the mainland coast. The island consists of igneous rock formed by the cooling and solidifying of lava or magma, with its highest point being around 41 meters above sea level. The waters around the island, which is a State protected area, are teaming with life. Up to fifty fish species and six crab species have been identified, with some of them being recorded as endangered in the Red Book of Ukraine.

As one of the six major rivers of Ukraine that have not been contained in dams or re-directed by human intervention, the Desna winds its way across the countryside from where it originates in the Smolensk Oblast of Russia. It crosses the Russian-Ukrainian border and flows through the Chernihiv and Sumy Oblasts of Ukraine, before ending its 1,130 kilometer journey near Kiev, where it empties into the Dnieper River. Parts of the river may freeze over in winter, and rain, melting snow and ice cause it to flood the surrounding areas and fill up the many picturesque lakes that depend on it for water.

Believed to date back to early medieval times, the town of Medzhybizh is first documented as an estate in Kievan Rus when it became the property of Prince Svyatoslav of Kiev in 1146. Lying at the confluence of the Buh and Buzhenka rivers, Medzhybizh' position made it an attractive target for those seeking to dominate the region and the town changed hands repeatedly in the following years. Evidence of the various periods of occupation by Cossacks, Turks, Poles and Russians, are found in the architecture and ruins of the town, as well as in the ancestry and religious beliefs of the people who live there.

Visitors to Ukraine will marvel at the magnificence of the Carpathian Mountains in the south-west, or at the many beautiful buildings and churches in Kiev, the country's capital. Younger visitors may choose to jump on a train down to the Crimea, where a sunshine party atmosphere rivals that of the Balearic Islands. Bodan and Varvara Khanenko Museum of Art in Kiev 2011-12-29T03:39:08-06:00 2011-12-29T03:39:08-06:00 http://www.ukraine.com/blog/bodan-and-varvara-khanenko-museum-of-art-in-kiev Editor Travel

Housing the largest collection of foreign art in Ukraine, the Bogdan and Varvara Khanenko Museum of Art is located off the Taras Shevchenko Boulevard in Kiev. Also referred to as the Museum of Western and Oriental Art, the museum is renowned for its extensive collection of sculptures, paintings, etchings and decorative arts from the Middle East, Far East and Western Europe. The Renaissance-style museum building is itself an historic treasure dating back to the mid-1800s. It was commissioned by husband and wife patrons of the arts, Bogdan and Varvara Khanenko, featuring the family coat of arms and three decorative towers.

Visitors to the town of Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi, located at the confluence of the Alta River and Trubizh River in the Kiev Oblast of Ukraine, will find that there are plenty of interesting attractions to visit. In fact, the entire town has been proclaimed as a historical sanctuary, with a history going back to before the year 911 where it was first recorded in the text of the treaty between the Byzantine Empire and Kievan Rus. Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi is situated 95 kilometers south of Kiev and serves as the administrative center of the district of the same name.

Believed to be the only park of its kind, the Forged Figures Park, or Park of Iron Sculptures, located in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk was established in 2001 and has become one of the city's more unusual attractions. Often referred to as the City of a Million Roses, the rose is a much-loved symbol of Donetsk, and so it was especially fitting that the first wrought iron sculpture to be displayed in the park was a bouquet of roses. Ten more sculptures were added to the park and soon the interest in the sculptures had grown to the extent that an annual festival, referred to as the Roses of Donetsk, was being held in the park, giving sculptors the opportunity to display their forged iron artworks to the public.

Believed to have built around 4000 BCE, and therefore corresponding to the early Yamna or Dnieper-Donets culture of Ukraine, Merheleva Ridge was discovered in 2004 by a group of school children from Alchevsk while on an archeology camp with their history teacher. Although the teacher, Vladimir Paramonov, had been taking students to the hilly area near Perevalsk, in the Luhansk oblast, since 1995, this was a new discovery and it created quite a stir of excitement in the archeology community.

The ground on which the town of Mariyampil is built is believed to have been inhabited since the Paleolithic era. Located on the left bank of the scenic Dniester River, with rolling green hills as far as the eye can see, it is easy to understand why this beautiful part of Ukraine was chosen for a settlement. The settlement remained inhabited throughout the era of the Kingdom of Galicia (1199-1349), but was later destroyed, with the existing town of Mariyampil being built in 1691.

The historical St. Michaels Vydubtsky Men's Monastery, typically known as the Vydubychi Monastery, stands on a hill in the city of Kiev. The monastery complex is amongst the oldest sacred sites in the country, boasting medieval foundations and baroque cupolas, all surrounded by abundant vegetation. The monastery's church choir is well-known and was one of the first to sing the Divine Liturgy in Ukrainian when the country became independent.