The Magadan Region established in 1953 is located in the remote north-eastern corner of Russia and washed by the Arctic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.

The major part of the territory is taken by Kolyma and Chukotka Uplands and Anadyr Plateau. The major rivers are Kolyma and Anadyr.

The Magadan Region is a land of abundant nature resources. Since the start of exploration of this land around 3 000 tons of gold, tungsten, etc. have been found there. Silver, tin, uranium, and iron are mined there. The Magadan Region is the world’s biggest agate-bearing land.

The Magadan Region is one of the unique places of Russia by its set of unusual nature complexes, favourable for recreation and travel, ecological tours around the vast expanses of virgin nature, and adventures tours that have gained popularity in the international market.

One of the attractive peculiarities of the Magadan Region are it thermal waters. The thermal springs closest to Magadan are situated in the Khmitevskogo Peninsula.

History

In the 18th century the territory was occupied by the Yakut, before the first campaigns of the Russian Cossacks to the Kolyma area. The history of the Magadan Region actually started in the 1920s with the arrival of scientific prospecting expeditions. In the early 1930s the expeditions discovered deposits of gold. By the end of the 1930s first gold-mining fields were founded, and settlements grew around them. During that period unpaid convict labour was intensely used at the hardest mining works in the Magadan area. Starting from the 1950s the convicts in the mining field were gradually replaced by manpower resources from other regions of the country.