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Cape Zhelaniya

geography Maturity 11-13 Next article →

Cape Zhelaniya is a special point of land in Russia.

Kap Zhelanyia 2 2014-09-03
Kap Zhelanyia 2 2014-09-03

It sits at the very top of Severny Island. This island is the northern part of Novaya Zemlya. The cape is a famous landmark for sailors. It marks where two different seas meet. One sea is the Barents Sea. The other sea is the Kara Sea. This place is now part of the Russian Arctic National Park.

The land here is very quiet and empty. It is a desolate place to visit. The area faces bitter Arctic winters. These winters are very cold and harsh. Because it is so wild, it is protected. The weather can be quite tough here.

Kap Zhelaniya 1 2014-09-03
Kap Zhelaniya 1 2014-09-03

This makes the area feel very remote and lonely.

A man named William Barents found this place. He was an explorer from the Netherlands. He arrived there in the year 1595. He gave the cape its name. In Dutch, the name means "Cape Desire." This name is why the Russian name is Zhelaniya. The name has stayed with the land for a long time.

This place has seen many big events. A Soviet station was there during World War II. The German navy shelled the station during Operation Wunderland. Later, the cape became a secret experimental station. This happened during the Cold War. Many nuclear tests took place on Novaya Zemlya. There were 88 atmospheric tests done in that area.

People have used this cape to study the sky. It worked as a weather station until 1994. Now, people use a different way to track the air. An automatic meteorological station sits there now. This machine has been working since 2005. It helps us learn about the Arctic climate. It is a small but important part of the north.

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