Khatanga

First mentioned in 1626, the town’s name in the Evenk language means “big water” or “lots of water.” The town sits on a high cliff or “nose” overlooking the river, secure from spring flooding. Near the town are: one of Russia’s largest nature preserves, the 1.7 million plus hectare Taymyr Preserve; the 100-kilometer-wide, 35-million-year-old Popigay asteroid crater, which in 2012 was found to have the world’s largest concentration of impact diamonds; and the ghost town of Nordvik, which was a penal colony and salt mine in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1859, the town’s population was 9. Today it has about 2,600 souls.