Siberia

Siberia (; Russian: Сибирь, tr. Sibir', IPA: [sʲɪˈbʲirʲ] (listen)) is an extensive geographical region in North Asia. It has been a part of Russia since the latter half of the 16th century, after the Russians conquered lands east of the Ural Mountains. Siberia is vast and sparse, and covers an area of over 13.1 million square kilometres (5,100,000 sq mi), but is home to merely one-fifths of Russia's entire population. Novosibirsk and Omsk are the largest cities in the region. Because Siberia is a geographic and historic region and not a political entity, there is no single precise definition of its territorial borders. Traditionally, Siberia extends eastwards from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, and includes most of the drainage basin of the Arctic Ocean. The river Yenisey divides Siberia into two parts, Western and Eastern. Siberia stretches southwards from the Arctic Ocean to the hills of north-central Kazakhstan and to the northern parts of Mongolia and China. The central part of Siberia (West and East Siberian economic regions) is considered the core part of the region in Russia.