!!!Moscow, Grand Tour

Photo by Dmitry Moiseenko,
Ivan Roslyakov,
Stanislav Sedov,
Sergey Semenov and
Dmitry Chistoprudov,
members of the [AirPano Team|Geography/About/Consortium/AirPano,_Team] that is a member of the [global-geography Consortium|Geography/About/Consortium]. \\

16 December 2013

with kind permission of [AirPano|http://www.AirPano.com]

We present to you the virtual tour, which we have been shooting over the
most famous sights of Moscow. Also we created a brief summary "Moscow,
the best", which contains 22 panoramas of the most interesting places of
the city. For today "Grand tour of Moscow, Russia" is our largest
project, it includes 107 panoramas.

[{Image src='01_Saint Basil_s Cathedral.jpg' caption='Saint Basil_s Cathedral' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='660'}]

As surprising as it may be, but Moscow, one of the most famous cities in
the world, attracts only 5 million tourists a year.

Here are some numbers for comparison: Paris sees 29 million tourists a
year, Berlin — 10 million tourists a year.

However, the reasons for such low interest in Moscow lies only in
technical complexities of organizing the trip to Russia: there are
numerous difficulties in getting visa and mysterious Russian weather
often frightens sun-loving and demanding travelers.

But those who do make it to the capital of Russia don't get
disappointed. Moscow is Europe's largest metropolis with unforgettable
atmosphere and unique historical monuments that reflect the history of
Russia.

[{Image src='02_Peter the Great Statue.jpg' caption='Peter the Great Statue' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='630'}]

According to the legend Moscow is situated on seven hills. The Kremlin,
a settlement around which the modern capital of Russia grew, is situated
on one of those hills — the Borovitsky Hill. The first mention of Moscow
dates back to year 1147, and since then, for almost nine centuries, the
city experienced a myriad of events, and it has been destroyed and
rebuilt over and over again.

[{Image src='03_Gagarin_s monument.jpg' caption='Gagarin_s monument' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='537'}]

The main attraction of Moscow, the famous Moscow Kremlin, was originally
built from wood, but in the 14th century, after being destroyed again,
it was rebuilt from a local white stone. It was from that moment on that
Moscow was referred to as "Moscow of white stone" ("Moskva
belokamennaya"). The walls of the Kremlin were whitewashed long after
white stone was replaced with burnt bricks: it was done in the memory of
"Moscow of white stone", referring to the glorious part of the city's
past.

[{Image src='04_Vodovzvodnaya Tower.jpg' caption='Vodovzvodnaya Tower' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='550'}]

At the beginning of the 16th century "the seven hills settlement" became
the capital of the united Russian state, which gave stimulus to its
economic and cultural growth. But while all towers and temples in Moscow
were built of stone, the city fire destroyed almost all other old houses
in 1812, and Moscow had to be rebuilt all over again.

Burned buildings were replaced with new ones, mostly in classical style:
it's those buildings, as well as the modern style ones that were built
in the end of the 19th century, that are now comprise what is called
"the old Moscow".

[{Image src='05_Kolomenskoe.jpg' caption='Kolomenskoe' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='559'}]

Architecture of the Soviet period has also left a great impact on the
face of the city. The Shukhov Tower became one of the first notable
sights of Moscow: a hyperboloid structure made from steel mesh shell was
very innovative and bold for 1920s. Another notable landmark of the last
century is the All-Russian Exhibition Center, one of the 50 largest
exhibition centers in the world.

[{Image src='06_Taganka Square.jpg' caption='Taganka Square' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='611'}]

And the most famous buildings are the "Stalinist skyscrapers" — seven
high-rise buildings built from the late 1940s to early 1950s. Despite
the fact that the idea was taken from American skyscrapers, architects
were able to create original architectural solutions, which were later
called "Stalin's empire style" or "Soviet monumental classicism".
Nowadays these high-rise buildings are considered to be the pinnacle of
the post-war Soviet Art Deco style and the most important landmarks that
end up on every photo of Moscow.

[{Image src='07_Stalinist skyscrapers.jpg' caption='Stalinist skyscrapers' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='599'}]

Three of the seven high-rise buildings are located near the famous
Garden Ring. It's a circular avenue with circumference of 15.6
kilometers and a width of 70 meters built (paved with asphalt) on top of
ancient earth mounds that were used to defend Moscow in the 16th
century.

[{Image src='08_Bolshoi Theatre.jpg' caption='Bolshoi Theatre' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='657'}]

There were more than 130 rivers in Moscow, but now most of them are
backfilled. However, the city can offer you very beautiful views of the
water: the famous Moskva River, and the smaller Yauza River, Setun
River, Shodnya River, Gorodnia River, and many others.

[{Image src='09_Saviour Tower.jpg' caption='Saviour Tower' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='626'}]

Bridges, just like Moscow's buildings, are unique monuments of Moscow.
For example, the Crimean Bridge built in 1938 was the first of the six
European bridges that is 168 meters in length. There is also the famous
Borodinsky Bridge built to commemorate the Battle of Borodino. Among the
most interesting modern bridges is Zhivopisny Bridge in Serebryany Bor,
which has no analogues in the world. Its pylon has a form of a huge arch
structure spanning from one river bank to the other at acute angle.

[{Image src='10_Moscow State University.jpg' caption='Moscow State University' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='559'}]

In 1990s the Victory Park was opened on Poklonnaya Hill to commemorate
the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945). The park consists of several
churches of different denominations, museums, monuments, a huge
collection of military equipment, and 1418 fountains (1418 refers to
number of days the war continued), which turn dark crimson during the
night.

[{Image src='11_Stele «Nike» on the Poklonnaya Hill.jpg' caption='Stele «Nike» on the Poklonnaya Hill' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='524'}]

Even the shortest list of all historical landmarks and sights in Moscow
will take more than one page. Moscow is a huge metropolitan city spread
over an area of 2,500 square kilometers. It has numerous river and
parks, narrow streets and big highways, cozy homes in classical style
and cold skyscrapers. Each period gave Moscow something new: in 1940s
the city was surrounded by a ring road (MKAD), in 1950s the capital saw
the opening of the Olympic complex Luzhniki, in 1960s Ostankino TV tower
was built in Moscow, in 1990s the largest business center called
Moscow-City was built.

[{Image src='12_Olympic complex Luzhniki.jpg' caption='Olympic complex Luzhniki' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='579'}]

Moscow is the case where you just can't describe everything, and as they
say, "A picture is worth a thousand words". AirPano team proudly
presents panorama of Moscow, the city whose history is inextricably
linked with the history of our country, and whose monuments refer to all
areas of Russian culture and architecture.

\\ \\
[107 Panoramas of Moscow,_Grand_tour|Geography/Asia/Russia/Pictures/Panoramas_of_Grand_tour_of_Moscow]










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