Verkhoyansk


Verkhoyansk

(vyĕrkhəyänsk`), town, Sakha Republic, NE Siberian Russia, on the Yana River, near the Arctic Circle. A river port, a fur-collecting depot, and the center of a reindeer-raising area, it lies in the coldest area of the earth outside Antarctica. The lowest temperature recorded there was −90&degF; (−68&degC;). Founded in 1638, it was a place of political exile until 1917.