Updated: 27.09.2003

City (pop. 175,000), Krasnoyarsk Territory, North Siberian Russia.

The northernmost major city of Russia and the world's second largest city (after Murmansk) above the Arctic Circle, Norilsk is the centre of a region where nickel, copper, cobalt, platinum, and coal are mined.

A railway links Norilsk with the Yenisey port of Dudinka, from where ores are shipped via the Northern Sea Route to European Russia.

Founded in 1935, Norilsk was the site of forced labour camps during the Stalin era.