Simferopol is the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in southern Ukraine. The city is situated on the small Salhir River. It is a manufacturing, commercial, and transportation center located in a productive agricultural region. Products include canned fruit, flour, machine tools, and electric equipment.

Simferopol is located in the southern portion of the Crimean peninsula. The Simferopol Reservoir is located near the city, providing the area with clean drinking water.

The climate is dry and warm, with soft winters. The average temperature in January is -0.5 C, and +21.2 C in July. The average rainfall is 509 mm per year, and there is a total of 2,469 hours of sunlight per year.

History

On the present outskirts of Simferopol is the site of Neapolis, occupied by the Scythians from the 3rd century BC to the 4th century AD. But modern Simferopol was founded by the Russians in 1784, adjacent to the Tatar settlement of Ak-Mechet, after the annexation of the Crimea as an administrative center of Tavricheskaya gubernia.

Soviet power was established in Simferopol in 1918. During Civil War 1918-1920 Simferopol was occupied by foreign troops. Since 1921 Simferopol is an administrative center of Crimean Republic.

Modern City

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Simferopol became the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea within newly independent Ukraine. Today it has a population of 363,600 (as of 2004) who are mostly ethnic Russians. There are also significant Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar minorities.

In the 1990s, several new Crimean Tatar suburbs appeared, as much more Tartars returned compared to number of exiled. Nowadays the practice of illigal seizure of land is widly spread among Tatars.

The city has a railway terminus, serving millions of summer tourists each year, and the Simferopol Airport. The world's longest trolley bus line connects Simferopol to Yalta on Crimea's Black Sea coast.

Sister Cities

Simferopol is currently twinned with:

- Heidelberg (Germany);
- Kecskem?t (Hungary);
- Salem (United States);
- Bursa (Turkey);
- Rousse (Bulgaria).

Heidelberg is Simferopol's sister city since 1991. In the center of the city, there is a "Heidelberg House", which was constructed in 2000 from the private donation of Mr. Manfred Lautenschlaeger, the founder of MLP AG, Heidelberg. The House belongs to two partner organizations: "Freundeskreis Heidelberg – Simferopol" (Heidelberg, Germany) and "Circle of Friends Simferopol – Heidelberg" (Crimea, Ukraine). It earned an international reputation due to a number of projects and activities in the field of culture, education and social support.

Economy

Simferopol has a wide range of food-processing industries and makes wine, tobacco and cigarettes. There are also light engineering and consumer-goods industries, producing machine-tools, armatures, television sets, clothing and footwear in Simferopol.

Simferopol has teacher-training, medical and agricultural institutes and several research establishments.

How to get to Simferopol

Air - There are several domestic airlines that connect Simferopol to other cities in Ukraine.  There is also an airport at Sevastopol (named Belbek, code UKFS)
Road - There is one main highway connecting the Crimea to the rest of Ukraine.  See distance table below.  These distances are based on main roads wherever possible.  For distances to other cities in Ukraine, compute the distances through Kiev.
Train - Good trains connect Simferopol to  Kiev and other cities in Ukraine.