Dikson
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Dikson (Russian: Диксон) is the name of an island in the Kara Sea near the mouth of the Yenisei River, in the Taymyria autonomous district of the far north of Siberia. The name is also that of the nearby small port and hydrometeorological centre, located at 73 30′ 25″ N 80 32′ 47″ E (http://kvaleberg.com/extensions/mapsources/index.php?params=73_30_25_N_80_32_47_E_). Diksonskiy raion (region) covers an area of 200,419 km; its population in 2004 was around 1,100. Dikson is a port-of-call on the Northern Sea Route from Murmansk to the Bering Sea. It lies only two hours' flight from the North Pole.
In the 17th century the island was known as Dolgy ("long") island, or Kuzkin, after its Pomor discoverer. In 1875 the Swedish explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskild renamed it for the wealthy merchant Oskar Dickson, one of the sponsors of his expedition. Dikson has been the official name of the island since 1884.
In 1915 the island became the site of the first Russian radio station in the Arctic. The seaport on the mainland was built in 1935, and in 1957 the two settlements were merged into one.
The IATA code of Dikson airport is DKS.
Little else is known about this town beyond the fact that the weather (even in August) is notoriously unpleasant. Winter in Dikson lasts ten months, and for two of those months the sun never rises.
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