About Kherson

Kherson is a city in southern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Kherson Oblast, and is designated as its own separate district within the oblast. Kherson is an important port on the Black Sea and Dnieper River, and the home of a major ship-building industry. The current estimated population is 304,000.

History of Kherson

Until 1774, the region belonged to the Crimean Khanate. Kherson was founded in 1778 by G.A.Potemkin, at his suggestion, on the orders of Catherine the Great. The city was built on the site of a small fortress Aleksandr-Shants. The name Kherson is a shortened derivative of Khersones, an ancient Greek colony founded approximately 2500 years ago in the southwestern part of Crimea.

Kherson oblast is the developed industrial and agrarian territory in the south of the Ukraine. Kherson oblast borders on Zaporizhia region in the east, the Crimea in the south (along the Sivash and the Perekop isthmus, Mykolaiv region in the northwest, Dniepropetrovsk region of Ukraine in the north.

Kherson oblast is located in the Black Sea lowland in the Steppe zone, along the lower Dnieper. The seaside and frontier position, closeness of the Azov Black Sea basin and outlet to the Dnieper river main are the basic features of Kherson oblast economic and geographical location.

Kherson oblast area makes up 4.7% of the Ukraine territory. Kherson oblast climate is temperate continental, arid with unstable agriculture. Average annual temperature is +10 C. The population of Kherson oblast was 1,289,000 (2002 est.), 2.5% of the total number in the Ukraine.

Kherson oblast sea coastline is 120 km long. The corresponding climatic conditions, availability of recreation resources favored the formation of a broad network of boarding houses, rest houses, sanatorium, children's health camps.

Main industries of today: food processing, consumer goods industry, machine-building (incl. world level shipbuilding facilities).

Agriculture: grains, sugar beets, potatoes, vegetables, sunflowers; cattle and poultry farming.